This event reminds me of an old definition for "distributed system": "A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know exist

This event reminds me of an old definition for "distributed system": "A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable." (source: http://research.microsoft.com/en-US/um/people/Lamport/pubs/distributed-system.txt http://research.microsoft.com/en-US/um/people/Lamport/pubs/d...) In this case, the failure of a system most people didn't even know existed (Belkin's heartbeat server) rendered their router unusable.