Early this morning, a crash in a Cloudflare software system resulted in widespread outages across the Internet, with similar consequences to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage last month. Columbia students have been personally affected by the outage, which disrupted Vergil, sending the Class of 2027 into registration purgatory. More importantly, the popular dining hall database LionDine is no longer accessible due to the outage, which runs the risk of starving the entire campus community.
“Sure, I’m bummed that I won’t be able to lock down my courses for the spring,” said Brandon Munch, CC ‘27, “but I’m even more worried that I won’t be able to plan my next meal using a coded consolidation of all of the dining hall menus. How else am I supposed to know, in excruciating detail, what Hewitt is serving in each of its twenty stations?” When The Fed pointed out that the Columbia and Barnard Dining sites also display daily menus, Munch shuddered. “Why would I use those archaic websites when LionDine shows me everything at once? That’s the problem with you people… you’re always trying to resist technological progress.” Munch then walked away, reloading LionDine and grunting in frustration every time the webpage failed to display.
Other students hope that the outage gives LionDine’s owners the opportunity to improve the site once and for all. Lisa Lark, BC ‘28, told The Fed, “LionDine is heralded as some kind of digital miracle, but it’s way shittier than anyone wants to admit. Half the time, it says that Diana is closed when it isn’t. I know for a fact that Johnny’s Food Truck is open for dinner later in the week, but the LionDine won’t tell you that. LionDine has shirked its responsibility to provide up-to-date, accurate information, and it’s high time that someone does something. I’m looking at you, Spec. We all know you own it.”
