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Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event

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Re: Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event

#391
Lest anyone blame local networks or non-Apple hardware for the streaming problems:

I was on IRC with other iOS developers viewing the streaming using Safari on Apple hardware with fully updated software all around (I know these people), in different parts of the US, people working at different companies, using different, very fast, geographically diverse networks, and all of us were seeing the same catastrophic problems at the same times: a mix of simultaneous multiple audio streams sometimes in sync, sometimes slightly out of sync, stopping and starting video, truck schedules for 5-10 seconds every minute or so, English over Chinese, audio temporarily resetting to beginning of stream while another track of audio continued at the current position superimposed over the let's-start-over audio, access denied errors, pause/continue buttons not working, refresh not working.. this went on for at least 40 full minutes as the problems started before the broadcast and didn't stop until after 30 minutes. And no, we were NOT madly hitting Refresh or pause/restart all the time, although we did try invoking them a few times and calmly waiting, usually to little avail.

I want to emphasize that when I saw a TV truck schedule on my screen in San Francisco, at that very same moment my buddies in other parts of the country started seeing the TV truck schedule on their screens as well. If we can say one thing for this broadcast, it is that the screwups were very well synchronized for many if not all viewers.

The mind boggles as to why the didn't have someone dedicated to be listening to a dog food channel of their own stream on a remote network, and report the problems back earlier, and whether they did or not, why they couldn't fix it sooner.

Re: Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event

#392
post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you really think people should lose their jobs over this? What's wrong with you?

You really don't? And you're trying to take some form of moral high ground over it? The stream was a disaster and tarnishes the entire announcement, whose image is priceless to Apple. The jobs of the people responsible are in no way worth more to Apple than the damage done by said people.

I've tried the page from my iPad and my TV set which interestingly also has the user agent as Safari. The page makes both crash.

I've always believed that Google making their pages crash iPad's Safari can have benefits, but obviously the web developers who produced the Live page used only Safari on their big computers and never tested them enough on the iPads. That alone is really unacceptable execution.

The reasons the servers got under bigger pressure was obviously the wrong decision to have the video content page and the live picture and text updating resource and script hungry page as one and the same. The browsers of the viewers crashed, they attempted to view again, producing much more load to the servers than it would be if these unfortunate decisions (everything on the one page) haven't been made.

Independently, the stream was obviously botched at the source. It seems all parts of the world got the same Chinese translated pieces and the truck signals.

There were more smaller disasters there making one big.

Re: Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event

#393
This article explains pretty well what went wrong with the stream. It wasn't Akamai, it was Apple. The interactive JSON-based elements that had on their page prevented it from being cached which resulted in the issues we were seeing. http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/09/why-apples-livestream...

Re: Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a technology is implemented in a way that adheres to a certain standard of quality that leads to widespread adoption, to consumers it might as well be new technology.

Yeah, because Verifone's extant NFC readers definitely aren't standardized at all and haven't worked for years, with wide enough adoption that Whole Foods, Circle K, and fast food chains have them already. Everyone's just waiting for Apple to come along with the "standard of quality".

You snark, but this has happened time and time again. It's a perception thing.

Re: Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event

#395
post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe a whole bunch of people don't live in the same time zone as you.

??? I think the parent's implication is that people will lose their jobs tomorrow morning, because of today's poor production.

Okay, I might have misread. From where I come from, when people watch something, say en Apple show, instead of working we say "some don't have work". That's what I misunderstood. I also assumed (wrongly ? I haven't checked) it was in California which meant it was morning already.

The parents say "don't" not "will not". Even though there are trouble I very much doubt people are fired on the spot, they're too busy fixing it. But sure, some might. Later, in the future.

Anyway, the comment was out of line an the downvotes deserves.

Re: Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event

#396

"Our live broadcast begins at 10 a.m. PDT." Considering that the entire world uses GMT, and that only US citizens use PDT, they could have bothered to use GMT. Or better still, they could have detected your location/system time and just put a countdown or your own local time.

Uhmm, did you not notice that HUGE countdown timer? That pretty much covers entire world. And, no, whole world doesn't use GMT (talk to Indians and Chinese about what time they use). Also, entire US doesn't use PDT time. You know, some people live on east coast.

> Uhmm, did you not notice that HUGE countdown timer? That pretty much covers entire world.

It want's there when I visited. :-(

> And, no, whole world doesn't use GMT (talk to Indians and Chinese about what time they use). Also, entire US doesn't use PDT time. You know, some people live on east coast.

But they must most certainly know their GMT offset, since it's the worldwide reference.

Re: Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event

#397

"Our live broadcast begins at 10 a.m. PDT." Considering that the entire world uses GMT, and that only US citizens use PDT, they could have bothered to use GMT. Or better still, they could have detected your location/system time and just put a countdown or your own local time.

The screen is filled with a huge countdown. You can't add the countdown to your current time and get the answer? If someone is holding an event I would expect them to announce the start in local time - the people that need to know the time the most are the ones that are going to be there, why make it more difficult for them?

The timer was not there when I posted this (my complaint was, in part, that there wasn't one).
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