‘99.9999%’ uptime — it’s an illusion.

say thank you to the engineers

The chime was faint, but my eyes flew open instantly. Before I could process where the sound originated, my phone was already in my hands.

Even in my sleep, the Google Hangouts *ping* notification always caused the same knee jerk reaction. It would be many moments before my mind caught up and noticed the glaring screen in my face. I blinked multiple times to adjust to the brightness.

2:16AM. I have time, I noted with some relief. Even the early risers would not be online until at least 4AM PST. That gave us approximately 2 hours — not a large window, but better than many other scenarios I could have awoken to.

‘I’ll be online in 5.’

I send the response before tossing my phone aside, staring blankly at the ceiling, sighing with resignation. I didn’t need to read the message to know it was some variation of: we have an emergency.

Despite my mental grumbling, I groped blindly under my bed to grab the laptop I kept there for exactly these circumstances. With any luck, I could remain snuggled in my cocoon of blankets and this would be resolved quickly with little discussion. Maybe I could even squeeze in another hour of sleep.