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Thanks Scoble

An evangelism opportunity… ? Scobleizer My good friend Robert Scoble has been staying up with us a number of nights this past week as we’ve tried to launch Zooomr Mark III.

Finally tonight we were able to launch and everything seemed perfect. And then our database went down. It’s times like this late at night that friends are there for you. And both Kristopher and I appreciate that Scoble.

Here is the post that I just uploaded to the Zooomr blog:

“When I was 5 years old I climbed Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the Continental US, elevation 14,495. I went with my dad. It was just he and I. It was a pretty incredible and unlikely thing for a 5 year old and his dad to attempt. The night before we made the attempt at the peak we camped out at a lake at the base of something called the 99 switchbacks. When we started out in the morning I was fresh and ready to go. But after about 50 switchbacks I was done. The air was thin and I was tired and it was then and there that I first heard the story about the little engine that could. My dad was a great story teller and somehow he told the story of the little engine that could with enough conviction that it got me to the top.

I think I can, I think can, I think I can… I know I can, I know I can, I know I can…

And so what seemed like certain failure in the end turned out to be success. And my dad and I celebrated at the top of the summit and I got a little patch that I showed to all my friends back in kindergarten when I got home.

And that’s where Zooomr is tonight. We are the little engine that could.

About an hour ago we finally launched Zooomr Mark III. It was a glorious 10 minute stretch of time. People had stayed up all night with us after a week of anticipation and everything was going great. Our first photos were being uploaded. People were writing exciting updates on the Zipline and then our database crashed.

It was a pretty painful moment. And then Kristopher turned to me and said, you know what, we’ll get this thing back up. This will work. We are the little engine that could.

I don’’t have my car (it’s back in the East Bay) but one of our users who stayed up with us online offered to drive Kristopher down to the data center in Sunnyvale. I’m sitting in a BART station right now typing this waiting for the last train of the night to the East Bay.

Kristopher should be able to get our database back up from Sunnyvale but I don’t know how long this might take or what we need to do to make it stable enough that it doesn’t go down again. Zooomr Mark III is done and out, but we just need to make sure our systems can handle the traffic. I’m going to try and hook back in with him in the morning, but regrettably, after a brief 10 minutes of fun with everyone we are back offline.

Thanks to everyone who has continued hanging in here with us. I know it’s frustrating not to be able to have access to your photos. But we’re not giving up yet and we are going to fight like hell to get Zooomr Mark III back up and fully stable.

I’ll update more when I know more.”

13 Replies to “Thanks Scoble”

  1. Thanks for all your company and hard work Thomas.

    I was in M3 while it was up and it was amazing. Clean, fast, over packed with features.

    It’s gonna change photosharing when it gets back up.

    Best wishes to you and Kristopher. and thanks again.

    btw, kris has posted a video about what happend to the server…

    http://www.vimeo.com/clip:200650

  2. We’re hanging in there with you. Fingers crossed. Managed to have a small look in the 10 minutes and boy, did it look good.

  3. Not sure whether you need this or how much it will help with the current crises 😉 but I’ve donated to Zooomr. Good luck!

  4. Besides patience, what is it you guys really need!? Mr. Scoble’s really nice evangelism comment asked for assistance. But, we really don’t know what it is you NEED? A MySQL guru? Gear? $5 paypal donations in droves?

    As CEO, what is YOUR call? What do you need?

    I bet you’ll find a generous community out here if you’ll put it in words.

    And, one way or another you’ll still get your patch once you get on top of Mark III (be it an OS patch or a DB patch… there’s one coming).

  6. What everyone else said. I know that when the bugs are ironed out it’s going to be awesome, and kudos to both of you for your perseverance.

    I sent a donation, but it’s just a tiny drop in the bucket…what else can we do for you all?

  7. Ahhh! I’m so sad for you guys. I woke up to be disappointed and sad.

    I have great hope for Zooomr, and am committed to see you through. Thomas, please let me know what I can do to help.

    I blogged the trauma and have been out evenglizing the blog-o-sphere.

  9. Thomas, keep up the fight. I would love to buy you guys all you need to get it going.

    Unfortunately the wife and 3 kids have to eat though. I did toss in some dough through paypal. Not much. Maybe it will at least get some more beer and pizza.

  10. @Scobleizer.com… methinks there’s an interloper. Maybe not though. Your profile links over to “blogger” of all places. Not your usual WordPress goodness.

    So, 10Tb and what KIND of Db server? Oracle? MySQL? FileMaker? HyperCard 😉 ?

    If it’s MySQL.. They have a startup group/plan. I’m budgeted to go with them for my own gig. Contact:

    Marc Sherwood,
    Corporate Sales Rep
    MySQL Inc, http://www.mysql.com
    Office (Las Vegas): 702-968-0804
    Office (Vancouver): 604-288-2447
    Mobile: 604-837-7148

  11. You really should move away from the child’s toys (mysql and the rest of the lamp pack) and get into something real.

  12. lol @ Brad.

    Are you suggesting there’s some LAMP alternative that runs on broken hardware?

    ^.~

    On a more serious note… I’m considering donating $25 by PayPal. Funny thing, that. I wouldn’t have paid for a $25 pro account, but I would donate the same amount. 🙂

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