Do you speak computer? Does Berlitz have a course? Who writes this stuff?
PINGING: "In blogging, ping is an XML-RPC-based push mechanism by which a weblog notifies a server that its content has been updated.[1] An XML-RPC signal is sent to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material. Many blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post or updates an old one."
Got that? Me neither.
Why would I need to know what pinging is? Doesn't have anything to do with Ponging.
Apparently, it is to get the "subscriber feeds" to be sent on the day they are supposed to be sent. What a concept.
I can figure this out, I thought. So in a moment of self sufficiency I went to the "Feedburner" (catchy name) for help. Google, not incidentally, is the parent of this activity.
Here's what I found.
"Need help with FeedBurner and our Help Center doesn't have the answers? Post your question(s) in this Group.
Okay a help center. Read on.
Our previous home for discussions, FeedBurner Forums, IS NOW CLOSED to new posts but nearly all of its content history, from late 2004 onward, has been imported into this Group and is searchable here. (The old Forums site will remain up and running for some time to come for reference/web search results.)"
CLOSED FOR HELP? Since 2004? But, you can find the answers from previously posted questions. Did the stock hit its all time high in 2004? Would explain then, I suppose, closing shop in the feedburner help world.
So, then. If you are reading this and can absolutely, positively, translate, interpret and fix my email problem, lemme know.
If you, like me, shrug your shoulders, graciously accept that when the emailed blog shows up, it shows up, that works to.
Parli italiano?
3 Responses
Hey Liz,
How are you? This is Ya-Han! I forgot to update you that I got accepted into Parson’s design and technology program, so I am still in the city!
Are you having trouble receiving your email feeds? I was tracing back in my email index, and I think I have been receiving one email for each of your posts. They usually show up around 3-5am the next day after your post. That means, I do not really have an answer to your email problem…but I am curious! Let me know!!!
Pinging has an old and honorable history – used by submariners in WWI & II to clandestinely locate their adversaries…
and by Native American Smoke-Signalers – who threw their bodies into the fire, for a brief moment, to signal ‘paragraphs.
Ok, not really enough to go on about email, but let me take a shot. Every time you post something new on your site, in order for subscribers to know about it, someone has to be told to send them all an email.
It appears that the company you are using to host your blog has broken up responsibilities among more than one computer [RE: server]. The un-mentioned server is the one responsible for the important task of displaying your blog to anyone who comes to your site. It may also be the one that allows you to edit your site and post new content. In fact, it is probably a bunch of servers.
Since you have now posted something new, anyone who is interested (thats me!) now has to be told. But how can they be told. One way is by email. It appears your company does not want the computers responsible for displaying and editing your blog to be the ones emailing (a quite reasonable decision, BTW). So, the computers [RE: servers] that email need to know that you have changed the content of your blog. The way that they apparently find out is a so-called “PING”. So, if your readers are not getting an email, maybe some type of setting on your blog is wrong and either the wrong message is being sent to the email server, or maybe it is being sent to the wrong server entirely.
To continue, from the language you provided, they are not actually speaking about email. The “xml-rpc based push mechanism” indicates something different. “Pull Mechanisms” is anytime you want something you go and get it. If I go to a website to get content, I have ‘pulled’ it down. However, if I am just sitting here minding my own business and I am told that something changes, that is ‘Push’. Some other server has told my computer that something I am interested in changed. Apparently, from the info you provided, there are mechanisms other than email to be notified that you have changed your blog. I assume that if a someone subscribed using one of these mechanisms, then when you change your content and your hosting server PINGS the notificaton server, the notification server then sends out emails AND pushes notifications out to any subscribers wishing push notification.
OK, all of that said, they are using the word PING wrong. As one of your commenters correctly assessed, the term comes from submarine sonar, when a literal PING sound was sent from a speaker out into the ocean. However, what made it useful, was if something was around the sub, say another sub, it bounced back. The echo told the sailors where the other subs were. So, when the geeks stole the term as a metaphor, it was for doing the same thing. Not to push notifications to another server, but to know if the other server was even alive and there, like another sub.
On most computers there is a way to PING other computers, so you can tell if your network is working and information can reach other computers. Are you on a Mac? Inside your Utilities folder, which is inside your Applications folder, there is a program called Network Utility. Run it? See the tabs across the top? Voila, there is a PING. In fact, if you see the icon for the Network Utility application, you notice the icon is a picture of a submarine sonar scope – what a surprise. In fact, if, in the field where it says “Enter the network address to ping” you enter “www.amusingboomer.com” and then hit the PING button, you will see a bunch of rows scroll across the text area below. Something like this:
PING amusingboomer.typepad.com (204.9.177.195): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 204.9.177.195: icmp_seq=0 ttl=238 time=85.130 ms
64 bytes from 204.9.177.195: icmp_seq=1 ttl=238 time=81.645 ms
You have just PING’d the server that hosts your blog, and it has returned to you telling you:
The server’s IP address (how computers find each other on the internet): 204.9.177.195
How long it took to send and receive the message: ~83 milli-seconds.
Isn’t it a big, brave, wonderful, interesting and overly complicated and detailed world?