The XM outage and a note about Community Server 2.1
XM radio has been experiencing problems nation-wide since about noon today. Mine was fine on the drive to work this morning, but on the commute home this evening, I experienced the same spotty reception reported here and here. This report says it's due to a software upgrade. Normally, I experience no dead spots between home and work, but the signal kept dropping out on me every minute or two. Sometimes the signal would drop long enough for the radio to start searching for satellites all over again.
It was frustrating, but it wasn't frustrating enough to make me switch back to FM. Perish the thought.
Also, I discovered an interesting little bug in Community Server 2.1 today. My user account was the first one created when I installed the app; today, I edited my username from "RussMcBee" to "Russ McBee."
That one little space was enough to crash the entire site. I couldn't even log in anonymously. I had to hack into the database and change my username back.
I don't think this applies to regular users; I believe it only applies to the main administrative account.
I should probably upgrade to CS 2007.
[Update 5-22-2007 8:00 AM]: I received this email from XM overnight:
Service Degradation Alert
You may be experiencing temporary degraded performance with your XM reception at the present time. XM is aware of the issue and working diligently to resolve it as soon as possible. We anticipate full signal strength will be restored by early Tuesday morning.
On the drive to work this morning, the signal dropped out occasionally; it was nowhere near as bad as yesterday afternoon, but I ordinarily experience no drops on the way to work. It seemed to drop as I passed near hills and under bridges.
[Update 5-22-2007 2:06 PM]: Today's follow-up email is here.