I can see from your final post that we are like two ships passing in the night with the one glaring exception that we understand your point of view but I fear you are missing ours entirely. The human interest situation and the network design problems are two distinct and different issues. The common component in both is the storm that caused the power outages and everyone on this list agrees with you that the human tragedy story is more important than the poorly designed network story. If we were discussing the human suffering issue in it's appropriate venue I'm certain you would receive universal agreement with your position.
Yes... the suffering is horrible but that has nothing to do with the fact that Valves network was poorly designed. Yes... it is unthinkable that significant numbers of people are without heat with temperatures approaching freezing, but that has nothing to do with the fact that Valve lacked rudimentary network backup. Yes... those that worked hard at restoring the Steam network deserve credit for their hard work but that has nothing to do with the fact that Valve failed to investment spend in an appropriate automated redundancy. You mentioned something about people (on this list) demanding explanations and flashing credentials as if they know step by step and circuit by circuit what happened and why. I don't believe anyone on this list did any such thing. Exactly what happened within the effected area is absolutely irrelevant to the issues being discussed here. There is no dispute that the Valve network failed... that's not the point. The point is that in properly designed network a failure in one location should be detected and compensated for by other locations. This is where Valve failed... not in the storm area, but in Nebraska and Rhode Island and Florida and the UK and Australia and Canada etc. etc. etc. Valve failed to provide for proper redundancy to critical systems and if you were a network specialist you would recognize this inescapable fact immediately and not find fault with those of us who have. We simply must do a better job on this list of understanding what the other guy is trying to tell us. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 3:51 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: [hlds] Post-outage thoughts Ok, last post unless there is a specific point to counter, and a change of tact. I'd like to congratulate everyone at Valve, and especially the people in the IT department for restoring services after a major and widespread weather related disaster. Well done! >Such redundancy is Networking 101 and Programming 101... You can choose to >ignore it if you like... But in the real word it is fact . > >Valve is probably making enough money to make it reasonable for them to >invest in a redundant system for that "money making" aparatus. That is >Economics 101. You think it looks good to investors that the "backbone" of >the system went down for the entire world because of one geological >disaster? You think that's a good selling point for software developers >that want to bring their product to market? 273,468 game players couldn't >play because Valve had all their eggs in that one "geographical" basket. >Wise business decision? You decide... > >Ok maybe they are 500 level courses but you still get the point :D > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 2:57 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: RE: RE: RE: Re: [hlds] Post-outage thoughts >> >> All I'm seeing is whining, pettiness, and monday morning >> quarterbacking. >> >> Lets try this. If anyone out there has a diagram of the >> Valve infrastructure, and a complete understanding of who >> they contract with for what services and facilities, then lets see it. >> >> I only am reading people bitching about what Valve should >> have done over the last 10 years, and "I could do it better", >> without any reguard or perspective on what the real world >> impact things may be having in the Seattle area. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list >> archives, please visit: >> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds > > >_______________________________________________ >To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please >visit: >http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
