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55 Ways: You Can Write a Chapter Using a Wiki  (View post)

Michael McLeod [PersonRank 0]

Wednesday, November 23, 2005
18 years ago

Hey man, I don't mind you pimping your book through endless repetition – it's what every good PR person would do – but it just seems a bit over the top to ask for so much help writing it time and time again. Write the book, sell it, and we'll buy it, but at present, it's just a little bit much.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

The problem is I cannot see Google Maps, Google Local, or the Google Maps API. But I want to have a chapter on Google Maps in the book. I didn't intend to "pimp my book." Already, Justin Pfister had to write much of my existing chapter on Google Maps (digging a hole through earth) because none of these applications load for me here in Germany.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Just so you can see what the problem is – in any browser! – here are screenshots of how Google Maps appears to me in Germany. This is not a temporary thing (e.g. Google.com is down again for me right now), this has been like that for weeks or months:

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-maps-broken-1.jpg
http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-maps-broken-2.jpg

Andreas [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Are you sure that's Google's fault? I'm in Germany, too, and right now Google Maps works as expected – but then, maybe it didn't work 45 minutes ago.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

I don't know if it's Google's fault... if it came across like I think it's Google's faul, all I can say is: I don't have a clue what causes that other than it's a constant issue, other sites load fine, and clearing the cache or switching browsers won't work.

Andreas [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

From you screenshots it looks like only some files are not accessible – which is strange since they are on the same server, e.g. http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/mapfiles/zoom-plus.png
http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/mapfiles/center.png

Can you access these files directly? What happens if you do? Do you get the same URLs for your navigation buttons?

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Very strange. I just clicked on your two files, and they loaded 100% fine. Now I went back to check local.google.com – and only the two files you linked here are showing, but nothing else!
http://blogoscoped.com/files/strange-google-maps.jpg
(screenshot after approximately 30 seconds of letting the app load)

The problems started on around the end of the first day after Google Maps released their Maps API (this might be a coincidence of course).

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

That was Firefox, by the way, I just tried local.google.com in Internet Explorer, which then completely crashed. Oh well.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Not sure why it would crash Internet Explorer, but my mate had some problems with Google Maps in Firefox and found the solution was to set the network.http.max-connections setting in Firefox – accessible via the about:config page – to something like 8, which prevents Firefox making too many connections to the server at once.

Have you tried doing anything like that?

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Hmm. I tried that, but now Google Local won't show any image anymore, not even the logo. Other sites work fine with these settings.

max-connection: set from 24 to 250
max-connection-per-server: from 8 to 250

Strange.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Hmmm. Strange indeed.

When Google Local loads on my machine, I can see it fetching images from these subdomains:

mt0.google.com
mt1.google.com
mt2.google.com
mt3.google.com

Can you ping all those? (They all seem to resolve to mt.l.google.com when I ping them.)

Andreas [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Does it make a difference whether you're using maps.google.com or local.google.com?

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Nope... also, the exact same problems are for any site using the Google Maps API.

Andreas [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

Did you try to find out if the cause of the error isn't completely out of your control? That is, did you try to connect a second computer/notebook to your network and test Google Maps? Are you using a router? If yes you might try to connect directly to the internet. Maybe some DNS cache is at fault. If none of the things I mentioned helps it's probably Google's or your provider's fault.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Tony, when I ping those I get the same results as you...

If it's only my PC, I could try at an internet cafe.

It's no big deal, thanks guys. The Wiki idea wasn't my last resort, I just thought it could be fun (it was definitely not intended as time-saver either, 'cause setting it up & monitoring it takes more time than other approaches, e.g. writing another chapter, or going to the internet cafe).

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

Ah, problem solved, thanks to a comment in another thread. I'll post something on this.

Joel Headley [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

what thread?

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