Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Health Exchange Sites Crushed By Demand; Shutdown Blanks Other Gov't Sites

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-a-good-day-for-uptime dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The launch of a national health exchange site was marred by overloaded servers in several states around the country. In a White House press conference, President Obama said that by 7 a.m., there were over a million users, and he likened the capacity problems to the glitches that Apple experienced after discovering bugs in their rlease of iOS 7. 'I don't remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads, or threatening to shut down company if they didn't,' the president argued." Meanwhile, a number government websites went blank as a result of the shutdown, instead of simply lying dormant until personnel could return. The National Science Foundation, NASA, the FCC, and the Library of Congress are a few examples.

10 of 565 comments (clear)

  1. ya, the IRS site is up and running by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Huh, funny that, the IRS seems fully up and running their site during the 'shutdown'.

    Maybe they should help Nasa out with theirs

    1. Re:ya, the IRS site is up and running by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The NSA, CIA, and the .mil adresses are all up.

      I actually find it pretty educational to see what our government conciders "essential" and what is not.

    2. Re:ya, the IRS site is up and running by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They also passed an emergency funding bill yesterday to keep garbage collection in DC operating.

    3. Re:ya, the IRS site is up and running by halltk1983 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And if it gets compromised? And there aren't any sysadmins watching the logs and updating the software? And you don't know how long they're going to be gone? How many people do you think could be compromised by an unpatched 0-day up on a government "trusted" website for 21 days?

      --
      Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
    4. Re:ya, the IRS site is up and running by cold+fjord · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ... and there hadn't been any "play-testing" of democracy, and then you include those imperfect rules into a constitution that is very hard to amend.

      Actually the US Constitution is Democracy 2.0, or 3.0, depending on your point of view. The Colonies were originally governed by Great Briton, which is governed by Parliament. After the Revolution, the US was governed under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were found to be unworkable so they were replaced by the present Constitution. The Constitution has been amended quite a few times on important matters. The system has its oddities, but it has worked reasonably well for more than 200 years.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  2. Re:The sites weren't supposed to work today by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just have to ask. Federal site or State site? Washington State seemed to be working well earlier today, but it is a state site.

    The Federal Government shouldn't RUN anything! They couldn't even make money selling whores and alcohol when they took over the Mustang Ranch, so, naturally they will fuck this up too.

    Maybe they should hire Rockstar. Once they get the GTA V rollout under control they will be experts at running a large popular site that gets swamped beyond their designs. Just as AOL, Blizzard, etc have in the past.

    --
    Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
  3. Most "shutdowns" are completely unnecessary by EmagGeek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The government is actually spending MORE money to close these resources than it is keeping them open.

    An example is the closure of the memorials in DC. Normally there might be one parks officer roaming around them, but under the closure, there are dozens of park police manning the barricades to ensure nobody can go see them.

    It's all political theater. The Administration (and don't get me wrong, I don't give a shit of an R or D is in the white house - they both would do the same thing) is doing today exactly what it did with the sequester - it's punishing the American people as much as it can.

    Most of the sequester cuts were planned in a way to have the greatest negative effect on people, and these closures are being executed in the same way. Government is not happy that it has lost it's money source, and it figures the only way to get it back is to go around kicking people in the face to get them to scream at the people who control the purse strings.

    It's despicable. Instead of doing their jobs and negotiating the best possible compromise between all interested parties, they've become a bunch of extremists (on both sides) who refuse to negotiate. It's "my way or the highway."

    Obama in particular ought to be ashamed of himself. He campaigned on a platform of unity and leadership, and he has exemplified NONE of it. In fact he's the biggest one going on national TV proclaiming with pride that he refuses to negotiate.

    Fire them all. Seriously. Every last despicable goddamn one of them.

  4. The DEA is up! by turp182 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At least the DEA website is up, letting us know they are still operating. Gotta get those pot smokers.

    http://www.justice.gov/dea/index.shtml

    Meanwhile the USDA is down, but don't worry, there's no problem with our food supply.

    http://www.usda.gov/

    Makes sense to me. Going after the druggies is far more essential than the food we eat.

    Incomprehensible.

    --
    BlameBillCosby.com
  5. DDOS and Bogusity by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have to wonder how much of the crush was due to the Randians, the Baggers, and Koch Whores trying to overwhelm the site and flood it with bogus accounts. Given the depth of their hatred of the working poor, it would not surpise in the least.

  6. Re:The sites weren't supposed to work today by unrtst · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They shouldn't run anything.

    I get your point here - "anything" is a bit extreme, but...

    Like the highway sysetm

    You mean the one that each state runs, for which they may receive funding from the feds?

    the military

    "...every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia..."
    But this is too big a can of worms to get into with many legitimate views on the cost, scale, organization, etc.

    and the police force?

    When did this become a federal organization?

    Or the super efficient health systems in every other developed country?

    Like which ones? Canada maybe, with their entire population being only ~34.8 million, compared to 38 million in California alone, or 313.9 million in the US?
    My vote is state run, with some federal laws to back it up, and that correlates well to your example, AFAICT.

    What was your point again?