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MentalFloss

macrumors 65816
Mar 14, 2012
1,022
842
They should release it at midnight. That way, many Europeans will be done with the updates before the Americans wake up. Should relieve some of the server load.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
They should release it at midnight. That way, many Europeans will be done with the updates before the Americans wake up. Should relieve some of the server load.
The people who do the release are US-based (west coast of US in particular), so it makes sense for it to happen when they are actually up and working and have most of the day ahead of them available should any troubleshooting needs to happen for some reason.
 

sn

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2011
309
37
The people who do the release are US-based (west coast of US in particular), so it makes sense for it to happen when they are actually up and working and have most of the day ahead of them available should any troubleshooting needs to happen for some reason.

Can't they do a night shift?
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
For the following reason:
So then during the day many Europeans wouldn't be updating as it's night for them and they are asleep and thus wouldn't be affecting the server load anyway.
 

Paddle1

macrumors 603
May 1, 2013
5,151
3,604
For the following reason:
That wouldn't necessarily relieve load.
1. There are more places around the world involved than just Europe and the US.
2. People can stay up let late. Get up early. Wake up in the middle of the night.
 

sn

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2011
309
37
So then during the day many Europeans wouldn't be updating as it's night for them and they are asleep and thus wouldn't be affecting the server load anyway.

Well yes, it's technically 'night' in the UK after 10am PST but it's not really very late. In fact, right up until 4pm PST, it's still before midnight in the UK so many are still awake. Whereas, if it was released at 1am PST (for example), Europe would receive it between 9am and noon (depending on part of Europe), and the majority would have updated before most people in the US are awake.

I think that makes sense, I guess it's complicated and hard to predict what the optimum time would be - especially if you throw the China into the mix (which would be an important factor).
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
Well yes, it's technically 'night' in the UK after 10am PST but it's not really very late. In fact, right up until 4pm PST, it's still before midnight in the UK so many are still awake. Whereas, if it was released at 1am PST (for example), Europe would receive it between 9am and noon (depending on part of Europe), and the majority would have updated before most people in the US are awake.

I think that makes sense, I guess it's complicated and hard to predict what the optimum time would be - especially if you throw the China into the mix (which would be an important factor).
The part about having more employees available for longer periods of time (during a normal working day) seem to outweigh all those items.
 

sn

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2011
309
37
1. There are more places around the world involved than just Europe and the US.

Yes, fair point, I think China should be accounted for too given the size of its iOS population

2. People can stay up let late. Get up early. Wake up in the middle of the night.

Well yeah, obviously there's no time of day where literally everyone in a given country is asleep. We're talking about majorities here.
 

sn

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2011
309
37
The part about having more employees available for longer periods of time (during a normal working day) seem to outweigh all those items.

Is it longer periods? I'd have thought it would just been different periods? Surely it takes the same amount of time to push the update live whatever time of day it is and you'd just be moving their shift to a different time of day?
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
Is it longer periods? I'd have thought it would just been different periods? Surely it takes the same amount of time to push the update live whatever time of day it is and you'd just be moving their shift to a different time of day?
During a normal working day people are typically available from morning through evening and can stay later if needed. There really isn't a typical night shift for most tech companies (there is perhaps in the sense of some ops and some support people, but that's a small subgroup of employees), so doing something that requires attention is usually best when more people are available for potentially longer periods of time (starting it in the morning with the rest of the day open to troubleshoot something if needed). Similar type of reasoning applies to doing things of that nature around the middle of the week and not before a weekend or a holiday or something like that.
 
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