I was going to say what is the point of a tech journal like IT Pro when MSN has it’s own Tech news. My tongue was going to be firmly in my cheek as MSN’s idea of News usually involves Paris Hilton so I assumed the tech stuff would be the same. However, I did actually find an interesting story

A company that shall stay nameless (because I don’t want to get in trouble) launched a new social network type facility today. The email extolled the virtues of the numerous facilities available. The link took you to a “Closed for Maintenance” page. Brilliant.

To be fair I guess there is always a major scaling issue involved in this kind of thing. The nameless company is a big one and that mail shot will have gone hundreds of thousands of people - maybe the site got a few more hits than it could cope with.

I’m not a web developer but surely there are ways of testing that accurately

Over at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/audience_panel.shtml

Having got both in laws in different hospitals all 120 miles away you can imagine everyone here jumps when the phone rings. Certainly whenever it is the NHS / Social Service or the various care homes and relatives we are trying to coordinate it does usually seem to be bad news so the initial jump is followed by gut churning worry as you answer. So when the message comes that it is a free public service announcement about debt it is at the same time a relief and an infuriation that you had to go through that in the first place.

We are X directory so we hadn’t used to get too many cold calls but these days assume it’s random dialling and recorded messages. Maybe I should listen long enough to get the company name, trace the directors and keep phoning them at odd hours but I don’t have the time or energy at the moment.

Sometimes it’s an embarrassment to work in an industry that makes such things possible.