So, the big download Firefox world record attempt has started in a farce. Why? Because of a complete lack of understanding of and planning for date and time issues!
The 'download day' has been advertised as 17th June 2008. But there is no clear information as to when on the 17th June. So when would you assume?
Personally, I would naturally assume the 24 hours starting at midnight UTC. But no. The 24 hour period actually starts at 10am Pacific Daylight Time. Crazy!!!
The recriminations on this have already started. The main complaints include bad planning, American focus and plain stupidity. It already looks like quite a few people assume that the release has been delayed. Some appear to have given up on the download.
Again with dates and times the message is clear - time zones are a pain, but you can't ignore them!
