Eforcity Bribes User To Remove Negative Amazon Feedback

Whoa Amazon is down. It just says, "Http/1.1 Service Unavailable." Then I tried again and the front page was there, but when I clicked through, same error message. It looks like it's been this way since at least 1:30 PM, eastern. It was broken for several Consumerist writers who tested it out.

How much money do you think they're losing every second? Well, Cnet says, "Based on last quarter's revenue of $4.13 billion, a full-scale global outage would cost Amazon more than $31,000 per minute on average." However, that won't be happening as the international Amazon sites are still up. An Oct '07 Bloomberg article says US and Canadian sales account for 55% of revenue, so based on that, they're losing roughly $17,050 per minute. The stock market seems to have taken notice; Marketwatch says, "Shares of Amazon were down 2.7% to $82.25 in early afternoon trading."

A post on an online forum for Amazon sellers says, “Engineers are actively engaged in resolving this issue and we will provide an update once the issue is resolved...We appreciate your patience during this time.”" Does anyone have a spare paperclip? Time to hit the reset button.

UPDATE: 4:04 -It's spluttering back from the dead. Pages load very slowly and clicking around may still lead to dead pages.

UPDATE: 4:31 - It's alive! A bit slow, but now once again you can buy everything in the world without leaving your house! Huzzah!

(Thanks to fivecentnickel!)

Two more instances of Sprint's insecure online system:

1) Members of the Howards Forums cellphone message boards have discovered a URL hack that lets users add the "Unlimited Shared Night & Weekend Minutes at 5pm pack" for free to their account.

2) If you take this URL and replace the phone# at the end with the phone number of someone who hasn't set up the PIN on their account, you will see the last 4 digits of their social security number. Not a huge deal, we give out the last 4 of our social over the phone all the time, but it seems a bit odd to broadcast these numbers unnecessarily.

PREVIOUSLY: Flawed Sprint Security Worse Than We Thought
Flawed Security Lets Sprint Accounts Get Easily Hijacked

One of the many uses for Tide is feces stains, so the company decided to open up the discussion by starting a whole thread devoted to their removal. Sprinkled in and amongst the legitimate feces stain removal company area a few suspect comments, like "im david michler. i had feces all over myslef the other day and this tide works great! i dont know how i got it on me but when i woke up 3 guys ran out my room. and it was all over my shirt and pants. i used tide about 3 days after the incident and it got it out with very little stains left over. thank you tide. i love you." Then there's "Josie" who says that until Tide came along, she used to take his soiled underwear back to Walmart for a refund, and "tammy ampersand" who warns against using Mountain Fresh for douching, "as it attracts birds." No doubt sociologists will some day come up with a technical term for this juvenile online behavior, which has been seen in the past in the Amazon product reviews for the "Oozinator" toy gun, and milk. My only disappointment is that the related thread, "Big Game Stains and Solutions" had nothing in there about getting elk blood out. The sure-to-be-soon deleted message board posts, inside...

Any Joe Sixpack Can Be A Phisher

Comcast: No Thanks FCC, Blogosphere Polices Us Just Fine

In the brief Comcast filed arguing that they doesn't need the FCC telling it how not to throttle its customers' internets, Comcast came up with a pretty special explanation:

The self-policing marketplace and blogosphere, combined with vigilant scrutiny from policymakers, provides an ample check on the reasonableness of such [network management] judgments.

Comcast: The Blogosphere Will Keep Us Honest [IP Democracy] (Thanks to Ninja of the DC!)
Comments Of Comcast Corporation (PDF)

ISP's Sneaky Fees

Why Everyone At Verizon Online Is Utterly Useless

It began the beginning of Oct. 2007. My credit card expired, and I contacted all of my utilities to update my credit card information. It was an annoying process, but it went smoothly. That is, until the notices started coming.

Cable Companies Are Like Bi-Polar Buffet Owners

An MSO talking 100 Mbit/s out of one side of its mouth and usage caps out the other is like a bi-polar buffet restaurateur. They continue adding more entrees to an all-you-can-eat spread, and then reduce the size of the plates and tell diners they only have 10 minutes to chow. It's a recipe for dissatisfaction. The buffet looks bigger and tastier - so the patron's hunger grows - and then they are asked to practice portion control.

Joel Johnson Hijacks AT&T Funded Show To Question Internet Filtering Plans

Talking About AT&T's Internet Filtering on AT&T's The Hugh Thompson Show [Boing Boing Gadgets]

Reach Blogger Executive Customer Service

The Blogger free blogging system is owned by Google and they usually like their customers to talk to robots, but if you have an extreme issue, like all of a sudden your blogs were deleted (this has happened to at least a couple Consumerist readers), here are some executive honchos you can talk to get you fixed up:

Salar Kamangar, VP Blogger Product Management
650-253-0000

Urs Hoelzle
650-930-3507
urs@google.com
Google Inc
2400 Bayshore Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043

FCC To Investigate Comcast's Bittorrent Blocking

Video Of Ted Stevens Wanting To Switch Between Phones "As I Ride My Motorcycle"

In it, he says, "Is it coming? Why shouldn't I be able to say, just by a little switch on my phone at home that's wired, I'm going off on the wireless now, I want to use this as I ride my motorcycle...I'm bad. Pardon me."

We feel bad because you know he's really trying (and for once, completely right) but a guy who can't understand the difference between carburetor and a router shouldn't be on a committee overseeing the internets, but we guess that's just part of our government's interest in appointing the least competent people possible in oversight positions.

PREVIOUSLY:
Ted Stevens Wants To Switch Between Phones "As I Ride My Motorcycle"
Liveblogging The Senate Commerce Committee Hearing On Number Portability