Blogger gets its server

January 5, 2001 10:05 PM

Blogger gets its server Pyra pulls it off with a little help from its friends.
posted by allaboutgeorge (13 comments total)

Beautiful. I nearly forgot to contribute. I'm not fond of PayPal anymore, so I think I'll get a mug.
posted by waxpancake at 10:33 PM on January 5, 2001

Just in case you suffer the same problem I do (the pic of Jack, Matt and Meg is covering up Jack's text) here's what he said:

It's Blogger user donations at work: the first of our new servers has arrived! Check out a photo of Matt, Meg and myself posing with our new friend (A VALinux Systems 2230 - dual P3 800, 1Gb RAM, 18Gb fast scsi drive). We're setting it up now, and a deep thanks to everyone for your generous support!

Side note: I want one. :-)
posted by cCranium at 8:28 AM on January 6, 2001

Hm, it looks like a rack server to me....are they going to get donations to buy a rack? :)
posted by pnevares at 8:43 AM on January 6, 2001

Anyone else wish PayPal would start a server fund, too? It sure is slow. I've had DMV transactions go faster than this.
posted by luke at 8:47 AM on January 6, 2001

pnevares, they use a hosting company. :-)
posted by cCranium at 9:24 AM on January 6, 2001

yaaaay for the new server :)

now where the hell are my damn stickers?

ack, kidding, don't hit me.
posted by Sapphireblue at 1:20 PM on January 6, 2001

If I am correct Blogger runs a NT based backend. They got their server from VA Linux....hmmm...contradictions...
posted by magellan at 10:22 AM on January 8, 2001

I wondered about that too, but maybe they got a good deal from VA (although I've heard they're kind of expensive) so they wiped a box and put an MS os on it? Netcraft does show them using MS though, yeah, but I mean, they obviously know what they're doing, it's not like this was a scam.
posted by beefula at 10:47 AM on January 8, 2001

According to a techweb story Steven Den Beste linked elsewhere (if you go there and search for "blogger" you'll find it easily) they currently serve on both Linux and NT, and are moving towards NT.

I haven't priced them, but I know VA linux makes good servers. From the sounds of the system they got for ~5 grand (probably less, because I figure the 5k includes some of the hosting costs, it's all part of putting another server out there) , they most certainly didn't get ripped off.

Also, VA Linux may have been able to have a rack-mountable server with the required specs available toot suite. I know the company we get our rack servers from (stupid NDAs, I'd be happy to bitch about them) took weeks to get us our new boxen which were of similar specification.
posted by cCranium at 11:08 AM on January 8, 2001

(yes, I know that toot suite is a miserable, miserable mangle of the original french phrase. it comes from a childhood joke, so you all should know it!)

(that last bit was sarcasm. I need to just stop talking)
posted by cCranium at 11:09 AM on January 8, 2001

tout de suite is the original French spelling, so your version isn't far off. Wasn't the candy the dad from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang came up with called Toot Sweets? I didn't catch that reference when I was a tot reading the book, but now it's coming back to me.
posted by daveadams at 11:48 AM on January 8, 2001

No, I know it's not far off, it's just an early (in my life, that is) pun relating to musical styles and gas that I didn't think would really add to the conversation is all. :-) My posting finger went to fast for me again, not realizing I'd slunk into my personal lexicon in a public forum. :-)

I have no idea what the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sweets were called.
posted by cCranium at 1:34 PM on January 8, 2001

Here's that techweb story about Pyra.

Quote regarding the VA Linux server: "The company planned to remove Linux and install Windows 2000, and hoped to have the server online over the weekend."
posted by Steven Den Beste at 3:02 PM on January 8, 2001