News is not trickling in very quickly. I got an email from the folks at Entrecards, informing me that their website is down due to a fire at ThePlanet Database Center. The datacenter is located in Houston, Texas. Apparently, an electrical transformer exploded, burning down three walls. The electrical power has been turned off, and all websites hosted by ThePlanet were down all night Saturday.
My initial reaction was that of shock. I suppose I viewed a datacenter as something non-tangible and amorphous, something akin to vegan shoes or something. Oh, so– websites aren’t created out of thin air! They are on computers and those computers sometimes fail! Haha! It wasn’t until I got my own websites that I finally began to understand that the Internet is not like radio– it’s not really transported via waves, but via tangible databases.
OK, anyway… so that’s why a lot of websites are down. Entrecards says the site may be up in 12-24 hours. Statcounter.com is up although there are some components of the site not working. And the only news story I could find, and Newsblaze.com, is down because– duh– they are hosted by ThePlanet, too.
![[Slashdot]](http://slashdot.org/favicon.ico)
![[Digg]](http://digg.com/favicon.ico)
![[Reddit]](http://reddit.com/favicon.ico)
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif)
![[Facebook]](http://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico)
![[Technorati]](http://technorati.com/favicon.ico)
![[Google]](http://www.google.com/favicon.ico)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.stumbleupon.com/favicon.ico)
Tags: Entrecards, fire, ThePlanet
I am a member of Entrecards (although not for this blog– just my five others, lol!). I thoroughly enjoy the traffic it has brought me as well as the wonderful new blogs and bloggers I have discovered. I’ve made some true friends through the community. I have to admit that I’ve also seen some real doozies out there, too– some use EC to peddle their acne treatments blogs (how can you have a blog devoted to one thing, eludes me!) but most Entrecarders are there for the social networking aspect. I love it! Entirely new blogs, widgets, and tools are being spawned as a result of EC. I was very excited to read about a new toolbar called Sitehoppin, created by an Entrecarder and especially geared toward EC hoppers. It’s in the beta, but I have the honor of being able to beta test it with my Firefox browser. The concept and the style is outstanding. I’ve been waiting for another toolbar to enter the scene to rival StumbleUpon, and it looks like Josh Whitford’s invention may do it. You can read about it and see a tutorial video here.
It still has a few bugs yet (that’s why the call it “beta”!). The toolbar timed out on me a few times. I also notice that there is no category for the Entrecard Home & Garden section. 
My New York Renovator is in that category, so until it’s fixed, my most popular blog won’t be showing.
But users can submit blogs! There’s just too much to describe here– check out Josh’s site and watch the tutorial. I’m expecting great things from this toolbar!
Tags: Entrecards, toolbars
