SA Explorer 8000SD/HD Experiences Y2K-like Bug

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article at Audioholics, a firmware bug was just discovered in the Scientific Atlanta 8000SD and 8000HD DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) which renders them unable to record. This firmware bug was discovered when the units attempted to recognize February 29th on the programming guide. The units are apparently unable to recognize this date, and as a result, shut down all record functions. All other aspects of the 8000 will continue to work. So far, it looks like no previously recorded material was lost. Scientific Atlanta is apparently in "Emergency Session" working on a software patch. The problem began occuring on the 23rd when the 7-day program guide first began to encounter the February 29th programming."

Comments

getting the splinter and missing the 2x4?

[Roman_(ajvvs)]

That's just piss poor programming. Honestly, If you can't figure out that knowing about and handling leap years is important in software that schedules, then maybe outsourcing your position is fitting...

I recall I had a whole discussion with my friends about whether 2000 had a leap year. Most of those who got it wrong weren't the most computer literate, but it took about 5 minutes to figure it out from the internet.

It's needless bugs like this, which give programmers a bad name.

Re:getting the splinter and missing the 2x4?

[cerberusss]

If you can't figure out that knowing about and handling leap years is important in software that schedules, then maybe outsourcing your position is fitting...

That's a bit harsh. I thought I was among fellow geeks here. How do you know it was a programmer mistake? Maybe this company had some manager which was harassing the programmer to finish his work. I've had a few confrontations myself, and it's definitely not always to blame on the programmer.

Re:getting the splinter and missing the 2x4?

[Roman_(ajvvs)]

That's a fair call. But what you're giving is still just an excuse for poor programming. I know first hand as well that things get rushed. In your example, It'd hopefully be the manager being held to account since he's the one responsible for the programmer.

Getting the right date and having enough space are two very common issues that programmers have to deal with. If this was some obscure button press or recording combination error, then I'd be "yeah.. that's not entirely the developers' fault", but when it comes to not recognizing a date, I find it just that bit harder to be sympathetic.

Y2K?

[CowboyNick]

How is this a Y2K-like bug? This seems more like a date calculation bug. Before you flame, I understand that Y2K bugs were date realted also, but this is not related to the end of a millennium, more like the calculation of a leap year.

Re:Graceful Error Handling?

[Anonymous Coward]

Very simple in my opinion.

Simple, and wrong. The full rules are as follows:

if year % 400 == 0: leap year
else if year % 100 == 0: not leap year
else if year % 4 == 0: leap year
else: not leap year

Might explain a few things...

[jpdbest]

I only just got one of these (Explorer 8000) last Friday. In the few days I've had it, it's been doing some really quirky things with the scheduled recordings. After having this only for four days, I've gotten in the habit of double-checking my recording schedules since on more than one occasion I've noticed the times or the programs have changed. That, or it refuses to save some (but not all) schedules if certain recording options are used. I don't know if this bug is cause of the problem, but I'll wait until after Feb. 29th to see if it starts behaving better. More likely buggy code...

It's sad that this Y2K bug wasn't caught. And make no doubt, this *is* a Y2K bug. In one of the companies I worked for, the Y2K date testing started with Sept. 9, 1999 (9999 - some programs used four nines as a exit/quit/terminate), with dates right through to Feb. 29th, 2004.

Re:Graceful Error Handling?

[DAldredge]

That is what every cobal programmer said. Guess what, they where wrong and so are you.

Please stop programmer if you are unable to think about the results of your actions.

Re:Graceful Error Handling?

[slothman32]

Mine didn't work but the error handling was great. Unlike some apps or even firmware that crash on error this just simply didn't work. It still let you watch both regular TV and recorded shows and even had the usual DVR features still present except recording. It didn't say why it didn't work but it didn't crash.