A developer's essay critiques how services report reliability using uptime percentages like 99.72% or 98.98%, arguing these numbers look deceptively similar to non-experts even though they represent vastly different amounts of actual downtime. The author references Jason Gorman's observation that reliability gains become exponentially harder near 100%, comparing uptime metrics to earthquake magnitude scales where small numeric differences hide huge real-world impact. The proposed fix: status pages should show actual downtime duration (e.g., '12 hours affected in the last 30 days') alongside or instead of raw percentages.
blog.jim-nielsen.com
· 2026-09-16
IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 puts the average total cost of a ransomware incident at $5.08 million once downtime, remediation, legal work and business disruption are counted, while Verizon's 2026 DBIR pegs the median ransom payment at just $139,875. Datto's State of BCDR Report 2025 adds that while over 60% of organizations expect to recover within a day, only 35% actually do, and attackers increasingly target backup systems, forcing costly forensic and incident-response work when recovery options are compromised.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-09-16
Apple's built-in Screen Time feature lets iPhone users restrict access to distracting apps through two main tools: Downtime, which blocks all but selected apps and contacts during set hours, and App Limits, which caps daily usage for specific app categories or individual apps. Users can customize schedules by day, receive warnings before restrictions kick in, and sync these limits across all Apple devices tied to their Apple Account.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-14