Sorry for the nonpolitical post, folks, but an area ISP that I (and thousands of others) use, Speedfactory (link is dead), has apparently ceased operations with no warning. I'm taking the liberty of posting this info here, because with the exception of this web forum thread there seems to be no information available at all. All that's known from anecdotal reports is that everything has been down for two days, customer service calls are answered by an "all circuits busy" recording, and Speedfactory's offices in the area are locked up with no sign of activity. It's conceivable that this will have an effect on some area web sites, so don't be shocked if you notice some isolated outages for a couple of days while customers transfer their DSL and web hosting services.

It's probably only a matter of time before the AJC, Clark Howard, and/or other media types bring you more in-depth reporting on this unfolding debacle, but in the meantime, you heard it here first. (This post brought to you by Verizon mobile broadband while my DSL modem sits uselessly idle.)