...

I was waiting for someone to bring this up, but it didn't happen.

The "19 hour" outage of AOL was attributed to a new network operating system update, by at least one media story I read. I'm curious is there're any interesting lessons from this for the rest of us?

Perhaps: Always make sure you have that "UnInstall" option available to you? =-)

I paused for a moment and considered how interesting it is that a problem with an online service is now headline news... on the same day NASA announced there is(was) probably other life in the universe.

So AOL != Alien Originated Life? :-) I saw this - blames a s/w upgrade: America Online Service Outage Hits 6 Million NEW YORK (Reuter) - America Online Inc. suffered a service outage that left its more than 6 million subscribers without access to the world's largest computer online service for most of Wednesday, according to a spokeswoman. The outage began at 4 a.m. EDT as part of regularly scheduled maintenance and software installation at the Dulles, Va.-based online service, America Online spokeswoman Pam McGraw said. A technical problem in installing new computer host software extended the outage, making the system unavailable to the more than 6 million people around the world, most of them in the United States, who subscribe to AOL, McGraw said. Service was restored late Wednesday. ``Every possible resource is being brought to bear to restore the service,'' America Online President Steve Case said in a statement. ``We regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers and we will work to ensure that the problem does not reoccur.'' In addition to subscribers -- many of whom pay $9.95 a month for five hours online and $2.95 for each additional hour -- the outage affected major media operations, including The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and Marvel Comics, which publish online versions on America Online. Chicago Tribune online editor John Lux said he became aware of the problem when the Tribune found itself unable to post its online edition to AOL in the morning. ``We have a couple of hundred thousand members in our area, many of whom depend on reading the paper in the morning in the Chicago Tribune online area'' of AOL, Lux said by phone. ``This has certainly been a problem for us.'' A New York Times spokesman said his paper posted its online version to AOL before the outage struck. The Times publishes another version of the paper on the Internet's World Wide Web. Service outages have plagued online and Internet services in recent months. On June 19, the Netcom On-Line Communications Inc. Internet service experienced a 13-hour unplanned outage. Three days later, Microsoft Corp. shut down its network intermittently for 10 hours. The software giant's online serrvice had been scheduled for a major power-supply upgrade, but U S West Communications Group was unable to perform the work. Microsoft is due to take its 1 million members offline again this fall in order to complete the work. ``If this (outage) is a sign that AOL can't handle its growth, that's a very bad message for the professionals that use it,'' said industry analyst Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications. Corporate customers, to which AOL has recently stepped up its efforts to attract, will not put up with as much unreliability as consumers, Arlen said. ``I don't think AOL will get a second chance,'' he said. America Online's ANS unit, which offers Internet and other network connections to corporate customers, also reported problems Wednesday, saying their ``backbone'' -- or trunk line -- was out of service for about half an hour. That outage affected about 25 corporate customers, a spokeswoman said. America Online, a proprietary online service that also provides Internet access, has been one of the major success stories of the burgeoning consumer online service and Internet access businesses. It heavily promotes itself by mailing computer disks to potential subscribers, including the disks with numerous computer magazines and advertising on television and in magazines. AOL's Case recently said he believes the service will surpass 10 million members by mid-1997. But AOL's stock has slipped in recent weeks, descending steadily from its high of $70 per share on May 7 to bottom out at $26 per share July 24. America Online shares rose 62.5 cents to $34.875 on Nasdaq Wednesday after trading as low as $32.25 after news of the outage was released. Stock in America Online's archrival, CompuServe Corp., rose $1.125 to $14.875 on Nasdaq. Reuters, 01:46 08Aug96