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Skype Outage Hassles Millions of Users
Multiple sources are reporting that Microsoft's popular messaging and voice chat application Skype has been hit by a severe service outage.
The problem seems to be a bug in the application which affects users from seeing each other. Microsoft has stated that they have found the cause of the problem and is slowly working to restore service, however at the time of this writing it seems that a number of global users are still affected.
Link to official Skype status: Skype Heartbeat.
I've been planning to move away from Skype for a while, but its popularity is making it somewhat difficult (akin to the Facebook dilemma: everyone uses it, why switch?) and this outage has underscored the need for redundancy, especially for some things that users view as essential for connectivity. What other similar applications can Soylent recommend?
AWS knocks Amazon, Netflix, Tinder and IMDb offline in MEGA data collapse
Amazon's Web Services (AWS) have been hit by a monster outage affecting the company's cloudy systems, bringing many sites down with it in the process.
The service disruption has hit AWS customers including Netflix, Tinder and IMDb, as well as Amazon's Instant Video and Books websites.
The outage may also explain Airbnb's current service woes. Airbnb is an AWS customer.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Tuesday September 22 2015, @06:36PM
I was going to reply with the fact that there are projects already being created, but someone already linked one alternative. Personally I'm not skilled enough to make an alternative at the moment, so yes my mom would be waiting quite a while :P
Your comment seems like it missed my point. This isn't about skype having a glitch so we should make an alternative, its about centralized communications making privacy a joke. In this case yes, re-inventing is needed because privacy requires a solution that doesn't depend on a central server. Perhaps heavy crypto would work, but you still funnel all communications through a central portal.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday September 22 2015, @07:05PM
Skype does not funnel all communications through a central server.
Only directory services go through Microsoft servers. Then connections are done via a network of servers, not all of them belong to Microsoft. If you are one of those special people that someone is interested in your Skype sessions do go through ONLY Microsofts servers so that you can be wire tapped.
There are totally distributed solutions for messaging, such as Tox, but of course nobody uses them.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday September 22 2015, @07:11PM
Personally I'm not skilled enough to make an alternative at the moment, so yes my mom would be waiting quite a while :P
Then stop making suggestions that everyone go out and roll their own for christ sake!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Tuesday September 22 2015, @07:47PM
It wasn't a personal critique, or challenge, or anything. It was a general statement about what society needs. Maybe my language was too generalized, "everyone" was actually meant more along the lines of multiple projects that are cross-compatible with options to select encryption schemes.
Centralized control is the issue, and you explained it nicely. With tech we can not guarantee that only the "good guys" have access, so we need alternatives that are not so easily subverted.
~Tilting at windmills~