ThePlanet Outage Update

http://forums.theplanet.com/index.php?showtopic=90191&st=440
A short in high voltage power cabling inside some conduit in H1 caused an explosion that destroyed the power distribution system for the data center. As ordered by the fire department backup generators were not allowed to start. H1 remains without power as damage assessments continue. At present, temporary power may be available after noon tomorrow for the networking gear in H1.

Power for servers on the 2nd floor of H1 may be available later that afternoon. Full power restoration timing is not available yet as parts are still being located. Most likely parts will not be available before Monday. NO customer servers were physically damaged by this event.

Update from ThePlanet.com

This evening at 4:55pm CDT in our H1 data center, electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked down three walls surrounding our electrical equipment room. Thankfully, no one was injured. In addition, no customer servers were damaged or lost.

We have just been allowed into the building to physically inspect the damage. Early indications are that the short was in a high-volume wire conduit. We were not allowed to activate our backup generator plan based on instructions from the fire department.

This is a significant outage, impacting approximately 9,000 servers and 7,500 customers. All members of our support team are in, and all vendors who supply us with data center equipment are on site. Our initial assessment, although early, points to being able to have some service restored by mid-afternoon on Sunday. Rest assured we are working around the clock.

We are in the process of communicating with all affected customers. we are planning to post updates every hour via our forum and in our customer portal. Our interactive voice response system is updating customers as well.

There is no impact in any of our other five data centers.I am sorry that this accident has occurred and I apologize for the impact.

-Kevin Hazard

NCSXSHOP down at the moment due to...

Dear Valued Customers,

In the interest of keeping you updated, tonight at 5:45 p.m. here in Houston, a transformer in our H1 data in Houston caught fire, which required us to take down all generators as instructed by the fire department. All servers in the H1 data center are down, as is our ServerCommand customer portal, which are working to move to another data center. None of our other data centers are affected.Our management team and facilities staff are on site evaluating the situation. In our latest assessment, we have determined that networking gear has not been damaged, but we are without power so assessments continue. All disaster recovery systems are in motion, and we have teams already working in the data center.We are posting messages in our forum, in Orbit and on our customer support phone system.We appreciate your patience. We are working around the clock to resolve these critical issues.This link will give you updates as well:

http://forums.theplanet.com/index.php?showtopic=90185

GA-KO Alarm Clock - Preorder, Ships on July 31

In the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 game, there's a scene where Naomi Hunter and Sunny Gurlukovich cook three sunny-side up eggs on a frying pan. The tender sequence is punctuated by a cooking timer in the shape of a no-nonsense duck. To get the cooking time for the eggs proper, Sunny sets the GA-KO Timer so that it'll shake and sing out "Dah-Dah" when the eggs are ready.

Konami brings the GA-KO Timer home this summer but the company transitions the product into a more useful GA-KO Alarm Clock which tells time and gets you out of your slumber with insistent "singing" sounds. Note that the duck's wings are on its hips which means you better get up when the alarm sounds off.

The product measurements are H:160mm x W:102mm x D:107mm and the clock runs on two AAA batteries. The clock is constructed of ABS but the timepiece face cover is polycarbonate. The distributor's solicitation notes that only 2000 units will be produced and preorders are welcome today.

Square Enix Music Compilation Vol. 1 - New, In Stock

NCS started reservations a few months ago for a Square Enix exclusive (http://member.square-enix.com) soundtrack which collects 24 tracks of music from various Squaresoft games including FFVII, Front Mission 4, and Saga Frontier. After waiting patiently, the soundtrack is now in stock and shipping to all preorders. Similar to the Mario Galaxy OST Platinum Edition which was exclusive to Club Nintendo, the Square Enix Music Vol. 1 soundtrack is only available on Square Enix's website for members. The track list starts with J-E-N-O-V-A from the FINAL FANTASY VII Original Soundtrack and follows up with The Man with the Machine Gun which was originally from the FINAL FANTASY VIII Original Soundtrack. Many more selections from popular soundtracks stream afterwards...

Shokera Renai Otona no Tame - New Import, In Stock

Milestone's new Shokera Renai Otona no Tame no Metabo Dassutsu Training software + accessory pack is designed to help users keep track of their daily caloric intake and exercise. The software runs on the NDS and serves as a diet diary to record your daily meal regimen. Photographs for roughly 500 dishes are included in the food database in case you're not sure what a hamburger looks like. Two accessories are included - a plastic pedometer with belt clip which tracks your daily walking distance and a tape measure so you can measure how big your belly is. If you're pudgy and want to lose the tire around your stomach, you can track your eating habits and exercise over a period of time and then reduce the consumption or boost the exercise accordingly to meet your target weight.

Hanayoi Romanesque: Ai to Kanashimi - New, In Stock

A breathless audience of over 120,000 players has already enjoyed the visual novel charms of Hanayoi Romanesque on their mobile phones. Those throngs are clamoring for more so Marvelous brings the game home for a bigger and brighter adventure to explore.

Players take on the role of a school teacher named Tamami Kirihara who works at an academy that's been around since the Meiji era. The scions and other blood relations of the prominent Housyou family attend the school but they're all cursed. Tamami happens to be able to view the curse known as "Logos" on the boys and she's also able to lift the curse and free the lads from its effects. Along the way, Tamami may find romance with one of the Housyou sons. Hanayoi Romanesque is a interactive romance adventure that's targeted at girl gamers. By reading a lot of text, looking at nifty artwork, and making a few choices during the story, players help Tamami find love. Some choices will take the Tamami to different scenarios and conclude her story in different ways which opens up the replay potential for the game. Upgrades in the PS2 update of the game include full voice acting for the characters and new CG events.

Togainu no Chi: True Blood - New Import, In Stock

Boys Love games aren't screaming up the sales charts but they have their loyal audiences. Sometimes all one can hope for is a successful niche in the wild, woolly, and fickle world of gaming. Togainu no Chi was originally released for the Japanese PC in 2005 and has garnered a devoted (mostly female) fan base over the past few years. The backdrop of the game is a dystopian Japan after the ravages of a third World War. The story follows the tribulations of a reluctant warrior named Akira who fights for his freedom in the Igura Tournament which is administered by a drug kingpin. Fighters in the Igura battle each other to the death and gather their opponents' dogtags as they move their way up to the final conflict against the kingpin of the Vischio mob.

The mature content in the PC original has been wiped from the console conversion of the game to make it somewhat family friendly. The characters in the game are invariably chiseled, dark, somber, and apparently appealing. The PS2 version features a new character named Yukihito who's voice is provided by Hiroshi Kamiya, a new opening movie, exclusive CG events, and updated music. Every copy of the game will ship with a bonus dogtag and a True Blood Remix audio CD.