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Zooomr Update
Things are starting to look better for Kris Tate and Thomas Hawk, the unfortunate souls behind Zooomr.
As I’ve written before, things went a bit pear shaped for them earlier this week, and after a fifteen minute launch, their server died. Which might not seem like such a big deal, until you realise that it meant that all Zooomr hosted images went offline. Prior to the database crash, even though Zooomr was offline, the static images were still being served.
Happily, the images are now back online. Which is reason enough for me to repost the hideous picture of me in the cooler bag.
According to reports from the Zooomr.tv chatroom, Dell flew some parts out to fix the ailing database server. In addition to that, Sun have loaned the guys a monster machine to support the increased demand that’s sure to come their way when the site does launch. And Zoho have given them some rack space in which to keep the server.
However, it sounds like the new monster actually consumes roughly the same amount of power as a small third-world country, and the Zoho hosting facility wasn’t geared up for that. This could be nonsense, of course, but it’s the impression I’m getting from the chat. It looks like the final hurdle, for now, will be to get power to the new uber-server, and relaunch Zooomr Mark 3.
Kudos to Kris for continuing to broadcast the Zooomr.tv feed, even while the guys from Sun were installing the new server. His composure and attitude in the face of everything that’s going on is quite inspirational. You can say what you like about their business plan, the downtime, and the future; but you can’t fault the manner in which the two of them are conducting themselves throughout all of this.
Oh, and apparently their blog has died, which would explain the lack of updates in the last couple of days. The priority at the moment is fixing Zooomr, not the blog, which is fair enough really. That said, if either of the guys read this, Twitter is your friend. If the blog’s down, create a Zooomr Twitter account, and throw some javascript onto the holding page at beta.zooomr.com to display the most recent Twitter: instant mini-blog.
Zooomr should be back really soon; as I said, things are looking up.
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3 comments for “Zooomr Update”
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I agree with you on the whole maintaining-compusure-under-pressure thing, it’s impressive. I’d have been seriously pissed off with all these flippin ‘users’ pestering me all the time. Surprised they’ve not lost the rag on occasion, especially with some obviously trying to get a rise out of them.
Dan, a small correction: Zoho provided not only the space, but a free server which was installed/configured by Wednesday night, before the Sun machine would arrive or the Dell one would get fixed.
it was really amazing to watch zoho step up and offer their help. it is great to see that sense of community and kinsmanship among small startups.