Internet connectivity issue for some users

Some people may not be able to get through to BillMonk.com right now. The problem is upstream of our service provider. They report that a major bundle of Internet fibers connecting Los Angeles and Washington state was accidentally cut at around 10am. While normally the Internet architecture can work around downed links, a cut of this magnitude means that some people’s routes will just not work until a fix is in place. This problem is affecting many Internet companies; an army of engineers is working on it. We’ll keep you posted.

[Update 12:48pm] The issue appears to be resolved. Whew!

Geeking with the Monk

We’re delighted to announce billmonk.com/geek, a place where we will post projects that we’ve open sourced, discussions on technical topics, and APIs to interact with BillMonk. Our first release is a Ruby library for accessing Facebook’s APIs, and we have several more projects on the way. BillMonk is built entirely on open source software, and we’re happy to finally be giving something back to the community.

Boing!

BillMonk is on BoingBoing today! For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, BoingBoing describes itself as “a directory of wonderful things”, and is one of the most frequented sites on the internet. Many thanks to H1kar1, an avid user, for the post.

Extreme money-math: “even plus/minus amount”

Working tirelessly alongside a team of top Caltech scientists, we have cracked the split-bill problem. You can now specify your participation as “even plus/minus amount.”

As any experienced restauranteer can attest, it sounds so simple to say “Jill will cover for Joe, Bob will pay $10 more because he got the lobster, and Joey owes $3.50,” but calculating this frightening mess of shifting averages and combined totals is not just a nightmare, but is also demonstrably impossible. Or so said conventional wisdom.

Our new money-math engine makes this sort of problem a thing of the past. Tell us how you think shared bill ought to be split:

• Even
• Evenly, but paying for multiple people
• Even plus/minus amount (new!)
• Fixed

…and we’ll do the work for you.

(Can you identify the obvious falsehood in the above image?)

Facebook Integration and Profiles

Just in time for back-to-school, we have added user profiles and Facebook integration (using their recently released APIs).

• Create a profile including a picture, a bit about you, your websites (e.g. MySpace page), and your birthday
• Add your Facebook friends
• Merge your Facebook photo and details into your BillMonk profile
• Sign in to BillMonk using your Facebook id

We also tidied up “Your Account” to make it easier than ever to control your contacts and settings.

Meanwhile, we’ve been chugging away at some backend features which you don’t see at all, but which enable a lot of other exciting new features and make things run better.

So sharpen those pencils, get ready for school, and try out the BillMonk-Facebook integration!