Alexa工程师说迟更新原因(英文)

francy 发表于 2006-1-28 17:16:00 阅读全文() | 回复(0) | 引用通告() | 编辑

JANUARY   24,  2006 - Posted By Geoffrey Mack
Alexa Data Update Delayed

2006年1月24日
以前我曾经在Charles Schwab做技术支持。Schwab有一群我们称为“曲线痴迷者”的用户。这些痴迷者会整天打电话索取股票曲线图,他们如同喝了过多的咖啡因一样对那些曲线异常痴迷。如今,Schwab关闭了一些帐户,将所有用户改用了曲线配额。如果QJ超过了他的限额,这就是"戒毒期",就没有曲线了。一群用户绝对会发疯的,他们开始给Schwab打电话,用恳求、借用、行贿或者偷的方式来获得曲线。有时候就好像是我开了一家镇静剂的诊所。

滑稽的是我现在转到了Alexa从事和以前一样的工作。用户除了还要看曲线之外,不同的是这些用户还需要看Alexa每天更新的数据。如果Alexa没更新数据,我们立刻就会接到邮件和电话。呵呵,大家需要它。

嗯,这回Alexa的"戒毒期"来了。数据没更新。我们收拾起计算机,搬到另一个城市阳光明媚的新地方办公,在这期间我们不得不痛苦地决定停止更新数据。搬家让我们不再在那电力短缺、阴暗的地下室挤来挤去,这是一个好消息。而另一个坏消息是,由于服务器被设置成移动局域网状态,必须等到服务器被重新接回到固定网络中才能恢复正常。


估计这个周末Alexa将会发布更新的数据。如果有信息,我会发消息。在此期间,感谢大家耐心等候。也许你们能用这段时间从Schwab网上得到一些股票曲线。

原文:

JANUARY   24,  2006 - Posted By Geoffrey Mack
Alexa Data Update Delayed

A lifetime ago I used to work at Charles Schwab in tech support for their revolutionary online trading program the Equalizer (revolutionary... see, I still speak the language of the kool-aid drinkers.) Anyway, Schwab had this group of users that we referred to as "quote junkies." The junkies would call all hours of the day getting stock quotes, jamming up the lines and probably drinking way too much caffeine. They had to have their quotes... now! Schwab actually closed some accounts and eventually put all customers on quote quotas. When a QJ exceeded his quota it was cold turkey time. No quotes. A bunch of customers went absolutely bonkers and began calling any Schwab number they could find to beg, borrow, bribe or steal a quote. Sometimes it felt like I was running a methadone clinic.

It seems funny to me that somehow I've moved into something similar here at Alexa. Except instead of quotes, these users folks need to see Alexa data updated every day. If Alexa stops updating we get e-mails and phone calls right away. Hey, its good to be needed.

Well, it is cold turkey time for Alexa. No data updates. We made the painful decision to stop updating the data while we picked up the computers and moved them across town into a shiny new colocation facility. The good news is that we are no longer cramped into an underpowered, dark and wet basement. The bad news is that servers sitting the back of a moving van aren't very useful until they are plugged back into the network.

Current estimates put the update at end of this week. I'll post here if I get any news on the timeline. In the meanwhile, thank you for your patience. Maybe you can use the time to get some stock quotes from Schwab.

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