Maintenance
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Tesla drops annual servicing for 'as needed' repair model
Tesla has quietly changed its EV maintenance policy, going from regularly scheduled service to an "as-needed" model, according to its "Car Maintenance" page. Before, it called for "recommended" service every 12 months and 12,500 for the Model S and X, and 24 months or 25,000 miles for the Model 3. Now, however, it simply says "your Tesla does not require annual maintenance and regular fluid changes," and instead recommends periodic servicing of things like brake fluid, air conditioning and filters.
Rolls-Royce may use bug-like robots to assist airplane engine repair
Rolls-Royce showed off a handful of small robots this week that could aid in the inspection and repair of airplane engines sometime in the future. Though still under development, the tiny robots could lead to faster, less labor-intensive engine inspections as well as cost reductions for engine maintenance. The technologies, which were displayed at the Farnborough Airshow, are being developed in partnership with other companies as well as researchers at the University of Nottingham and Harvard University.
McLaren uses 20-year-old laptops to maintain its first supercar
You've no doubt heard of organizations clinging to ancient technology to keep their businesses running, but probably nothing like this. A Jalopnik tour has shown that McLaren relies on a roughly 20-year-old laptop, a variant of Compaq's LTE 5280, to maintain its classic F1 supercar. Simply put, the automaker made the mistake of chaining itself to very specific technology: it needs a custom card in the computer to interface with the F1 and find out what's wrong. That's crucial to buyers who may have spent millions and would rather not see their vehicular pride and joy become a giant paperweight.
Ford service helps you get around town, whatever you drive
Ford's traditional business has revolved around making cars, but it's increasingly seeing itself as a transportation company that just happens to make vehicles. Need proof? Just look at the company's newly unveiled FordPass. The free-to-start service is built to help you get around town, whether or not you own a Ford -- it'll help you find and pay for parking, share cars and (in the future) book ridesharing trips. There's a FordPay virtual wallet that will help you pay for everything, and you'll even have access to free FordGuides (basically, customer service agents) that can help out.
H1Z1 suffers overnight downtime, whispers of server wipes [Updated]
It's not an easy time to be playing H1Z1 right now, especially since you sort of can't. The game's servers went down last night for a quick fix, according to Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley; they've been down since, with players getting increasingly vocal and anxious about what comes next. No further updates have come from the company after Smedley's assurance that there are issues to be fixed that cannot be solved simply by rolling back to the previous patch. Once players can get back in to the game, there may very well be a server wipe greeting them (a possibility suggested by the technical director), although perks like tickets, crates, and cosmetic recipes will not be lost in the event of a server wipe. SOE has promised to give plenty of notice before taking such drastic measures. Players are divided on whether this is a good thing or not, although widespread reports of item duping sit at the root of the issue. There's still no ETA on when the servers will be back online or what will be fixed when they come back up, but players could be looking at a very different environment. [Update: Servers appear to be up again now. SOE has said that the promised European servers are still incoming: "getting MORE servers, still calculating what we can fit."]
Final Fantasy previews dungeons and plans maintenance for patch 2.5
The last pre-expansion patch for Final Fantasy XIV is going to be a big one. So big, in fact, that the game is dropping 12 hours of maintenance for the first part. Servers will go down at 6:00 p.m. EST on January 19th before coming back online at 6:00 a.m. EST on January 20th. As always, exact completion time is subject to change. If you missed yesterday's trailer, you can get an idea of some of the fuss by checking out today's dungeon preview, which shows off the Keeper of the Lake, Amdapor Keep (Hard), Wanderer's Palace (Hard), and the World of Darkness. While the exact item level requirements for these dungeons are hidden, it is clear that the Keeper of the Lake will once again be part of the main scenario quests like Snowcloak was in patch 2.4. So get ready to fight a dragon corpse, slaughter various voidsent, and most importantly rescue a whole lot of far-less-rancorous Tonberries.
PSA: PlayStation Network comes down temporarily on January 15
Owners of Sony gaming devices, take note: The console manufacturer has scheduled PlayStation Network maintenance for January 15, which will bring the online service down for approximately four hours. During the downtime, PlayStation owners will not be able to access the PSN Store, any streaming entertainment apps or online gameplay functions. However, if you just can't go four hours without shooting somebody over the Internet, you can get around this problem by signing into PSN before the network comes down. As long as you don't sign out of the PlayStation Network, you'll be able to play online while everyone else is forced to interact with reality. Barring any last-minute changes or unexpected problems, the downtime is scheduled to occur at 12PM EST and last through 4PM EST. [Image: Sony]
Maintenance extended until 1 p.m. PST
Today's maintenance has been extended for WoW, Diablo 3, and Hearthstone. Realms are now scheduled to be up at 1 p.m. PST. The PTR is still up if you really need your WoW fix. We'll update this post if it gets extended again. [Update - NA] Maintenance has been extended until 1pm PST for #Wow, #D3, and #Hearthstone. We'll update as soon as we know more. - BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) January 13, 2015
ArcheAge servers are back up; Trion is sorting out in-game timers
If you're following the ongoing saga of ArcheAge problems, you probably know that the game had all of the servers shut down over a holiday weekend, which could theoretically solve the game's exploit issues in the same way that setting fire to your house solves any problems you have with your wallpaper. The server issues were stated to be a result of emergency maintenance, with community representatives denying that it was connected to servers overheating, DDoS attacks, or exploits. The good news is that out of the game's 21 servers, 16 were up and running last night, with the last five brought online early this morning. Players are promised compensation, which will be revealed later today. Unfortunately for players who had taxes due, the timers for all services continued to roll while the servers were down, so crops, housing plots, and the like were all still affected by time during the lengthy maintenance cycle. Trion says it is "definitely aware this is an issue for players with taxes due and is talking with XLGAMES about the best way to resolve it while the servers are offline." A server rollback is not in the cards. But at least the servers are back online. We'll have more updates on the compensation for players when it is announced.
Maintenance extended until 1 p.m. PST [UPDATE: 3 p.m.]
The launch of a new expansion is fraught with extended maintenance -- Warlords of Draenor being no exception. Today's maintenance, which was already a rather large window, has been extended until 1 p.m. PST. We'll keep you posted on any developments. Update: Blizzard's Customer Service team now states realms will be down for an additional two hours. The new ETA is 3 p.m. PST. [NA] #WoW maintenance has been extended an additional 2 hours, until 3pm PST. #SC2, #D3, #Hearthstone & #Heroes are live. - BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) December 2, 2014
Maintenance scheduled for November 15
Following today's maintenance and the continuing rocky launch of Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard has announced another round of extended maintenance for November 15 on North American realms. According to the Battle.net launcher, realms will be taken down at 3:00 a.m. PST and Blizzard expects to have them up again at 9:00 a.m. PST. We do hope these launch issues are brought under control soon. Saturday maintenance is, historically, highly unusual -- and not very convenient for players. As necessary as it may be, extended weekend downtime is a hard sell for a brand new release.
European and North American realms going down for unscheduled maintenance
Update 8:55 p.m. PST: North American realms are now going down at 5 a.m. PST and will be offline for an unscheduled 4 hour maintenance window. Original Post at 8:44 p.m. PST: Only announced within the last few minutes, European realms will be going down imminently for an unscheduled 4 hour maintenance window. [EU] We'll be performing maintenance on all EU realms beginning at 7 am CEST & lasting approximately 4 hours: http://t.co/xMzRuJKE0h - World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) November 14, 2014 Though wholly undesirable by most players, an emergency maintenance period may turn out to be the best way to get realm stability issues under control.
Extensive PSN maintenance scheduled for November 17
Heads up, PlayStation owners: Sony plans to bring the PlayStation Network down on Monday, November 17 to "deploy a series of back-end improvements to the network." According to a notice on the PlayStation.blog, PSN will be unavailable for "approximately 6 hours" from 1PM to 7PM ET (that's 18:00GMT to 00:00GMT, Tuesday morning for our friends in Europe). The good news is that if you've logged into PSN at any time between November 13 and November 17, you'll still be able to play games online and use online apps like Netflix during this maintenance period. However, PlayStation Home, the PlayStation Store and your console's account management features will be unavailable. This is where we cross our fingers and pray to the gods of tech support that nothing goes catastrophically wrong with these backend updates, as they come mere hours before the debut of a number of high-profile PlayStation 3 and PS4 games including Far Cry 4 and the re-release of Grand Theft Auto 5. [Image: Sony]
Destiny going offline on Thursday to prep for updates
Bungie is temporarily pulling Destiny offline on Thursday to prepare the game for future updates. The first-person shooter will be inaccessible starting around 8:00 a.m PT (11:00 a.m. ET). Tomorrow's maintenance is scheduled to end by 12:00 p.m. PT (3:00 p.m. ET), at which point players can resume sparrow surfing. While the developer said that Destiny players won't see any changes to the game as a result of the planned outage, the back-end work will "pave the way for the progress" discussed in a recent update blog. Bungie plans on adding new exotic weapons and legendary gear as well as "that which waits in The Dark Below." The developer is also considering a "more generous Cryptarch" in the game, adding that "he'll still be sort of a bastard." [Image: Activision]
Final Fantasy XIV 24-hour patch downtime and cash shop controversy [Updated]
If you've got any lingering business in Final Fantasy XIV you want to get finished before patch 2.4 launches on Tuesday, you'd better get it taken care of on Sunday. Yes, Sunday. Because of the new wards being added, database maintenance will also be undertaken while the patch is being applied, and it comes down to a 24-hour maintenance downtime from 3:00 a.m. EDT on October 27th until 3:00 a.m. EDT on October 28th. The maintenance might take a bit longer to complete, but players will want to be finished up and logged off before it starts. [Edit: Square-Enix has announced that the maintenance will be extended by one hour until 4:00 a.m. EDT on October 28th.] Patch 2.4 also introduces to the game the cash shop, which has already provoked extensive player discussion, including requests to keep past seasonal items out of the shop. Opinion on the matter is split, and there has been no official word yet from Square-Enix, although it is possible that there will be more concerns addressed during the London Fanfest this weekend.
PSN going offline for maintenance October 13
Do you have next Monday, October 13 off work? Are you planning ahead to call in sick for school that day? Do you have that date circled on your calendar with the note "gaming marathon" written on it? If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, be aware that Sony has PlayStation Network maintenance scheduled for that day. The routine maintenance is planned to begin at 1:00 p.m. EST (10:00 a.m. PST) and will last until 8:00 p.m. EST (5:00 p.m. PST). PlayStation's support team noted that those that log in to PSN at any point from yesterday on will retain online play and app access during the maintenance period. However, the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home and account management services will not be available during that time. [Image: Sony]
Postponed PSN maintenance rescheduled for today
The past few days saw the PlayStation Network undergo more downtime than a bear in winter, so Sony postponed Monday's regular maintenance 'til later in the week. That later is today, and between 12:40PM and 7:50PM ET (9:40AM and 4:50PM PT) PlayStation users won't be able to access the Store, Home or Account Management. As long as you've signed in at any point since August 23, you'll still be able to play games online and use apps like Netflix, Hulu Plus and so on. It's always frustrating when you can't access stuff, but in the words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." In other words, perhaps use the downtimes to dine at a fancy restaurant, take the stage at a parade, and find epiphanies in the destruction of your father's rare Ferrari. Just to be clear, we're not telling you to ruin your dad's Ferrari. Or any car. Look, this Ferris Bueller reference has gotten away from us, and we'd like to bail out right now. [Image: Paramount Pictures]
Time Warner Cable says routine maintenance caused national outage
Large chunks of the US will have woken up this morning in a panic. No, not a natural disaster, their Time Warner Cable internet was down. A mother-of-all-outages saw TWC's Internet service down from New York to, well, pretty much everywhere (see map below). What's more curious, is that a statement from the company claims it was due to planned maintenance that went awry. Still, for at least an hour and a half, Netflix's main beef with the company won't have been about neutrality.
PSN resumes normal service, maintenance rescheduled
Following yesterday's distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, Sony said this morning both the PlayStation Network and the Sony Entertainment Network are back online. Users can now resume game downloads, play games online, buy stuff off the PlayStation Store, use apps and all the other PSN services as normal. Furthermore, the PSN maintenance that was due to take place today is to be rescheduled. The company will announce the new date and time for the maintenance "shortly."
PSA: Nintendo eShop undergoing maintenance today
Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS eShop services are intermittently down this evening until 5:00 p.m. Pacific (8:00 p.m. Eastern), the company noted in an update on its network status and maintenance site. Additionally, the Wii Shopping Channel and Nintendo DSi Shop will be down at that time. Today's maintenance on Nintendo platforms affects all services on Wii U and 3DS for a five minute period at 2:30 p.m. Pacific (5:30 p.m. Eastern). Likely, that brief interruption is over by the time you, dear friends, are reading this. So while it'll be a little longer before you can browse the eShop, you may resume your online Mario Kart 8 races. [Image: Nintendo]
