Today’s Seattle Times has an article about Ookla, a local Web applications developer headed by Speakeasy founder Mike Apgar.
The name, as you might have guessed, comes from the 1980s Hanna-Barbera cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian. Ookla the Mok – so called because he was discovered as a baby in a crate marked “UCLA” – accompanied mighty-thewed Thundarr and Princess Ariel on their adventures through the post-apocalyptic world that most of us were pretty much expecting to arrive at any time back then. Apgar thought the name was unique and memorable, and a Speakeasy developer happened to own the domain.
Ookla offers what it bills as dependable file hosting with fast downloads at its Filecloud site, and Internet connection testing software called Speed Test.
I don’t know about you, but the copyright wars have created an evil Pavlovian response in me: when I read “file hosting”, I think “piracy”. Filecloud cheerfully acknowledges this by marking its server locations in the United States and England with little skulls and crossbones. The diagram explains that these are mirror sites “guarded by pirates” so that “your files are very safe!”
The site’s user agreement, of course, forbids uploading copyright-infringing content.
I haven’t looked that closely at Speed Test yet, but the demo is fun to play with.
Tags: Ookla, file sharing, Filecloud, Thundarr the Barbarian, pirates
Wade Rockett 
Nice. Software called Ookla. What is next, “Orbots”? Ha.
BTW, I wrote up an interesting take on the Thundarr series (with pics) if you want to check it out:
http://fortresstakes.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/thundarr-the-barbarian-1980-1982-2-seasons-21-episodes/