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The Web Braces For Inauguration Traffic 212

1sockchuck writes "Web sites and social networks are scaling up for huge traffic during today's Inauguration. Photo sharing sites are expecting a surge in volume around the noontime swearing-in, while Twitter has doubled its capacity. Some net watchers say peak volume may not match the record levels seen on Election Night 2008 (as reported by Akamai's Net Usage Index). As noted yesterday, DC-area wireless networks are the most likely bottleneck for messaging and photo sharing. "
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The Web Braces For Inauguration Traffic

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  • by BadAnalogyGuy ( 945258 ) <BadAnalogyGuy@gmail.com> on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @09:38AM (#26528459)

    It's pretty freaking cold! Lots of energy and excitement here in the crowd.

    There are so many people here, it's hard to believe that this crowd is overshadowing the Million Man March as far as numbers of people goes.

    I took a leak earlier. It was so cold, the urine stream was sublimating to steam before it hit the bottom.

    I can't wait to see Obama on the dais!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      Some dudes just started a fight about 20 feet from me. Looks like security has calmed it down.

      I shouldn't have drank all that coffee... Not feeling all that great.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Please, tell us more about strangers having a fight (how unusual!) and your steaming urine.

        I know you're excited and all, but you're sort of embarrassing yourself.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 )
      "There are so many people here, it's hard to believe that this crowd is overshadowing the Million Man March as far as numbers of people goes."

      Considering they MMM fell WAY short of a Million people...that's not saying much.

      :)

    • by waferbuster ( 580266 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:15AM (#26528863)
      I can't believe that a First Post that includes references to Frosty Piss got modded informative!
      • I can't believe that a First Post that includes references to Frosty Piss got modded informative!

        Must be a Bud drinker.

    • First frosty piss first post?
  • In & out (Score:3, Funny)

    by orzetto ( 545509 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @09:43AM (#26528525)

    As Obama is sworn in, I will swear out loud because I will lose teh intarwebs...

  • Historical Moment (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Chabil Ha' ( 875116 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @09:46AM (#26528557)

    Whether you voted for the guy or not, one cannot deny the magnitude of Barack Obama's clinching of the U.S. Presidency. This past election has seen a level of participation from a large cross-section of our nation, showing America's concern for it's future, both home and abroad. While the tea leaves aren't revealing much about what the future holds, one can see that we have chosen to go down a different path than we have been going for the past eight years.

    It will be interesting in Obama's freshman year to see the challenges that confront him, how he'll deal with them, and how the public will react. I think more than anything, Barack will have trouble living up to the image of a 'Cristo Negro de Esquipulas', as many look at him as a messiah of sorts for the nation. That aside, we have a unique moment in history in which we will be asked what it was like when the first African American president was inaugurated, to which we'll reply that it was both exciting and uncertain. Exciting because it seems that we have grown from our bigoted and biased past, but uncertain, not because he's black, but because of the economic and foreign calamities and troubles that have been layed before us.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      It is indeed an historical moment. Yet again another peaceful revolution right on schedule.

      Or at least that's what all the minorities are hoping. I think when reality finally bites, and they all realize that Obama can't and won't give them all a new car, and pay their mortgage, they might suddenly realize that perhaps he isn't really the messiah.

      What they should be looking at is the fact that the affirmative action programs, welfare, and everything else that has been thrown at minorites in the US for
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
        I hate to post an "I agree" response, but this messiah shit it getting out of hand. I live in a state with a significant minority population, and a good chunk of them didn't even come into work today. I know he's an important symbol, but in the end he's just another politician. It's one thing the think he's going to be at least somewhat better than Bush (it would be hard NOT to meet that standard). But it's quite another thing to think he's going to turn water to wine and make all the bad shit go away with
        • and a good chunk of them didn't even come into work today.

          I'll be watching it. Hell, I've gone in late to work because I was up late watching the super bowl... surely you'd agree that this is a bigger deal than the super bowl?

          • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *

            I certainly don't begrudge anyone wanting to watch it, no. But the level of religious fervor that this has taken on is just ludicrous. We're not talking about people just wanting to watch it; we're talking about people wanting to celebrate it, venerate it, throw up their hand and praise Jesus for it, offer it sacrifices, etc. I've had no less than 3 people come up today and ask me how to watch it on the internet, another person who wanted to know how much I would charge to turn it into a DVD. There are no l

            • Our IT department opened up the firewalls to streaming today.

              I think it's great - it's good to see people so happy about a President again. He deserves it more than any religious figure, that's for sure.

              I agree that expectations are too high, though. A President can only do so much. He is but a man.

          • by genner ( 694963 )

            and a good chunk of them didn't even come into work today.

            I'll be watching it. Hell, I've gone in late to work because I was up late watching the super bowl... surely you'd agree that this is a bigger deal than the super bowl?

            Only if the Packers aren't playing.

        • by Sage Gaspar ( 688563 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @11:49AM (#26530285)
          I'm getting a little tired of the weird Christian rhetoric people are developing about him. He's the first president in decades that a lot of us would view as a role model, morally and in terms of his character and abilities: longer than many of us have been alive. We're coming off what some would consider the worst eight years of those decades. He projects a thoughtful calm that gives us some faith in his diplomatic abilities as the head of our nation. On top of being the first black president. So forgive us if we might get a bit excited about this little ray of hope when we've had trouble believing in America and its future for a long time, let alone politics on a global scale.

          Yeah he's not going to live up to the widespread expectations. I fully realize that these are going to be hard times whoever we have in the presidency and he can only make some course corrections at best in conjunction with congress. He is going to have to compromise his ideals to get things done and he'll fuck up a bunch of times. Maybe it is just business as usual and we're going to realize what idealistic naive losers we've been and never trust a politician again. The jaded contingent wheeling out the Jesus analogies isn't helping do much of anything besides return it to business as usual faster though.
        • by curunir ( 98273 ) *

          I hate to post an "I agree" response, but this messiah shit it getting out of hand.

          I don't necessarily see it as a messiah perception, but more as one of offering hope. It was the same thing when Kennedy was elected. There was a feeling, however valid, that his election marked the beginning of the world changing in a positive way. And when times are tough, people need a positive outlook on the world and their place in that world in order to not get scared and despondent.

          When people buy lottery tickets, the

      • "It is indeed an historical moment. Yet again another peaceful revolution right on schedule."

        Yes because Obamarama is going to kiss it all better. Everything will be fine again in a few hours; the economy, healthcare, whatever! It's all going to be sorted by teatime.

        Some revolution! Meet the new boss...

    • Why is it that when my cousin or friends are interracial they're not "black enough", but when Obama's mom is a straight up Kansas girl, he's the "First African American President."

      My continually bringing this 'fact' up we keep pointing out some imaginary racial boundary. Obama is our 44th president. I certainly hope everyone out there voted for him because of his credentials not because of some melanin mutation. (Or lack there of).

    • Re:Historical Moment (Score:5, Informative)

      by jcnnghm ( 538570 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:10AM (#26528819)

      Whether you voted for the guy or not, one cannot deny the magnitude of Barack Obama's clinching of the U.S. Presidency. This past election has seen a level of participation from a large cross-section of our nation, showing America's concern for it's future, both home and abroad.

      This is media-generated crap. 56.8% of the voting-age population voted in 2008, up from 55.3% in 2004, but below 1960, 64, and 68 at 63.1%, 61.9%, and 60.8% respectively. While the media would like you to believe that people turned out in unprecedented numbers solely to support Obama, that's not the case.

    • I am not sure what your basis for saying that this election had "seen a level of participation from a large cross-section of our nation" as a reason to declare the magnitude of of Barack Obama becoming President. All of the reports I have seen of actual numbers say that turnout for this last election looks pretty much like turnout for every Presidential election in the U.S.
    • by Neoprofin ( 871029 ) <neoprofin@hotmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:31AM (#26529103)
      I don't mean to be a public buzzkill, but so far it looks like Obama's presidency is Clinton 2.0. Tweak out a few bugs, change the color scheme, but everything under the hood is still running the same. Barack Obama's greatest achievement thus far has been one of marketing, convincing everyone that despite his voting record and his cabinet appointments that he's somehow different from any other candidate.

      Don't worry though, the popularity of Barack Obama tattoos [cnn.com] clearly shows that all of this new found political interest is having a positive effect. I mean why give money to charity or spend your time helping your common man when you can "be a part of history" and indulge your desire to declare that you're with the in crowd?

      I voted for Obama, I think he's the better man for the job, but this cult of personality has gotten people happy for all of the wrong reasons, and I honestly hope that in the next 4 years we judge the man on his actions, not on this, as you state, messiah image we have for him.
      • has gotten people happy

        For the first time in about 7 years. Obama's important for what he might do, but he's more important because he's giving people a change of heart.

    • "Whether you voted for the guy or not, one cannot deny the magnitude of Barack Obama's clinching of the U.S. Presidency."

      What magnitude? He won about over 51% of the popular vote..roughly. So, not everyone voted for him. I think his victory was more of a backlash against Bush more than anything else...

      "That aside, we have a unique moment in history in which we will be asked what it was like when the first African American president was inaugurated.."

      I'm getting really tired of this angle frankly. I mea

    • What does your religious posting have to do with the FREAKING SUBJECT AT HAND?

    • clinching of the U.S. Presidency

      Clinching? I thought he was elected? What is this clinching? Is this constitutional? I demand an investigation and special prosecutor!

  • 2 million people? (Score:2, Informative)

    by obzidian ( 591525 )
    CNN saying there are close to 2 million live in Washington. One of the biggest turn outs ever. You better believe web traffic is going to be busy!
    • by cashman73 ( 855518 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:04AM (#26528757) Journal
      The real question is, are all these people celebrating Obama being installed into office, or Dubya leaving? ;-)
      • I'm positive there are those "countdown until the end of the Bush Era" javascripts, java apps, billboards, phone apps, whatever. What happens when those counters hit zero? How many easter eggs you think are buried in those countdown programs?

        Will this be like a mini-Y2K where planes fall from the sky because their bush-countdown clock used an unsigned int and crashed?

        Inquiring minds want to know.

      • by mrops ( 927562 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:28AM (#26529053)

        See how many of them have shoes in their hands.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        I think it is a bit of both. :) I am happy because it signifies a change, sets the tone for the next four years. Bush was handed a raw deal in the first four years, then kind of snow jobbed us the other four, in general.

        I don't think people think Obama is the messiah, that is a bit much. I think most people think he will be a better president than Bush though, but Obama is a politician, and you know he has quite a job ahead of him. Let him have his day though, it is a day of celebration, not to specu
      • Or expecting an assassination.

        Note humorless to mods: Not meant to be a troll.

  • Boy, I hope Obama does a good job. There's already things that make me kinda frowny, like bailout expenses, telecom immunity, and choices of people for office. Again, it seems like business as usual for our government, but I can't help but to -- hope.
    • I can't help but to -- hope.

      There seems to be a lot of that going around. When will people realize that hope doesn't get things done?

      The only hope I have is that he doesn't screw this up so bad that racism takes a turn for the worse. IMHO, he's just another guy. I follow the ideals that racism has two faces. One of repression and one of recognition. Lifting him up on a pedestal just because he's part black will only make a failure hurt worse. If he screws up in any way, it will forever be known as the biggest failure in the worl

  • We should move the whole election / inauguration business so that our* president gets sworn in during summer and at a time when people aren't at work. Seriously, he will be sworn in at 9am pacific time on a Tuesday. If it was me, we'd all vote for president in May and swear the person in at 6pm eastern (9pm pacific) in mid-June.

    Any reason for this being in January besides aligning with the new year?

    * apologies to those not in the united states.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      The president of the united states used to be sworn in on March 4 at Noon in Washington DC. This was changed by the 20th Amendment in order to cut down on the lame duck time that the president spent in office. If the president was sworn in during the month of June, we'd see more of a time where the executive branch of the government was essentially powerless.
      • Obviously any attempt to move the date would also move the election. If anything, I'd say the 3 month gap between election and inauguration is proving to long.

        This whole two year long election season has proven one thing to me--the system is showing its age and needs to be revised to meet the needs of our quick-fix, one-hour photo, instant-oatmeal society. Make the primary season shorter, remove the gap between the conventions and the general election, move the general election to the spring and give a mo

        • You do realizethat officail tallies of the election count and various court challeneges take well into Decemember every year? You might be able to shave two weeks off the time but that is about it. Heck this year the votes of Michigan and another state didn't certify their final tallies till mid decemember. In your instant model mistakes will happen with out some correction time.

  • by Thanshin ( 1188877 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:11AM (#26528831)

    Ok, there will be pictures and videos that don't exist now but beyond that, what information does the actual inauguration add?

    Does someone expect it to fail? Do you expect a magnicide? Someone to reveal breaking information about a miscount? What?

    Do you think he'll do something unexpected? Dance? Sing?

    Whatever people are going to say then, they can say right now. It's not an information adding event as the end of an election, or the result of an olympic competition.

    Maybe I'm wrong and the president waits to inauguration day to really reveal his evil plans.

    "MUWWAAHAHAAaaa. Gotcha! Not only I won't stop the war but I'm gonna invade 1d20* more countries! Yeah Baby!"

    *: Indeed, the worst part would be discovering you're being presided by a D20 fanboy.

    • People love the inauguration because it's a big feel good press conference where everyone is supposed to go home happy. That's the exact same reason that I consider it a complete waste of time to watch, same with the State of the Union addresses. I know the state of the union, I live in it and I follow the events, I don't need to hear someone tell me their aggrandized version of it for three hours.
    • Maybe I'm wrong and the president waits to inauguration day to really reveal his evil plans.

      Now you've done it! Just couldn't keep your mouth shut for one and a half more hours could you? No matter, your little prognostication will not affect the outcome [salon.com].

    • by genner ( 694963 )

      ...Do you think he'll do something unexpected? Dance? Sing?

      ....Maybe I'm wrong and the president waits to inauguration day to really reveal his evil plans....

      .

      Is a musical number where he reveals his evil plans through song and dance too much to ask?

  • by ecliptik ( 160746 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:22AM (#26528965) Homepage

    Miguel de Icaza posted a note this morning saying that after working with MS last night they now have a Moonlight add-on for 32/64-bit and PowerPC Firefox to stream the inauguration live from the official pic2009.org site. The install was quick, although the stream seems to stop and stutter frequently.

    • So now instead of installing just Silverlight... you also need mono? ...or is this a standalone bin that can be run and deleted after?

  • Twitter is already down and it is not even 11AM EST yet.

    Granted twitter goes down ALL the time so that is not saying much.

    - SR

  • The hard job today belongs to the moving crew. Bush just left the White House for the last time (whew!). As soon as the limos roll out the White House gates, the moving vans roll in. During the next two hours, all of Bush's stuff is packed, and the moving vans roll out. There's some quick carpet replacement and paint touch-up. The Oval Office gets some minor redecoration. Some art moves out, different art moves in. Then Obama's stuff is moved in and unpacked. By 5 PM, it's all supposed to be done.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by John Hasler ( 414242 )

      > During the next two hours, all of Bush's stuff is packed...

      Bush has already moved out most of his stuff. It's not like he was expecting to stay.

      > Then Obama's stuff is moved in and unpacked.

      He's not renting an apartment. The White House is fully furnished. Obama gets to pick the furnishings for the private quarters from the White House collection (I'm sure he has already done this).

  • I'm trying to find a site to stream the video from on Firefox in Linux.

    Somebody recommended Cnet.com, but I don't see any live video there. I thought C-SPAN would be a good bet since their streams are usually terrific (and playable with MPlayer, etc) but their site is too swamped right now to bring up anything but a blue page.

  • Watch the White House site [whitehouse.gov] for the changeover at noon EST.

    • by Animats ( 122034 )

      12:00:00 Bush web site still up.
      12:01:00 Bush web site still up.
      12:01:09 Site down
      12:03:00 Vice President web site has switched to Biden, but content not loading.
      12:04:11 White House web site still not responding.
      12:05:00 White House web site has switched to Obama. Site now using cookies.

      The new site runs on ASP.NET. And it uses Webtrends tracking. There's a link to "http://statse.webtrendslive.com".

      • The Obama White House site has a single-pixel GIF web bug:

        <img alt="DCSIMG" id="DCSIMG" width="1" height="1" src="http://statse.webtrendslive.com/dcs0l9nq800000ctek411lue6_2c8b/njs.gif?dcsuri=/nojavascript&WT.js=No&DCS.dcscfg=1&WT.tv=8.6.0"/>

        This seems to be the tracking method for non-Javascript users. For Javascript clients, it creates a WebTrends() object from Javascript.

        Supposedly, Government sites aren't supposed to link to or draw assets from non-Government sites.

  • I don't see what the big deal is. America has hired a contractor, with an option to renew if he meets his performance objectives and has a positive performance appraisal. When I got my last contract, I didn't get this kind of attention!

    :)

    -Lok
  • It was sad to see that every major video outlet fell on its face with this thing. I had to listen to CNN Radio because every video feed I could find was stuttering unlistenably, at best (most were just dead).

    The closest to usable was Hulu, but they were still craptacular and unwatchable. How can they even pretend they could replace television?

    At least with 9/11 I had Slashdot. No luck today though.
    -l

  • "Twitter has doubled its capacity"

    Why haven't they done it before now?

Heisenberg may have been here.

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