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Updated 5.55pm
NATIONAL LOTTERY COMPUTER terminals were hit by another technical glitch this afternoon following an issue with a firewall.
It’s the second time this month the terminals operated by retailers have experienced downtime.
A draw due to go ahead on 4 February was suspended until the following day after a service outage related to the machine’s 3G telecommunications system.
In a notice online, the National Lottery confirmed that there had been issues with a portion of the system since 2pm this afternoon.
The issue was resolved at around 4pm.
This was due to a firewall server malfunction which was quickly detected and resolved.
“The National Lottery’s full retail agent network is now operating as normal and players throughout the country can play for tonight’s €70 million EuroMillions draw, and all other games.”
The next draw is due to take place tomorrow night, with an estimated jackpot of €5 million.
The previous fault, the first to affect the network in decades, was “related to the 3G telecommunications infrastructure provided by Telefónica”.
It was ‘entirely out of the National Lottery’s control’, a spokesperson said.
The draw was pushed back by one night (and someone took home €10 million).
Originally published 3.55pm
Zuckerburg was conned. I got Instagram for nothing last week.
Nice
Facebook won’t stop until they own the rights to every cat, kid and boring holiday photo.
I feel like yer man on the bus, stating his lack of knowledge of the workings of tracker mortgages…
It’s a shame that instagram has been sold to Facebook.
However, Kevin systrom et al have to be highly commended for creating an excellent app that grew so quickly and made them so much money in such a short space of time. I don’t blame them at all for selling. I just hope Facebook don’t ruin it’s simplicity.
Giving up 1% of your market cap to take out biggest threat is a savvy move. Facebook showing just why they are one of the smartest companies in existence.
Alice. Glad to see you got that help and are now talking sense
Instagram was good while it lasted … Facebook getting more like Microsoft these days buying growing ideas out …. Pity.
Facebook users will not like this.
This will change it for the worse,they will want geo-tagging on photos..
It seems the software industry is built on the same self perpetuating cycle of bullshit as the financial industry.
When Google bought YouTube for $1.6 billion they weren’t paying with cash. Google paid for YT with Google stock which skyrocketed right after, increasing the value of Google. Most people don’t know this purchase was Sequoia Capital, sole investor in YouTube and its partner Michael Moritz who was a board member at Google moving a stack of shares from one pocket to another to increase its value. They were paying, in large part, themselves, to make a groundbreaking impression on the market with the size of the transaction (and it worked, Google stock went up).
Now, I doubt Facebook is buying Instagram with money—they most likely don’t even have a billion dollars to spend. Facebook will buy them with FB shares at a valuation of FB pulled somewhere out of thin air market bubbles are made of.
It is all supposed to make a noise on the market and give Facebook’s IPO a healthy boost. People will jump on FB shares on IPO and investors will exit quickly before they plummet, just like Groupon investors did.
Hi Raf,
Just to clarify – Facebook have used a combination of cash and shares to obtain Instagram. The mix hasn’t been announced yet.
Sinead
I heard today it was 95% shares, 5% cash.
Instagram is alarmingly average as an app. Gets old after about an hour, facebook is well past its best before date but sure, the kids will love it.
“Instagram is capital-efficient with less than 15 employees but over 30 million users.”
I am astounded.
The positives are Instgram’s founders are laughing their way to the bank and an acquisition like this will give developers and designers the impetus to get their ideas out there so they can be the next big thing.
have your say