Why are Schedules Outages Scheduled for Wednesday Mornings?

I was just wondering why the traditional biweekly outages are scheduled for Wednesday mornings Pacific time, 7am - 12 noonLT/PT? It's not prime time but it's by no means the least busy time of the week, since there a lot of folks who log on during the morning and afternoon their time in North American and Europe. How come they don't do a few hours earlier in the day, which is (even though it is prime time in Australia/New Zealand and Japan, and there are also some North American insominiacs and European slackers on the grid) the slowest time of day.

(My guess is that the update is a painful and labor-intensive process, and it is easier and more effective to do it at a time when the Lindens would normally be at work anyway.)

Glad you asked, Timothy. One reason is because having updates in the middle of the week gives us enough lead-in workday time to tie up loose ends leading up to release. Last-minute things can pop up. Consequently, Thursday and Friday are historically when we find out about hot bugs *after* a release, so there's enough work time to fix them and do an emergency patch if need be without waiting extra days. Having this balance helps our Lindens get rest on the weekend and come back to deal with issues as they emerge.

There's also more info on our Official Linden Blog, such as:

Releases: past, present, and future
http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/08/14/releases-past-present-and-future/