Blogshares is about the only game I play, because I can do it in 2-3 minute stretches while Web pages won't load or some process is chugging away in the background. But for the past week, I can't view my portfolio, which is pretty much necessary to buy and sell stocks. I'll get it on about one out of every fifty tries, and half of those don't include the checkboxes required to do anything.

Seyed has discussed downtime and fixing databases, but even when the main page says the site is up, I can't get any pages related to any Weblogs to show up. Some days this week I've had Blogshares on Safari on another machine, and kept trying the same page every 2-3 minutes for 5-6 hours, never loading it once.

I've enjoyed the game and paid the $15 to be a premium member, but the "artefacts" addition that lets the super-rich manipulate entire markets, combined with an inability to even see my own portfolio, is making me wonder if Blogshares has run its brief but fun course.

Update: I've had better success after installing Unsanity's SafariNoTimeOut haxie on one computer, which changes Safari's time-out value from 60 to 600 seconds. Most Blogshares pages now do show up - eventually - but some still don't, and some still are missing the checkboxes I need to take any action. But at least I can eventually buy and sell stocks, usually.

The Bush White House has "redesigned" the White House E-mail system. Now, instead of simply dashing off a message to president@whitehouse.gov, you have to go through a nine-step Web form and pick from confusing categories, completely identify yourself (including your "organization"), and reply to an auto-confirmation before your message is sent to nameless White House staffers. You must start this process by letting the system know if you are offering a "supporting comment" or a "differing opinion."

Could it be that the Bushies are tired of wading through thousands of "differing opinions" each day just to get a nice summary of "supporting comments" to reassure the President and his staff that they're Doing The Right Thing? And isn't this like the four billionth time they've made it harder for the public to comment and called it an "enhancement?"