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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."
... all Microsoft has done is to ask users to wait out the conditions that triggered the bug.
And considering that the bug only came to light two days ago, that's pretty good.
I speak from experience. I'm a tech writer, and I've written literally thousands of bug summaries for customer support web sites and release notes. (In 1999, I did almost nothing else.) Finding the problem, identifying a workaround, and getting it out to the public in such a short time is pretty impressive.
Presumably they're working on a patch, but they won't say they anything about it until it's ready to go. It's an ironclad rule that you never talk about these things before they're ready, not if you want avoid vaporware lawsuits. It should be obvious to anybody that creating, testing, and staging a software patch takes a lot longer than writing up a workaround.