back to article Google Reader replacement 'Old Reader' crashes

The Darwinian derby to determine which RSS-reading service would replace Google Reader as the world's dominant feed-wrangler may just have produced its first extinction event, after theoldreader.com choked on its recently-enlarged database and crashed. The Old Reader's schtick is that it looks and behaves pretty much exactly …

COMMENTS

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  1. John Tserkezis

    Now you know why I don't use SSDs for storage.

    1. Peter Mount
      WTF?

      same here

      Exactly. Ssd's are fine for reads but I wouldn't trust them for storing data. Caches maybe but the database?

      The closest I have for a ssd is where my homemade nas boots from a USB flash drive. It works & I can restore quickly if it fails. Main storage still traditional disk's & raid 5.

      1. AceRimmer

        Re: same here

        Too right, HDDs never fail

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: same here

        Fine for read...oddlly that's what 99% of a websites dataflow tends to be.

        Ok made the figure up, but you get the point.

    2. phuzz Silver badge
      Go

      If you lose three new SSDs at the same time, then you got a bad batch, and that happens with disks as well.

      Plus, when an SSD is cheaper, faster, and higher capacity than an enterprise disk, it's pretty hard to justify the spinning rust, and they're already at that point.

  2. g e
    Holmes

    Data Management 101

    COPY, don't MOVE.

    1. AceRimmer

      Re: Data Management 101

      Backup, Backup, Backup

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Data Management 101

        "Backup, Backup, Backup"

        And, at least occasionally, restore. As per the relatively recent article not a million miles from here whose author and title and date I can't remember (I need an internal restore).

    2. Mikey
      FAIL

      Re: Data Management 101

      Copying rather than moving is fine, but in this case the drives themselves went to crap, so either method would have ended up with the same result.

      The main difference here is that it's easy to retrieve data with existing equipment or ressurect an old HDD with a board transplant, but with an SSD you're rather more buggered. You MAY somehow be able to read the flash if it's only the controller that's farked, with careful place ent of probes and an external controller. Good luck replacing any BGA chips though. Always back up an SSD to an HDD, otherwise things are going to be very, very expensive, very quickly...

      I'll stick to my good old spinning rust for now, I think...

  3. Onomatopoeia

    InoReader

    I tried Old Reader for a while, decided it wasn't for me, so I moved to InoReader. Brilliant replacement for GR.

  4. Jim 59

    over a terabyte

    Hmmm. Seems a very small amount of data. Wonder if it was a type on the release.

    Of the readers I tested, none are as good as GR. Includes Feedly, Firefox Sage, Firefox live bookmarks, The Old Reader, Digg reader, even OwnCloud. It's not just useability, there are problems with missing articles and slow updates too. But they are getting better (apart form OR)

    1. AceRimmer

      Re: over a terabyte

      "Hmmm. Seems a very small amount of data. Wonder if it was a type on the release."

      How much data were you expecting?

      I know the world and his dog keeps bleating on about "big data" but for the majority of companies a Terabyte of database data is actually quite a lot of data

      Given that they only have 375k users that still equates to 2 -3 mb per user or approx 8000 rows of uncompressed data

  5. RonWheeler

    Slick RSS is...

    ...the best alternative I've found so far. Yeah it is a Chrome extension, so not for everyone.

  6. xperroni

    Ye Olde Titsup

    Yeah, been locked away from my feeds since yesterday.

    Most effusive thanks, TheOldReader!

    Though to be fair, it's my own fault for not keeping the export XML file somewhere safe.

    Oh well, wait a few days for the thing to come back online and move to Thunderbird it is.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Ye Olde Titsup

      I think you can still get at your old GR data for quite a while yet, so just go re-export it.

      1. xperroni
        Mushroom

        Re: Ye Olde Titsup

        I think you can still get at your old GR data for quite a while yet, so just go re-export it.

        Actually, no – Google already deleted my Reader data, or at least de-listed it from Takeout.

        Well, damn.

  7. Andrew Jones 2
    Thumb Up

    I'm now running Tiny Tiny RSS on an inhouse Ubuntu server, I own the data, it has an Android app and a Chrome extension - but it's my service. For any Ubuntu users out there - there is now a PPA for it (but I installed it manually) - I don't need to worry about this service going belly-up or being discontinued.

  8. Len Goddard

    Disappointed

    "The Old Reader's site is now displaying apologies, cat photos and a promise that a fix “will probably take a day or two”."

    I can't find the cat photos.

  9. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    For the really paranoid, back up to tape.

    Anyone want to have a go at dismantling a flash drive and probing the chips?

    Anyone know where to start?

  10. Big Al

    Vibes

    I gave up on OldReader when I tried importing my Google Reader feed list over and it took almost 2 days to process it and tell me it was now working...

    But I did find NetVibes, which has been stable (so far!) and in reader mode is uncomplicated.

  11. Jim 59

    Readers

    Hello El Reg how about a proper review of RSS readers, like the ones named above.

  12. JohnSaunders12

    Wait for OldReader

    I recommend that you wait for few days on OldReader. I have been using both OldReader and SilverReader for several weeks.

    Now I will only use silverreader.com for few days. SilverReader is similar to OldReader but little faster.

    Still I will also wait for OldReader for come back.

  13. Fira
    Coat

    I'll take my feeds and change the service. The OldReader is coming back - good and good luck, but!!! Users are not volleyball balls to be passen by from here to there and back. Any devs team enthusiastic or professional must remember - people rely and depend on their service/product.

    Ofering service for hundreds of thousands you cannot say today "Oops, we are tired, we are in depression and we close" and ask for forgivnes the very next day.

    Try to solve the problem. if it's impossible than explain it to users.

    I've recently tried http://feedreader.com/online/ and I'm going to come back to it. Not brilliant but decent enough.

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