Facebook Down, Down Under

Facebook’s collection of services is unavailable. Because the outage is being reported as worldwide, it’s undoubtedly a Domain Name Services issue. For the moment, a name server somewhere is responding with an IP address in Australia.


C:\WINDOWS\system32>tracert facebook.com
Tracing route to facebook.com [157.240.8.35] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 4 ms 6 ms 8 ms edge-star-mini-shv-01-syd2.facebook.com [157.240.8.35]

Trace complete.

Maybe this is a valid name server entry, and maybe it’s not. Let’s check.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nslookup -type=soa facebook.com
Server: Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home
Address: 192.168.1.1

DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home timed-out

Uh, oh. Can’t get an authoritative name server. The stopover in Sydney is unscheduled. Let’s make one final check.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nslookup -type=ptr facebook.com
Server: Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home
Address: 192.168.1.1

*** Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home can't find facebook.com: Server failed

Oh, yeah. Zuck is stuck near Auck. I’ll share this on Facebook. Oh, uh, wait. Never mind.

For comparison, this is how the results should appear:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nslookup -type=ptr dograt.com
Server: Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home
Address: 192.168.1.1

dograt.com
primary name server = ns1.bluehost.com
responsible mail addr = root.box2395.bluehost.com
serial = 2021091401
refresh = 86400 (1 day)
retry = 7200 (2 hours)
expire = 3600000 (41 days 16 hours)
default TTL = 300 (5 mins)

And Now For Something Completely Accidental

More than five years ago, I read this excellent book about the history of George Harrison’s Handmade Films.

https://www.amazon.com/Very-Naughty-Boys-Amazing-HandMade/dp/1781167087/

Not only did I learn a lot about Handmade Films, I learned something I hadn’t known about Amazon. An author has the ability to give an Amazon customer free access to a Kindle edition of their book(s). Which Robert Sellers did for me, in thanks for putting him in touch with Prue. Robert’s e-mail account must have been hacked, because a few years later I began receiving occasional messages from the account that are obvious phishing attempts. Which concerns me, because I would like to contact Sellers again to talk about something.

Anyway, I’ve read Robert’s book about Handmade Films, but I have yet to see this movie. I will be doing that very soon.

https://youtu.be/0mkSn28WBbw

1978’s Model

There’s no need to hold hot coals to my bare feet and force me to confess the album that I have played more than anything in my entire life. I freely admit that, by a wide margin, it’s the American edition of Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model, with “Costello” on the label instead of “Columbia.”

I was working long hours at a radio station with a soft Adult Contemporary format. The U.S. Costello album concludes with the superb “Radio, Radio,” that isn’t on the UK edition. This is the stateside album cover.

Buddy, Gonna Shut You Down

I was inconvenienced during the last federal government shut down, when the accountant I hired for my late parents’ Trust couldn’t file the taxes electronically. Everything was mailed to me and I had to take care of signing and sending it all in myself. The Registered Mail card confirming receipt was never returned by the IRS.

My application for Social Security benefits is currently being processed. If the U.S. gov’t. shuts down after 12:01 AM on Friday, the validation will be put on hold for the duration, and undoubtedly delayed further after that. Grrr…