Netflix, a platform with which we are intimately acquainted, has a way of messing with the hearts and minds of its customers. Qwikster was a debacle and the recent Cartoon Network additions are a win, but a couple days ago the streaming giant slipped a veritable atom bomb into a letter to its investors. No, they didn’t decide to push Arrested‘s release date (or the streets might be running Netflix red with cancelled subscriptions). Instead, the ‘Flix opted to break hearts by not renewing its contract with media giant Viacom’s television networks, which is set to expire next month. This means goodbye to countless shows from MTV, Comedy Central and…gasp…Nickelodeon. BlogDailyHerald loves Nicktoons and it is almost unfathomable that we won’t be able to watch boatloads of Spongebob, Ren & Stimpy and Hey Arnold! as we procrastinate studying for exams. Guess we’re gonna have to settle for Jake the Dog and Finn the Human…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fPk4wQPNj8&feature=youtu.be

Remember that time your friends thought it would be funny to shove your face in a birthday cake as part of a practical joke? Remember when they may have taken things a little too far and given you a concussion in the process? Well, this chick sure won’t.

Lucky for us, however, this girl’s hilarious birthday fail will forever be immortalized in the annals of the interwebz.  Can you say schadenfreude?

Banner seems to be facing some technical difficulties this morning…we’ll let you know when it’s back up!

UPDATE: At roughly 8:45 am this morning banner went from temporarily unavailable to available. Quiet, morning-appropriate cheers pervade the campus.

Remember that giant reply all email that wouldn’t go away? Well we had almost forgotten about the whole fiasco. But now it’s back, and after two days of straight-up inbox flooding, we just can’t take it anymore.

The accidental spam thread had been dormant for weeks till Tuesday, when a single student awoke the thread by asking to be removed from it. Since then, all hell has broken loose.

56 additional people have asked to be unsubscribed. Several other people have requested that their status switch to “resubscribe” or “funsubscribe.” We’ve received advertisements for personal Twitter accounts. The situation has been compared to great literary works about interminable, unexitable activities. A few emails have been sent in foreign languages. And we’ve received personal missives.   [Read more →]

About a week ago, I received an email from CIS telling me I had a “naming conflict” with my Brown email address. The email laid out a couple of logistical problems that my account, and presumably those of many others in the Brown Community, were facing. The message was pretty technical, but I elected not to really read it because the email explicitly said, “You do NOT need to take any action yet.” So I did not.

Yesterday, I got another email, which continued to lay out the problem of my “naming conflict.” The email again delayed any sense of urgency I might have possibly been feeling. “You do not need to take any action before tomorrow.” (They bolded; I’m just reporting.) So considering this warning, and the fact that my Brown apps are not that valuable to me post-graduation, I took no action. Presumably, neither did a whole lot of other people, because today we received a clarification email from CIS.

Sounds simple enough. But clearly there had been tension building for days, DAYS, that no one had yet to act on.

Shortly after CIS’s clarification message, a professor (who we will allow to remain anonymous; he has suffered enough) sent an email in response. And because he hit reply all, the message went to everyone with a naming conflict. The saga continues after the jump. [Read more →]

Word on the street is that all the engineering computers are down and won’t be back up for at least a couple days. Disaster!

WHERE WILL WE DO OUR PRINTING??

Uhhh, I mean … REALLY IMPORTANT COMPUTING.

As always, BCA brought its standard cocktail of excitement, frustration, murderous rage, and elation this morning. To the lucky 1,000 who got tickets, congratulations. To the rest, better luck tomorrow. Maybe BSA can get its server working a little better before then?

And where do students turn to express their strong emotions? Facebook! Now we bring you some highlights from the morning’s insanity.

8:20 AM: A few students are successful. The rest remain utterly confused:

8:30 am: The anger begins to mount, as it appears to some that the Brown Marketplace website is offering tickets to the foam party, but not to the main attractions:

8:40 AM: More are finally rewarded with tickets. Increasing exasperation from those who are still waiting:   [Read more →]

Shame on you, Brown Marketplace.

[Editor's note: UPDATE 10:18 AM: Abby Schreiber '11, BCA's booking chair, got in contact with BlogDailyHerald this morning after students complained of not being able to access the BSA website to buy tickets.  At 8:01 am this morning, BCA contacted Touchnet Information Systems, the company that makes the program that BSA uses to run Brown Marketplace, when the site began to experience problems.

BCA contacted Touchnet two days ago to ensure that the site would be able to handle at least 40,000 hits.  They were assured that it wouldn't have any problems.]

UPDATE 8:40 AM

Orders seem to finally be going through.  Those of you who actually had the patience to wait 40 minutes and not break your computer truly deserve those tickets.  Round 2 tomorrow morning, y’all!

UPDATE 8:32 AM

The actual tickets are up on the Marketplace, but the form to enter creditcard information keeps crashing.  WE JUST WANT TO GIVE YOU OUR MONEY BUT YOU WON’T LET US.

In ritualistic masochistic tradition, we all signed onto our computers at 8 a.m.

Spring Weekend performer P.Diddy famously once said, “I’ll be missing you.” Was he referring to the absent tickets?