Apple says developer portal downtime will not affect program memberships

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  • Reply 21 of 45

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by superjunaid View Post



    Does anyone have a link to the Command Line Tools for Xcode? I'm missing those image and can't download


    In Xcode preferences you can go to the download tab and have it download them if they aren't already installed. Its with the alternate simulator OS versions.

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  • Reply 22 of 45
    arlorarlor Posts: 533member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Uzair Malik View Post



    well hard time for developers.


    Man, that article's hard to read. What it does seem to say could probably be summarized in a sentence.

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  • Reply 23 of 45
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    List these seamless swaps, on the fly, by companies with the size and complexity of Apple who have spotless records. I'm waiting.

    Here is Apple's downtown relative to a year over year ratio:

    http://www.zdnet.com/blog/saas/0-1-downtime-is-more-than-8-hours-a-year/79

    Being down a day puts you at 99.7%+ uptime. [They calculate it based on an 8 hour work day, but we'll do a single full-day].

    Amazon and Google. You're welcome. And it is now 3 days, so about 99% uptime. Apple needs to be in the 99.99%
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  • Reply 24 of 45
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,481member
    rjc999 wrote: »
    It is pretty strange that a company investing billions in a data center and cloud services can't manage to update apps on the fly. Google has migrated petabytes of data and hundreds of millions of users onto radically different backends with people hardly noticing, for example, when they launched the new caffeine backend for search, or when they migrated many of their services from one off storage to bigtable/megastore and now to spanner.

    But you don't even need to be Google to do this stuff, as you say, even mid-sized IT departments know how to do high-availability migrations with no downtime.  I
    You should do some research before making claims. Google is very good at keeping it quiet and the media and their supporters don't trash them for their numerous failures. you have to do very specific searches because as the controller of search anything not good for them gets burried, but its there.
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  • Reply 25 of 45
    kdarlingkdarling Posts: 1,640member

    Quote:



    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    Here is Apple's downtown relative to a year over year ratio:



     


    Errm, the Apple Store has been down many times over the past year, so the downtime is higher.  Basically every time there's been a product update.  


     


    However, as others have commented, perhaps the Apple Store updates are done crudely on purpose, to build excitement for those who like to line up for things. It does have a bit of retro charm :)


     


    On the downside, it's also a way to lose customers.  Imagine if eBay or Amazon or MasterCard was brought down for hours each time something new was added.  A lot of potential buyers would just skip past to another source.


     


    In any event, I can't see any good reason to do the same for the Apple Developer's network.


     


    --


     


    Half of my career has been spent helping to design high availability / fast recovery systems for casinos and phone companies.


     


    Carriers and other utilities popularized the idea of the Five Nines  (99.999% availability, or less than five minutes downtime a year).  Nobody wants their phones or power taken down just for updates.  Casinos need 24/7 availability or they lose revenue... not to mention that losing customer credit information in today's digital gambling terminals due to a system failure, is simply not an option.


     


    Of course, such high availability is expensive.  It requires redundant installations, long term backup power, dedicated communication lines, geographic failover plans, and a staff available all the time.  In many cases, an exact duplicate of the production system is built in an off-site building, where software updates can be tested before installation into production.  Many paid testers are involved.  (It's also a bit like NASA.  If a failure occurs in production, you can try to simulate the problem and test fixes in the duplicate system.)


     


    --


     


    The upshot is, obviously it's possible to do updates with taking a store site down.   It all depends on how much the company cares about availability, or what their intention is.

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  • Reply 26 of 45
    shighshigh Posts: 27member
    johnnielse wrote: »
    My iPhone suddenly jumped out of the app I was using to the activation screen. From here it is impossible to reactivate it. It just says that the activation server is down. This is probably related.

    Using iOS 7 beta 3.

    I was unaware beta three was out
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  • Reply 27 of 45
    shighshigh Posts: 27member
    shigh wrote: »
    I was unaware beta three was out
    Nevermind. Drugs are bad. Mkay
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  • Reply 28 of 45
    rjc999rjc999 Posts: 69member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by genovelle View Post





    You should do some research before making claims. Google is very good at keeping it quiet and the media and their supporters don't trash them for their numerous failures. you have to do very specific searches because as the controller of search anything not good for them gets burried, but its there.


    Nice bullshit conspiracy theory, but I'm well aware of Google's downtimes, Google even has an AppStatus Dashboard (http://www.google.com/appsstatus) which Apple copied (http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/ notice the DevCenter is not listed) which shows the history of downtime. Google has never had a 3-day downtime on one of their major services, the worst they've ever had was a small slice of gmail users being unable to see their inboxes which had to be restored from tape backup. Google's system is high-replication multi-datacenter + tape backup, you could drop a nuke on one of their datacenters, and the only thing that would happen is things slow down.


     


    I mean, why is this a shock? Google is the world's foremost builder of data centers and cloud services, they've been doing it for over a decade, and they have the world's best tools for doing so reliably, and most of their competitors have now taken the research papers they've published on it and implemented similar architectures, with the exception of their revolutionary Spanner system which is too new yet for people to copy.


     


    Google's Borg system allows one to deploy an app over hundreds of thousands of server machines, to segment them by version, and even to serve up different versions to different users, different geo-ips, etc, so updating a site is trivial, in fact, Google pushes out updates continuously to their sites. They've also unfathomable amounts of data between radically different storage backends without taking the system down. Like I said, they migrated their entire web crawler index with no downtime.


     


    Simply put, Apple sucks at the cloud. There's no shame in that. They rule at making UX and industrial design, but like with Maps, there something of an egomania to think that they're going to beat someone who's been working on something for 10+ years just because they are good in another area. I see the same thing here with people being delusional about Apple building their own semiconductor fabs. These kinds of endeavors require steady accumulation of institutional knowledge which can't be quickly bought or learned in textbooks.


     


    Google isn't perfect, but Apple has a long way to go before they can match either Google or Amazon.

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  • Reply 29 of 45
    cyniccynic Posts: 124member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by KDarling View Post


     


    On the downside, it's also a way to lose customers.  Imagine if eBay or Amazon or MasterCard was brought down for hours each time something new was added.  A lot of potential buyers would just skip past to another source.


     


    [...]


     


    The upshot is, obviously it's possible to do updates with taking a store site down.   It all depends on how much the company cares about availability, or what their intention is.



     


     


    I believe it is safe to assume that this famous sticker telling people new products are about to hit the store is done on purpose. Not only does it get people excited, but it also lets the world's media go crazy and report about Apple potentially posting something new to their store. And that's completely free advertising.


     


    At the same time I don't believe your theory of losing customers applies to Apple, since unlike Amazon or eBay, Apple sells only a handful of products and all of their significant products (read: non accessories) are their own. Therefore this strategy makes sense, people get excited and they are looking for updated Macs.


     


    Now obviously this strategy wouldn't work for Amazon, considering their range of products and the fact that most products are actually sold by third parties through Amazon's system. If there was a downtime for every update, the site would never be available. Also, I doubt there is this much a cult, hype or anticipation or some third party online trader posting some new vacuum cleaner.

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  • Reply 30 of 45
    cyniccynic Posts: 124member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by rjc999 View Post


    Nice bullshit conspiracy theory, but I'm well aware of Google's downtimes, Google even has an AppStatus Dashboard (http://www.google.com/appsstatus) which Apple copied (http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/ notice the DevCenter is not listed) which shows the history of downtime. Google has never had a 3-day downtime on one of their major services, the worst they've ever had was a small slice of gmail users being unable to see their inboxes which had to be restored from tape backup. Google's system is high-replication multi-datacenter + tape backup, you could drop a nuke on one of their datacenters, and the only thing that would happen is things slow down.


     


    I mean, why is this a shock? Google is the world's foremost builder of data centers and cloud services, they've been doing it for over a decade, and they have the world's best tools for doing so reliably, and most of their competitors have now taken the research papers they've published on it and implemented similar architectures, with the exception of their revolutionary Spanner system which is too new yet for people to copy.


     


    Google's Borg system allows one to deploy an app over hundreds of thousands of server machines, to segment them by version, and even to serve up different versions to different users, different geo-ips, etc, so updating a site is trivial, in fact, Google pushes out updates continuously to their sites. They've also unfathomable amounts of data between radically different storage backends without taking the system down. Like I said, they migrated their entire web crawler index with no downtime.


     


    Simply put, Apple sucks at the cloud. There's no shame in that. They rule at making UX and industrial design, but like with Maps, there something of an egomania to think that they're going to beat someone who's been working on something for 10+ years just because they are good in another area. I see the same thing here with people being delusional about Apple building their own semiconductor fabs. These kinds of endeavors require steady accumulation of institutional knowledge which can't be quickly bought or learned in textbooks.


     


    Google isn't perfect, but Apple has a long way to go before they can match either Google or Amazon.



     


     


    Not sure I completely agree with all of your statements. Of course you're right in saying that Amazon and Google are pioneers and leaders when it comes to online services and associated infrastructure, which is also part of their enterprise product portfolio.


     


    However, I wouldn't generalise and say that Apple wouldn't be able to replicate this and come up with similar systems, which they might have to in the future anyway, considering their iCloud and iWork online push.


     


    Apple has entered markets where there were established competitors multiple times now. When Apple entered the phone market, there were established competitors and leaders for the past 30 years and yet Apple caught them with their pants down and blew them away.


     


    Therefore I wouldn't be so quick in saying they will never be as good as Google when it comes to online services or that they will never be able to produce their own chips, which they design already anyway. And while online services might not be Apple's major market, devices are. It is their bread and butter and they've been building them from the ground up, desiging manufacturing processes for a long time now. Building their own chips, without letting competitors such as Samsung see their designs is exactly what they need.


     


    As for Apple Maps, while it might lack Google Maps in some aspects, it also beats it at others. Considering that Apple just came out with their own mapping technology a year ago, I believe it is extremely good, compare this to what Google had when they came out with their maps.


     


    Obviously you can't overturn a market over night, without many years or preparation and development (such as the iPhone). But I think underestimating Apple, especially when they're committed to something is the biggest mistake one can make.

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  • Reply 31 of 45
    rjc999rjc999 Posts: 69member


    "However, I wouldn't generalise and say that Apple wouldn't be able to replicate this and come up with similar systems, which they might have to in the future anyway, considering their iCloud and iWork online push."


     


    I wouldn't say Apple can't catch Google or Amazon in cloud services, only that it will take time. I mean, Google Maps has 7,000 people working on it, with a custom car fleet and custom designed sensors they've been iterating on for a long time, plus a mature tool chain for handling map feedback and crowdsourcing (MapMaker). You can't acquire a few rinky-dink startups and cobble together third party data and expect it to be the same quality overnight.


     


    Google's been building data centers for 10 years, with custom hardware, down to the network switches and storage systems, they've got 13 of them now, Apple has just 3. Apple can catch up, but it will take time to gain the experience, unless they were to poach away all of Google's core infrastructure people.


     


     

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  • Reply 32 of 45
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    arlor wrote: »
    Man, that article's hard to read. What it does seem to say could probably be summarized in a sentence.

    It's a spambot. Just report and move on.
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  • Reply 33 of 45
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
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  • Reply 34 of 45
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    This just in on other web sites

    "Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.

    In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we’re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon."
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  • Reply 35 of 45
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    It's a spambot. Just report and move on.

    It was either someone in S. Korea, Seattle or Redmond I bet. ;)
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  • Reply 36 of 45
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    kdarling wrote: »
    Apple is astonishingly bad at updating internet applications.

    <span style="line-height:1.231;">Many other companies' IT departments are able to swap working versions on the fly, and to quickly fall back to the old version if necessary.</span>


    Apple, instead, has server down time... even for their store.

    As usual, sweetly anti Apple and negative.
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  • Reply 37 of 45
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    kdarling wrote: »
    Errm, the Apple Store has been down many times over the past year, so the downtime is higher.  Basically every time there's been a product update.  

    However, a<span style="line-height:1.231;">s others have commented, perhaps the Apple Store updates are done crudely on purpose, to build excitement for those who like to line up for things. It does have a bit of retro charm :)</span>


    On the downside, it's also a way to lose customers.  <span style="line-height:1.231;">Imagine if eBay or Amazon or MasterCard was brought down for hours each time something new was added.  A lot of potential buyers would just skip past to another source.</span>

     
    In any event, I can't see any good reason to do the same for the Apple Developer's network.

    --

    Half of my career has been spent helping to design high availability / fast recovery systems for casinos and phone companies.

    Carriers and other utilities popularized the idea of the Five Nines  (99.999% availability, or less than five minutes downtime a year).  Nobody wants their phones or power taken down just for updates.  Casinos need 24/7 availability or they lose revenue... not to mention that losing customer credit information in today's digital gambling terminals due to a system failure, is simply not an option.

    Of course, such high availability is expensive.  It requires redundant installations, long term backup power, dedicated communication lines, geographic failover plans, and a staff available all the time.  In many cases, an exact duplicate of the production system is built in an off-site building, where software updates can be tested before installation into production.  Many paid testers are involved.  (It's also a bit like NASA.  If a failure occurs in production, you can try to simulate the problem and test fixes in the duplicate system.)

    --

    The upshot is, obviously it's possible to do updates with taking a store site down.   It all depends on how much the company cares about availability, or what their intention is.

    You really should offer your expertise to Apple instead of the constant, if subtle, attacks. I am sure they would leap at the chance to hire one so obviously more knowledgeable and brilliant than anyone they have on their team thus far.
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  • Reply 38 of 45
    twoslicktwoslick Posts: 17member

    I just got an email from Apple concerning this.  Looks like their developer website was hacked, and some developer personal info could have been taken.  Here is the content of the email:


     


    Quote:



    Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.


     


    In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we’re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.



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  • Reply 39 of 45
    ankleskaterankleskater Posts: 1,287member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post




    Quote:

    Originally Posted by KDarling View Post



    Apple is astonishingly bad at updating internet applications.



    Many other companies' IT departments are able to swap working versions on the fly, and to quickly fall back to the old version if necessary.





    Apple, instead, has server down time... even for their store.


     


    As usual, sweetly anti Apple and negative.


    But it's true, isn't it?

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  • Reply 40 of 45
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    You really should offer your expertise to Apple instead of the constant, if subtle, attacks. I am sure they would leap at the chance to hire one so obviously more knowledgeable and brilliant than anyone they have on their team thus far.

    God forbid anybody come here with expertise and pick on Apple. Heretic.
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