What time is the Grid Going Down?

I am fed up with being told again and again and again that the Grid will go down at XXXX PDT. A lot of us live in Europe and unless we are connected to SL trying to work out just when the grid is down is a pain in the b##t.

Will someone please give us GMT next time as well. Sometimes we get it sometimes we don't, usually not! I think all or most in Erope can figure things out from there. What is the time difference between PDT and the rest of the world 'cos I haven't got a clue.


Yours with calculator in hand searching the web for timezones ....


Andrew

look up at the top, right-hand corner of your SL client screen.
Way up at the top.
See that clock?

That thing isn't adjustable.. Remember how annoying that was when you first saw it? not being able to change the time to your local time zone? there's a reason that clock is on PST... so they can say "PST" and you know what time it happens to be.

here's a handy reference for those of you who aren't in-world at the moment: http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=224

that's what time it is at Linden Labs. They've told you what time (on that clock) the grid is going down. (7am).

it's 5:10am their time right now. Their staff guys will be flipping the switch in 1 hour and 50 minutes. The grid will be down, for about 2 hours.. assuming all goes well.

that'd be Wednesday, February 21, 2007... from 15:00:00 to 17:00:00 Zulu.

It depends where you are in the world

But they are 8 hours behind GMT, so if the grid goies down 7-9am PDT that is 3-5pm in the UK.

PDT = Pacific Day Time = 8 hours behind UK GMT. For the rest of Europe, increase the time lag by regional differences.


Edited to add, the above two posts were not there when I submitted this post.....I blame it on lag.

I appreciate the time is in the corner of the Client Screen. So why do they sometimes tell us GMT and sometimes not? I don't think I am asking much.


Andrew

because "SOMETIMES" they give Zulu time, as a courtesy to those in other countries. Many times.. they forget. It's easy to forget something you don't think about every day. Do you routinely add the time for "Central Standard Time" in your posts to various forums? no of course not.. unless you're talking to someone in that timezone, and want to specify a time.

Courtesies aren't requirements. That's something people have forgotten in this day and age. SOmetimes it's important to get the message out fast, and some people are better at remembering the issue than others. The lindens are only human (contrary to popular beleif).

There are at least 24 timezones on this planet. Given that SL now seems to have users in at least 12 of them.. the "Courtesy" of providing the time in their native timezones, with all their shifting daylight savings time adjustments and whatnot.. becomes a chore and a half. Linden Labs was nice enough to provide you with an "always on" reminder of what time it is at their offices. (useful when you're getting upset about the lack of technical support.. at 3:30am on a sunday.)

Which would you rather have? a notice that didn't include GMT? or a notie that included it, but was wrong, because the person posting it forgot that Pacific time is GMT-7 half the year, and GMT-8 the other half?

Remember, the people MAKING those announcements don't live anywhere near Europe or the UK.. and just like it's a pain in the *$$ for you to convert it.. it's a pain in the *$$ for them to do it too. Worse, this last year, the US government adopted a change in the Daylight Savings times... so half the converters on the net may be in error.

Neither. I'd want one that always includes the correct GMT by automatically generating it. Better yet, one that let me set my own local time, and converted it to that.

Blog software that's limited to blogs can't do this, but content management systems that support both events and blogs can.

I think you should just add 8 or whatever you need to.

Well I wouldn't hold your breath for that.

As proof the Lindens are human.. I present the following:

It seems that Jeska failed to notice that we are infact observing "Pacific Standard Time" (PST) at this time of year, and not "Pacific Daylight Time" (PDT).

One thing at issue then is what times should be given ie which timezone. I suggest Second Life timsezone. We can all see what that is because it is on screen. Something that confused me was the mention of PDT which doesn't mean a lot to some. SL time (PST) is at least better as a time we can all use. Perhaps a clock on the home page giving Second Life Time (PST) would be a good idea? That works for Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers who work with ZULU or GMT so if it is not practicle then Second Life Time is the best I think we will get and is the only common time we share. So forget the time in Linden Labs unless of course SL also has daylight saving time


Andrew

Well SL will have daylight savings because it's PT that SL follows. I think daylight savings begins on March 15? Could be wrong but it's definitely earlier this year. Either way, Arizona will invariably mess with my mind again...they have their own timezone since they do not observe daylight savings!

This year Daylight saving time starts March 11 at 2:00am standard time. So, the morning of March 11th, don't have any events between 2am and 3am because that time doesn't exist!

The grid is closed... right now. 10am for those in EST.

How to convert from SLT to your local time zone in 5 easy steps.

Requirements:
* a clock
* a post-it
* a pencil
* primary school math skills (or a calculator )

Steps:
1) look at the clock, set to your own time (and convert to 24h if it's not)
2) look at the top of the screen, set to SL time (and convert to 24h)
3) subtract 2 from 1
4) write the resulting number down on the post-it, using the pencil
5) stick it to your screen

On a serious note, anyone older than a day should know how to convert from SL time to their own time zone, as soon as you know how many hours difference there are, you are set (excluding possible changes with daylight savings time).

Is it just me or did anyone else notice that the scheduled downtime is only 2 hours?

Has LL become more efficient at breaking the grid? or
Have they realized that they don't really need 5 hours to break the grid when 2 will work just fine followed by the inevitable 12 hours of downtime as the repair the latest batch of bugs they are about to release?

normally they need 1 hour to break things, and another hour to fix it. a 2 hour downtime is a good thing in this case. THe problem comes with their 5 hour downtimes. They have enough time to break things 3 times, but only enough time to fix it twice. Which is why those 5 hour updates so often run into 6, 7, or 8 hours.

And yes.. that was sarcasm.

The reason given in the blog is, this is just a "maintenance" period. There do not appear to be any publicized "major changes" to grid architecture.. and as has been spelled out in the posts, there is not going to be a new viewer associated with this downtime. Basically it's enough time to shut the whole thing down, make a few fixes they couldn't do while the grid was up, and then fire it all back up.

Without a massive deploy of server-side updates, they don't need as much time to deploy the thousands of updated versions of the software to each sim, and watch for problems. If the issues their working on, are on the centralized servers.. they may not need all of the ususal time slot. SInce there's also no new viewer.. perhaps this "maintenance period" will come and go smoothly.

But I'm still wondering when we get "Offer Teleport" back.

We shouldnt create problems out of nonsense when we have enough issues already???

PLEASE!!! use your brain, simple addition or substraction will give you your local time if you have a reference right in your screen.

SL Time is on the top of the client, YOUR local time is on the bottom of your screen (same side, the right one) you dont even need a post it..... or do you???

i have 1.13.3.2 loaded............

wow if you can post in fourms you, can read linden blog too lol it told us there also...
sl going down effects every one not just you, ive been here 11months an its a known fact if on wednesdays find something else to do.. like post to some one in here lmao

See? told ya! they figured out that with a 2 hour window, they accidentally fixed everything, so they needed another hour to break it all again!

I think part of the problem is that Jeska is still observing a personal "Pacific Daylight Time" unlike the rest of the Pacific Timezone.

Thank you for the post. Would also be nice if they just came out and admitted that the Beta Grid is f***d. No one can logon, from what I'm reading.

On edit: Didn't read carefully. My bad lol