eBay server falls over again

Anyone with a troublesome server (and that hardly narrows the filed) will have some sympathy with online auctioneer eBay, which has had more server trouble recently than most. In fact, over the last four weeks or so, eBay's servers have developed the unfortunate habit of turning themselves into three-legged donkeys. The latest incident came at the weekend – it being a bust period and all. According to eBay, its database server opted for an early bath leaving punters stymied as they attempted to access the service. Said users found themselves greeted with the following message: “"Our engineering staff continues to investigate to determine the source of the problem. We'll provide an update as soon as possible." This, the latest in a long line of crashes at the auction site, has prompted some wags to suggest it would be quicker and easier to put out messages informing people of the occasions when the site was fully functional. IT news satirist, Bob Hirschfield, posted an item on his site suggesting that eBay was about to auction off its wobbly server. ®