title: Why is npm giving 500 and 503 errors: "registry error parsing json"?
body: <p>Trying to do <code>npm install steroids -g</code> and running into lots of errors of two types:</p>
  
  <p><strong>First: 500</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  npm http 500 https://registry.npmjs.org/cardinal
  npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  npm http 500 https://registry.npmjs.org/glob
  npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  npm http 500 https://registry.npmjs.org/chmodr
  npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  npm http 500 https://registry.npmjs.org/fstream
  npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>when I visit those urls in the browser I get the following message:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Internal routing error</p>
    
    <p>Sorry, we cannot connect to the intended server.</p>
    
    <p>We have just been notified of this problem. We will correct it as soon
    as possible.</p>
    
    <p>Feel free to contact us if you have any questions:
    support@iriscouch.com</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p><strong>Second: 503</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>npm http 503 https://registry.npmjs.org/forever-agent
  npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  npm http 503 https://registry.npmjs.org/cheerio
  npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  npm http 503 https://registry.npmjs.org/request
  npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  npm http 503 https://registry.npmjs.org/diff
  npm ERR! registry error parsing json
  npm http 503 https://registry.npmjs.org/tar
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I visit those urls in the browser I get this message:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Error 503 backend read error</p>
    
    <p>backend read error</p>
    
    <p>Guru Meditation:</p>
    
    <p>XID: 1448084160</p>
    
    <p>Varnish cache server</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Does this mean the npm registry is down? or do I have strange behavior on my machine?</p>
  
  <p>Running node v.0.10.24 &amp; npm v.1.3.21</p>