Hello, Channel API

[Paddy Foran]

OK, I'm going to start off with an apology. I apologise for being so
terribly slow about this entire switch. I apologise for my lack of
communication. You all must have thought this was dead, or I had given
up.

The Channel API launched to the public today. I'm extremely
dissatisfied with how it went down (and feel like such a jerk because
of it). Basically, I was given no warning whatsoever. If you're
interested in the whole story, I put it out on
http://www.bloggerisdead.com/2010/12/i-feel-kind-of-fucked-by-google.html

The relevant part is that our server issues should now stop. Except
I'm totally unprepared for this. The Channels team didn't really
communicate timeframes with us very well, so I ended up pursuing a
nodejs solution to this (something I'm going to continue once we get
some breathing room). Because of this, I fell a little out of touch
with App Engine's codebase. It's (largely) feature complete (the
Chrome extension needs to be tested and tweaked a bit, I believe, but
I'm confident I'll finish that in the coming days). But I have no data
on how this ends up affecting our quotas, no testing outside my own
alpha testing. Which is bad. I've not even begun translating the
legacy stuff to the new system, which is even worse.

In short, I'm kind of caught with my pants down. So here's what's
going to happen: On Sunday, December 5th, I'll be conducting a series
of tests to see how this all affects our server usages. I need your
help to make that happen. At 8pm, GMT (that's 3pm EST and noon, PST)
I'll need every tester who can spare a half hour or an hour to get
online and help me figure out how this will all go down when the
public transfer is completed.

I'll be writing code and fixing things right up until that point, I
imagine. If, by some miracle, I get a "stable" product ready before
then, I'll update this thread with it immediately, letting you all
download and find some bugs before the big event. I will also be
posting some details on Saturday night about how communication during
the big event will be handled.

Following the event, on Sunday, December 12th, I expect to pull the
trigger and transition from the old version to the new. Details on how
that will happen will be forthcoming after the big test gives me some
idea what is actually going on here.

Thank you all for your interest in helping this project, and thank you
all for your time. I hope as many of you as possible can make it come
Sunday.

And I am truly very sorry about how this transition has taken place.

Yours,
Paddy Foran

[tcv]

Alright. So, how do I help?

On Dec 2, 6:00 pm, Paddy Foran <foran.pa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> OK, I'm going to start off with an apology. I apologise for being so
> terribly slow about this entire switch. I apologise for my lack of
> communication. You all must have thought this was dead, or I had given
> up.
>
> The Channel API launched to the public today. I'm extremely
> dissatisfied with how it went down (and feel like such a jerk because
> of it). Basically, I was given no warning whatsoever. If you're

> interested in the whole story, I put it out onhttp://www.bloggerisdead.com/2010/12/i-feel-kind-of-fucked-by-google....

[Paddy Foran]

To help, just block off that time in your day on Sunday. I'll be
posting IRC (most likely) details, a link to the Chrome extension and
(hopefully) the Android app, so just hang tight until I can get those
online. Once they're up, just download and install them, then join the
IRC chat on Sunday and I'll kind of direct the tests from there.

Thanks for your support!

Thanks,
Paddy Foran