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Microsoft Issues Workaround For Zune Freeze
UnknowingFool writes "As a followup to the Zune New Year's Eve meltdown, Microsoft has issued a workaround for what some users have correctly guessed was a bug caused by a leap year. To recover from the problem, let the Zune drain the batteries and restart it after noon on January 1, 2009. Many sites are reporting that Microsoft has 'fixed' the issue, but technically all Microsoft has done is to ask users to wait out the conditions that triggered the bug. Unless a software patch comes out, Zunes will suffer the same problem again in four years." Reader ndtechnologies adds, "According to posts in the Toshiba forum at anythingbutipod.com, the same bug that shut down millions of Zune 30's also affects the Toshiba Gigabeat S. The Zune 30 is based off of the Gigabeat S series and was co-developed by Microsoft with Toshiba."
But I've got to say: this is just typical.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
You would think that a company the size of Microsoft would have the resources to have a few Zunes in QA with their clocks set ahead. But hey, there were no lessons to be learned from Y2K, right?
Congrats on becoming a tool!
And if they broke, would they expect apple to fix them?
Suppose instead of this being Zune's firmware it was a microwave you bought 5 years ago. Would you have any claim to have it fixed (out of warranty, etc).
Microwaves do not lock up because of leap year issues.
The difference being that microwaves suffer wear and tear and can develop a fault after five years.
This is software, the fault was there when it was purchased.
Look through the function starting at line 249: this causes the infinite loop.
Assuming proper code management and version control they will probably branch off a release sometime for release in 2007, and in the meantime continue writing the next version, which may have been mostly finished in 2007 already but maybe only pass quality control in 2008 for release then.
And this piece of code had not been tested/reviewed properly apparently.
...and a perfect example of why testers should be working closely with programmers, writing sensible unit tests as the code progresses.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
Can't be good.
I've seen this in laptops leading to drastically decreased storage capacity.
You can get the microwave (or a tape recorder, or a VCR) fixed by a third party (or do it yourself) depending on what part has broken.
Only Microsoft can fix these firmware issues. If the source code for the firmware was publicly available, someone could fix the problem and distribute the fixed firmware for free or for money, but since it isn't, only MS can patch it.
Why are consumer electronics any different than any other product? Let's talk about items costing less than a laptop, so less than 2000.
Would you accept if your 5 year old ___ broke , was unfixable, and needed a new replacement?
You get the picture. Why are electronic manufactures exempt from shoddy products that don't have some sort of reasonable lifespan? Not wear and tear or dropping a product, just the product becoming unusable due to the product having some bug/feature to break it outright like the Zune.
As to a microwave, a 5 year old whirlpool oven broke on me and they no longer had replacement circuit boards. Whirlpool expects their products to have at least a 10 year lifespan. They pro-rated my equipment and sold a new unit, installed, for 33% of the cost. Now that's an acceptable solution for shoddy workmanship.
>Why are electronic manufactures exempt from shoddy products that don't have some sort of reasonable lifespan
Because collectively we accept this. Sad but true.
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
For that to happen, MS would have to follow standards. You know where this discussion will go.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
So it can display the date and time.
And if you look at the bug in the code (line 259) it's atrocious. Something a junior programmer would be embarrassed about.
When days is 366 it causes an infinite loop. And also note that simply changing line 263 to use 365 causes a different bug. So the whole approach is wrong. It ought to simply be
while (days > daysInYear(year))
{
days -= daysInYear(year);
year += 1;
}
Because software does not wear out?
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
If I bought a microwave and it did that, I would probably never buy from the manufacturer again. Maybe if they apoligized for making such a crappy product and it was shown they now don't make defective products anymore. Though even then, if it was the exact same product as another mfg with the same chance for defects and such, I would buy the other guy's product.
Your bar is too low. If you bought it as a charity case or because you want to help out local / new businesses I could understand, but putting up with defective products just because you are too lazy is idiotic. You have to be demanding or the manufacturers will keep putting out crap, and the crappier they are, the more it wastes your time and money in the long run. So if you are lazy, be lazy later rather than now.
hawww, cmon mods. don't be total asstards. parent had no choice but to post if he wanted to undo an accidental unfair moderation. he explained the reason he was offtopic. ie he was workin around /.s stupid no-undo moderation system.
give people a fuckin break you power mad wankers.