geocaching.com down, not expected back until 6pm Options

[MrDotOne]

Due to a fire at Fisher Plaza building near the Space Needle, which is where Groundspeak houses their servers that run the geocaching.com website (and others) the generators and power is out at the site. There currently is no ETA when the power will be back on, but seems that geocaching.com is likely to be down all day. According to Jeremy, the power company said they would be ecstatic to have power back by 6PM PDT. People at the site are now dealing with a melted generator and flood damage from putting out the fire.

Stay tuned...

[HopeWeFindIt]

Thanks for the info....at least now I know why I can't get to it.

Due to a fire at Fisher Plaza building near the Space Needle, which is where Groundspeak houses their servers that run the geocaching.com website (and others) the generators and power is out at the site. There currently is no ETA when the power will be back on, but seems that geocaching.com is likely to be down all day. According to Jeremy, the power company said they would be ecstatic to have power back by 6PM PDT. People at the site are now dealing with a melted generator and flood damage from putting out the fire.

Stay tuned...

[SuzyJazz]

Thanks for the info... now I will still be bummed that I can't make the querry I want... but patient because I know that there is a bigger issue going on.

Prayer said for all involved and affect by the fire... that's just no fun.

[Danuw]

Thanks for the INFO. Was wondering what was going on.

[thepurkycachers]

Thanks for the info Mr. DotOne. I was wondering myself! What a nightmare that's gonna be to clean up. Hopefully no one was hurt.

[GeoMark]

More info for Ya'all
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/407837_fire...tml?source=mypi

[cheech gang]

OMG, it is the apocalypse. GC.com is one thing, but Mrs. Gang's favorite site, allrecipes.com, is also affected. Now what do we do!!!

Websites down due to fire

[SuzyJazz]

Come on Seattle turn on the lerts!!

[SgtSue]

SC's upstate website has the running story on this. Jeremy has been sending tweets out about the situation and they have been posting them as received. Thankfully no one was hurt, hopefully things will be working before the night is over.

[MrDotOne]

locuslingua: < 30min is confirmed for power at Fisher Plaza. Elias will be on site to check servers when they come online. #fisherfire

[GeaugaGarmin]

Mr. TDO - I received your email this AM but couldn't reply because gc.com was down.

Thanks for the tracking info.

[MrDotOne]

Jeremy Irish: Elias is hanging out with others in the Fisher Plaza lobby waiting for power #fisherfire

[MrDotOne]

@locuslingua: Internap still doesn't feel comfortable with an ETA but my guess is we'll be online by 10:30pm (1 1/2 hours) #fisherfire

[SgtSue]

Jeremy Irish RT @rockhawk Full power restored at Fisher Plaza but data centers still not allowing servers until rooms are cooled <2-4 hours #fisherfire
10 minutes ago · via Twitter · ( posted approx 12:20 Eastern)

[Rross1973]

Looks like it's still down.

[Elizabeth]

Tried to log on a couple times today, and I was wondering why the site was unavailable. Glad I could come here and find out what's going on! I hope the damage from the fire is as minimal as possible.

Thanks for the updates,

Elizabeth

[GeoMark]

Wow 07:23 ET and still down.

[SgtSue]

Jeremy's Tweetes as of 7:20 am (EDT) Latest news is 2 hrs old. They've been working on it all night. Sounds like they are getting closer.

• locuslingua Machines now have power. Working to get the sites online now. #fisherfireabout 2 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua I'm heading back home since Ben is at Fisher Plaza w/Elias. I'll help once power is back up. #fisherfireabout 2 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua HVAC back up again at Fisher Plaza #fisherfireabout 3 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua HVAC shut down again. What a long day this is. #fisherfireabout 4 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua Delightful sound of the HVAC being turned on at Fisher Plaza #fisherfireabout 4 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua Just watched them power up the outdoor generator. Heading inside now #fisherfireabout 5 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua Fisher Plaza Update: Gen. 1 feed to riser 1 failed ... Replacing all the cables. No ETA again. #fisherfire (via @uchikura)about 5 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua Generator view from 2nd floor balcony at Fisher. Note the two exhaust ports and cables #fisherfire http://yfrog.com/0l3t3jabout 5 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua Rumor: Seattle is the backup location for Authorize.net - main colo in Dallas flooded last month and still down. #fisherfireabout 5 hours ago from Tweetie

• locuslingua RT @uchikura Generator No. 1 will start 10:45pm. 45min late. Gen No.2 will start 30 min after that. Let's hope so.about 6 hours ago from TwitterFox

• locuslingua Heading over to Fisher Plaza to keep Elias company and provide on-site tweets #fisherfireabout 6 hours ago from TwitterFox

• locuslingua A WTF moment: Bing guys are trying to power their servers up using small honda generators. Good idea like, 12 hours ago. #fisherfireabout 6 hours ago from TwitterFox

[LuvWahoo]

This sure has been a good lesson to learn! A lot of people would be lost without geocaching!!

[LuvWahoo]

IT"S BACK!!
Now let's not crash it!!
I'll wonder if we'll all get bunched of notices now????

[yeahk2]

IT"S BACK!!
Now let's not crash it!!
I'll wonder if we'll all get bunched of notices now????

Thanks for the information!! I was wondering what was going on? I thought it was My computer.

[MrDotOne]

<rant>

Not to sound like a PITA or a complainer, and not trying to be argumentative, but lost without geocaching? Hmmmm, no, thats definitely NOT the lesson to be learned here. If thats the only lesson one takes away from this, then this has all been for naught. Rather, i think its more a lesson in infrastructure and how a globally recognized website that deals with people and information needs to have a fail-over plan (a plan of action when their main infrastructure experiences a disaster such as this). Most folks in this business have a disaster recovery plan in order to recover from a fatal disaster - its part of doing business correctly and being a smart player in the internet business.

Not only did Groundspeak not have any fail over plans or equipment to deal with this type of situation (and normally its something that is NEVER within your control - just as this was) but another very important player (authorize net) basically go down as well - and they DID have a fail over plan, but not one that properly implemented (they had redundancy, but within the same housing units). Companies such as these that deal with things that people pay for need to do their best to have redundancies built into their infrastructure - especially ones that deal with credit card information, and sites that are globally accessible - its just good (smart) business.

On the other hand, with regard to geocaching specifically, i personally dont see why the hide data has to be stuck on just one site. I am sure this is a sore point for many folks that have been in the game and internet side of it. There used to be more of an openness when it came to the data, after all its only geographical waypoints. The discussion of ownership of such data can be disputed forever, but if the data were shared or 'leased' in some way the result of this small disaster would have been different.

So in my opinion this is really a lesson in infrastructure (equipment and smart redundancy) and also partnering (data sharing), so that the consumer has a much better experience. The outage was NOT the fault of Groundspeak, and was not something that could have been avoided - but certainly definitely something that could and should have been planned for. Just as in authorize net's case, even good planning can go wrong, but at least there would have been a plan.

Just my two cents - feel free to ignore, LOL

</rant>

[the hiking vikin...]

During your rant Mike, I was reminded of Clark Griswold on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The scene where he rants about his tightwad boss. Substitute Jeremy for him.

Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Jeremy Irish, GC's boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, ****less, hopeless, heartless, fat-***, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey sh*t he is. Hallelujah. Holy sh*t. Where's the Tylenol?



Did you find the Tylenol?

[buckeyealum]

During your rant Mike, I was reminded of Clark Griswold on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The scene where he rants about his tightwad boss. Substitute Jeremy for him.

Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Jeremy Irish, GC's boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, ****less, hopeless, heartless, fat-***, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey sh*t he is. Hallelujah. Holy sh*t. Where's the Tylenol?



Did you find the Tylenol?

I hope no one shows up at Groundspeak with a dogchain and big red bow!

[RAGAR-Rich]

During your rant Mike, I was reminded of Clark Griswold on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The scene where he rants about his tightwad boss. Substitute Jeremy for him.

Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Jeremy Irish, GC's boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, ****less, hopeless, heartless, fat-***, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey sh*t he is. Hallelujah. Holy sh*t. Where's the Tylenol?



Did you find the Tylenol?

Meanwhile some where in NEOGEO land a crappy looking, 1965ish RV, being driven by a redneck chugs west toward Seattle.

Look out Jeremy!

[5Hills_team_lead...]

<rant>
Just my two cents - feel free to ignore, LOL

</rant>

HuH?? Did anybody here something?

I also read that allrecipes.com was taken down also. Oh!! the agony!!!! LOL

[HopeWeFindIt]

Slow since yesterday and not connecting at all right now. Anyone else having problems with geocaching.com? The site pings (around 87ms avg response time) but IE just sits on "waiting" before dying.

8:53 pm...seems to be fine now

[LuvWahoo]

<rant>



Just my two cents - feel free to ignore, LOL

</rant>

OK...cause I don't give a crap about the rest of that stuff. I just didn't like having the site down...