Freaky Frugalite

Yow. I wondered why Entrecards and Statcounter were down for so long yesterday. There was a fire at the database center in Houston, Texas! got this in my email this morning:

Greetings,

Unfortunately, there has been an electrical fire at the data center housing Entrecard’s servers. The servers have not been damaged, but the site may be down for as long as 12 hours.

Entrecard is hosted with ThePlanet, and this fire has effected over 9000 websites, as many of the world’s most popualar websites are hosted with ThePlanet. They are working around the clock to get their data center back online, and we are hoping that they get it back online fast.

Thank you for your pateince and understanding with this rare and frustrating problem. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing we can do but wait for The Planet to get their datacenter back online.

Please check back with Entrecard in 12 to 24 hours.

Thanks,

Entrecard Team

I did a search for news, and all I found was this at WordPlop:

The phone number on The Planet’s website leads to an auto recording stating that a transformer caught fire. The fire department has told them to shut down all power, including all generators and backup power. The Planet says no networking gear was harmed, so it sounds like all the servers should be fine unless the smoke got to them.

There is no ETA on when the entire datacenter, which is located in Houston, Texas, will be back up.

UPDATE: The Planet has confirmed that no servers were damaged. The cause of the fire appears to be an explosion that was caused by a short in some electrical equipment. The explosion took out 3 walls in the building. The Planet says some servers will be back up by tomorrow afternoon.

So that’s why your traffic stats are so low, if you’re wondering. LOL.

There’s a news story about it; I found it while searching news. All I can see is this:

The Planet Houston Data Center Goes Up in a Puff of Smoke
NewsBlaze, CA - 7 hours ago
By Alan Gray, NewsBlaze Tonight at 5:45 pm in Houston, Texas, a transformer in The Planet H1 datacenter caught fire. The fire department required them to …

When I click the link, guess what– the website is hosted by The Planet, so it’s unavailable. Statcounter is back up, for the most part, so they are making good progress on getting the sites back up, I think.

My sympathies to all bloggers who have their blogs hosted there. I hope things are up and running for you very soon!

So I can’t drop Entrecards. I didn’t know how addicted I was until this, lol! Well, there’s always the exciting world of shopping for a new cell phone repeater or something. :S

Europeans are much more advanced that North America, when it comes to innovation in energy and home building. This is due to their scarcity of natural resources and geographic space. They just have to think smarter, and not bigger, as is the norm here in the U.S. Bigger does not necessarily mean better. In fact, bigger almost always means less efficient.

I saw this fascinating video of what the Danes call “The Wave Dragon.” With this new invention, they have discovered a way to use the energy of ocean waves to generate energy. The video (although a bit dry) is worth watching. I hope these innovators get success! This is a worthy endeavor.

New York Chica has an interesting post about the Top Ten Recession-Proof Cities. The list is interesting and not surprising (Texas, Utah, and North Carolina made the list). She summed up the sentiments of New Yorkers when she said she didn’t expect any NY city to make the list. The only Top Ten lists New York is making are the ones with highest taxation, lowest wages, and most poor. Worst education is coming onto the list, as well. Those recession-proof cities in TX, UT, and NC are because NYers are fleeing the state in droves and migrating to those states.

I live in Upstate New York– right smack-dab in the middle of the state. The rest of the country has been reeling with recession-style tremors, but here in NYS, we’ve been living this way for about 30 years now. Our troubles all started when the state changed some language in the state constitution to favor Downstate (New York City area). New York City has seen a huge boom in the last 20-25 years. However, it has been Upstate’s natural resources and jobs pool that has fueled the economy down there. So essentially, the NYS government has slit its own throat. The “good times” can only last so long because sooner or later, the leech runs dry. And that’s Upstate right now… pretty dry.

New York State loves to tout itself as the “Empire State,” claiming that this state is the trend-setter for the rest of the states. Well, maybe 200 years ago that was something we could brag about, but since the 1880s, the state is leading the nation as an example of how NOT to govern. Let’s hope the other states learn from NY’s idiotic mistakes. Don’t let labor unions and politicians micro-manage the affairs of the people; don’t accept high taxation as a way to become prosperous and assume political “clout”; don’t add taxes upon taxes upon taxes and call them “fees” and “surcharges,” hoping no one will notice; don’t brag about how unsinkable you are when everyone knows it’s just a matter of rearranging the deck chairs.

Unfortunately, however, for those southern and midwestern states is that they lack the natural resources to support large populations. Drought conditions and the home foreclosure crisis brought this to the forefront. Northeasterners who have migrated south and west complain of the lack of green grass, trees, and abundant water. Duh.

It’s like I always say, here in NY, we don’t have calamitous natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, floods. Our natural disasters come in the form of politicians. I sometimes wonder that politicians are worse than weather disasters…. but no matter where you live, there will always be some price to pay. We’ll see how the nation fares, because we are seeing a monumental change in our American way of life.

Ever heard of a ZENN car? Me neither. I just saw an interesting little video of these things, made in Canada. However, the Canadian bureaucracy hasn’t made them legal for use yet, so they company is selling cars in the U.S. They are electric cars. I’ve never been very interested in electric or hybrid cars, but these have me interested.

They run silently, which is amazing! However, they’re no Energizer bunny– these machines poop out after 35 miles. That would need some improving before I think of getting one. But, they go 275 miles per gallon! Watch and see how appealing they are.

Aren’t they cute? They are like a little Cadillac on Phentermine or something! They are so tiny! I’d like them to pack more power, though, before I’d consider getting one.

This is so cool! It is the best idea for cars I’ve seen yet. It runs on air, and can go for 200 miles on one tank of compressed air. It can also read a speed of up to 60 miles per hour, which is much better than the 30mph cars I’ve heard about.

The creators of this video tout the air for this car as absolutely free, but I’m sure that the government will find some way to charge us for air. We all know they would charge us for the air we breathe, if they could. Enjoy the video.