It might be vying for the title of world's most popular website, but MySpace looks like it is struggling to cope with such demand. Right now the site is displaying a message from co-founder Tom saying "hey everyone! there's been a power outage in our data center. we're in the process of fixing it right now, so sit tight. hopefully we'll be back online within the hour. its 6:40pm PST now. wanna place a bet?". Let's look at those bets - it's now 1pm BST, or 5am PST if my sums are correct. That's almost 12 hours of outage. Squeals of outrage from lovesick teenagers around the globe are building to a horrific crescendo - and likely to be joined by the sound of owner Rupert Murdoch's forehead popping with veins.
Sidenote: The source code seems to suggest the holding page is recycled from an old one... annotations say "This happens every friday morning from 3am-5am PST", "This section is currently offline. It will be back shortly.", "Sorry we are conducting routine maintenance for about 3 hours this morning, Thursday, November 11, 2004.", "We're currently conducting routine maintenance. We'll be back in just a couple minutes. Thanks for your patience!" and "Sorry for all the problems lately, people." Sounds like even the sorry page could do with a spring clean.
