We’re in the final stages of our “countdown” to be able to launch Wolfram|Alpha. It is an exciting time here in the control room. The team here is gearing up to finally go live, and the energy in the room is palpable.
As you’d fully expect, our teams are full-court-press resolving network, infrastructure, database, and all sorts of other challenges, made particularly interesting by the sheer scale and complexity of launching two supercomputer-class clusters along with three other locations.
One of the biggest challenges we’re navigating today is effectively linking our supercomputers together. We’ve been switching on more and more compute capacity, with the expectation of having full capacity available on Monday.
Tonight, we’re looking to begin to test the system on a larger scale, get a sense of how it will behave, and continue performance tuning.
We’re also looking forward to seeing you this evening live on justin.tv.
Oh… and we’re in Illinois, and we just heard that we’re under a tornado watch.
It will be an interesting evening!
Buena suerte con el proyecto! - Good luck!
i wait, i have time
It’s 7:15…fancy happening time?
Yeah! I made the running! Nice bug, guys
w00t! eating and anticipating!
Everything OK guys, we are kind of waiting with baited breath here…
Its 7:28PM CST . . .
Hello, I’m waiting to see what you’ve done here….I just found out about Wolfram TODAY! And it has me very excited. I hope it doesn’t go down with the enormous quantity of visitors…good luck! It’s 9.27 pm here in Argentina, and I’m constantly trying to use it.
Again, good luck with this and greetins from Argentina
Amazing technology, all the best for the start from Berlin
Wolfram = R.I.P. 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Hope things are going ok. Site seems a bit slammed. When will video start?
good luck!
beat the crap out of the other crawlers…
It would be nice if you could explain why the launch has been delayed.
* drumming fingers on side of keyboard *
is it on now? I don’t see anything.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/6153/smileh.jpg
I thought so too. According to CST is it 1929 hrs now.
cant connect at 8:38 edt from dc darn
Launch asap…
why so much delay..
fix the problem asap.
G’day everyone at WA from here in Tasmania, Australia!! Can’t get the link yet but will keep trying. Good luck on this fantastic project!!! Cheers!
Launch asap…
why so much delay..
fix the problem asap.
visit http://www.myshortcut.net for just in websites
Wanted my first search to be “probability and timeframe when the WA site will launch,” but wouldn’t you know, the site isn’t up yet for me to run the search.
You are aware your servers have been slashdotted, yes?
Launch asap.
visit http://www.myshortcut.net for just in websites
So….. anticipation for nothing. Is it available only in some spots, but worldwide on the 18th i’m confused?
Another ’small’ step! Best to all the team.
Regards,
Myke
It’s past 8pm Eastern time and I still can’t ask it any questions
What gives? What did you mean by “Friday, May 15, beginning at 7pm CST”? I’m watching the video but I just want to try it!
Guy, where did you get that info from?
Good luck! You’ll sure make history on the web! Thanks for the great idea!
Waow, it works!
It could have been otherwise:
Crashes are common, but some get protection by guv’mint..
Tony Collins and David Bicknell,:’ Crash – Ten easy ways to avoid a computer disaster” , Simon & Schuster, 1997
p. 13
Success breads success, as the cliché goes. by the same logic does disaster bread disaster? If so, this might explain why computer failures are so common.
p. 343
Disaster avoidance is not a science. It is the elimination of error through trial [...] Computerization is still an art form that is best practiced by those who have learned from their own painful mistakes.
George Soros, “The Crash of 2008 and what it means – The New Paradigm for Financial Markets”, New York, Public Affairs, 2009
back cover
On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers wall allowed to go into bankruptcy without proper preparation. Within days, the entire financial system suffered what amounted to cardiac arrest and had to be put on artificial life support.
p. 220
Central to Soros’ world view is the idea thar
human affairs – events with thinking participants have a fundamentally different structure from natural phenomena
==>
p. 146
paraphrase: fractional-reserve banking must be protected, or made crash-proof, at all cost
text; the institutions, engaged in credit creation, must accept the fact that they are being protected by the authorities
UK time +1:10 hour past launch (02:10 local). Not up yet.
I guess that the site is a victim of over popularity. That HAS to be an indication in the expectations of the entire planet - too many people can’t wait to try it.
The back room geeks are probably tearing their hair out right now trying to figure out how to get it up. I hope that they also realise what a success this is going to be once things quieten down to a ‘normal’ load. If the intro video is anything to go by, I can’t wait.
Very disappointing - looks like its populated for pure sciences, but not social sciences
Very bold move to go live with the site launch!
I know you will fix the problem and admire your courage. Best of luck.
OK, google never had this problem (or they hid it well). Get this stupid thing running, you bunch of eggheads (or hire someone with social skills to placate the ones that do). WAITING…. forget a decimal point somewhere?
my first query will be “how many impatient internet users are there?”
Unless there’s something I’m missing, the program has been up for well over 45 minutes now.
still unable to use WA will keep trying…all the best to all
It is really bad form to announce a launch and not even test your systems beforehand and then have everyone log in to see a video stream that stutters and goes out completely.
What a waste of everyone’s time.
Yup… lame. Over-hyped, under-executed.
is this show still for (only) for the americans
watch the video at http://www.wolfram.com/broadcast/wolframalpha/ and you will see what is going on… it will happen… just be patient…
que se entromete el tornado en estas cosas. Tengan suerte
bummed. facesbooked it, twittered it never got to see it work. hope it can scale someday.
Try http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?
this will help heaps with my chemistry assignments…..
and also my very ridiculosly hard maths.
nearly 10pm EDT and nothing. hmm…
Just go with the launch - knowledge to be computed will always be in advance of the computer!?
Sincere Congratulations! Thanks to the Internet, thanks to your great idea and your efficient efforts as well as unselfish contributions, we can enjoy human knowledge better and faster with your website , to be sure. Looking forward eagerly to your launching now.
All the best to you and your staff from China !
WOW ! SHIFT HAPPENS! THIS IS THE REVOLUTION I WAS WAITING 4. MATH BOOKS WRITERS … AND MATH TEACHERS … FINALLY SOMETHING WILL CHALLENGE THE SYSTEM! HOPEFULLY PROBLEM SOLVING WILL BE THOUGHT IN MATH CLASSES … NOT PARROT(MONKEY) MATHEMATICS. FINALLY MATH TEACHERS WILL START THINKING ABOUT CREATING RELEVANT MATH PROBLEMS THAT CAN’T BE SOLVED USING WOLFRAMALPHA! I’M HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY. I’M IN ECSTASY! SO… EXCITING! Congratulations!
thank you tfitz
This system is going to crash and crash under the weight of expectation.
Am I missing something?
When will this be up?!