As you will have guessed Typepad has been through the e-wars over the past few days which has resulted in my absence from the internet. However, all good things come to an end and those blonde lovelies in California who skate into the office on roller skates have been striving mightily, I tell you, mightily, to effect repairs and, lo, I am returned! I will not attempt to summarise the problem, instead I will reprint TypePad's explanation:
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Update 21-April-2014 9:45AM PT: We're sorry to inform you that Typepad was attacked again overnight. Our team has been working around the clock to restore service. While most blogs are available and the application is up, some mapped domains are showing a message that the domain is "unknown", but there is no problem with the domain itself. We're working to correct the error on our end.
First, let us say how much we appreciate all members of the Typepad community. We know the last few days have been trying and stressful to you all and us. Please know you have a team of people who love Typepad who have been working and continue to work to keep Typepad up 24/7.
What happened? Beginning Thursday evening, Typepad was hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) off and on through today. A DDoS attack is an attempt to make services unavailable, but in no way was your Typepad account compromised. All information in your Typepad account is secure, including billing information. The attack on Typepad was similar to an attack on Basecamp which you can read about here.
The Typepad blogs and application have been restored. We put in place some roadblocks to mitigate the attack, but we are on high alert as attackers change their tactics regularly.
We really appreciate all members of the Typepad community and your patience during this time. We're here to answer any questions you may have about the attack.
Call me 'Mr. Gloomy' but somehow I suspect this may not be entirely the end of the troubles so if I go a.w.o.l. again you will be able to guess the reason and be assured that 'rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated'! Alas, for most of today I am engaged, if that is quite the right word, in a monster shopping expedition to Bristol. In May we have a holiday trip to Rhodes and the 'Memsahib' seems to feel (quite strongly, you might even say, fiercely!) that her wardrobe is insufficient. My remark to the effect that all she needs is a pair of shorts and plenty of T-shirts went down like the proverbial you-know-what! I shall be back later this afternoon but probably in a state of total exhaustion!
Of course, the cyber attack meant that my Monday Funnies were cancelled - a coincidence, surely! - but it was a holiday for most of us so you wage slaves did not have to suffer too much. Anyway, here's one for today:
The Hypnotist at a Senior Home
It was entertainment night at the Senior Citizens' Center.
After the community sing-along led by Alice at the piano, it was time for the star of the show - Claude the Hypnotist!
Claude explained that he was going to put the whole audience into a trance.
"Yes, each and every one of you and all at the same time," said Claude
The excited chatter dropped to silence as Claude carefully withdrew, from his waistcoat pocket, a beautiful antique gold pocket watch and chain.
"I want you to keep your eyes on this watch,"said Claude, holding the watch high for all to see.
"It's a very special and valuable watch that has been in my family for six generations," said Claude.
He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting,
"Watch the watch --- Watch the watch ---- Watch the watch"
The audience became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth.
The lights were twinkling as they were reflected from its gleaming surfaces.
A hundred and fifty pairs of eyes followed the movements of the gently swaying watch.
They were hypnotized.
And then, suddenly, the chain broke!!!
The beautiful watch fell to the stage and burst apart on impact.
"SHIT," said Claude.
It took them three days to clean the Senior Citizens Centre!
