I, like alot of people, have been getting long login times, yet minecraft.net works fine so it doesn’t make sense.
But behind the scenes, Mojang already knows of the issue and have been doing steps to correct the problem without disturbing gameplay. Only wish Blizzard did.
.
In other news, Mojang has released a new snapshot for beta testing; 12w17a. This one has limited features, but they’re all interesting to say the least;
-Writable books. This will be useful in Adventure and Survival maps. And also my own for tutorial use.
-Wooden slab blocks are finally wood-colored of Oak/Willow, Birch, Pine, and Jungle, offering more decor options. This should of been done in 1.2.4.
-Bug fixes. Mainly for entity collision (no idea what this could mean. Maybe for Minecarts and Boats?), Creative’s new Block Picker option (I assume for modded blocks now), and chat.
-Several other, unknown features. Typical Mojang not wanting to give out too many secrets.
Either way, this snapshot sounds pretty cool, and in my opinion, update-worthy. Fortunately it’s not an official update.