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Bizarre Droid Auto-Focus Bug Revealed
itwbennett writes "Pity the poor engineer who had to find this one. One of the more interesting of the handful of bugs that have appeared since the launch of Verizon's Droid smartphone has to do with the on-board camera's auto-focus. Apparently it just didn't work. And then suddenly it did. Naturally, this off-again, on-again made the theories fly. But the real reason for the bug was revealed in a comment on an Engadget post by someone claiming to be Google engineer Dan Morrill: 'There's a rounding-error bug in the camera driver's autofocus routine (which uses a timestamp) that causes autofocus to behave poorly on a 24.5-day cycle,' said Morrill. 'That is, it'll work for 24.5 days, then have poor performance for 24.5 days, then work again. The 17th is the start of a new 'works correctly' cycle, so the devices will be fine for a while. A permanent fix is in the works.'"
Just curious.....
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
... Droid doesn't
Spring Break, the biggest part of it, occurs within a working cycle.
by someone claiming to be Google engineer Dan Morrill
Yeah, it could also be one of those lame Dan Morrill impersonators who solve perplexing engineering/programming issues, then post the solution under his name. MAN that's annoying..
I've been waiting a long long time for standardization of integer types.
This is definitely NOT the Droid you are looking for
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Just buy two with opposing date stamps.
We're waiting unsigned long.
English is not this
Considering that a lunar cycle is 29.5 days long, we've actually found a bug that depends (approximately) on the phase of the moon!
As long as it's not a justin long... he's already signed.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Waiting long? Hopefully we're not waiting double!
I didn't realize there was a real software reason for it.
I wonder if there's a way to do the same for my wife - you know, fix a software bug.
Gotta run she's home!
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
"'There's a rounding-error bug in the camera driver's autofocus routine (which uses a timestamp) that causes autofocus to behave poorly on a 24.5-day cycle,' said Morrill."
Cool! The device will later be fixed to properly behave poorly only every 24.45 days!
In excusable. The industry is too mature for that type of shit.
Spelling error? Inexcusable. The English language is too mature for that type of shit.
(In case you missed it, your argument has just as much validity in the real world due to differences in people.)
WRONG FOCUS...
Sounds like you are on the wrong end of the 24.5 day cycle :)
0100010001101001011001 0100100000011010010110 1110001000000110000100 1000000110011001101001 0111001001100101
It is necessary to have some radioactive elements in your phone for it to focus.
PS, it may or may not also kill cats!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
I got a "bug report" that our Oracle Forms app would give an undefined error message after you "type in a first name, push tab twice, and click save 17 times." I didn't debug it, but I did offer a workaround.
I also had a bug report for when you tried to add a prerequisite that didn't exist to a training task (the system tracked flight Air Force crew training and experience), an error would pop up that said "All this time and it still doesn't work..." In that case, apparently debugging was as far as anyone ever got.
Whale
Congratulations. You are among the few (but growing in number) who not only can't RTFA, but lack the attention span or comprehension skills to read the summary itself.
MTV has a network for you.
Is that network called MTV?
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Same timeframe? You could actually keep a Win 95 system up and running for 24 days?
After about 42 years my auto-focus suddenly stopped working as well.
You think if I live to 84 or so it will suddenly get better again?
I sure hope there's a patch...
G.
I don't believe that one was ever seen in the wild, since Windows 95 also had several bugs that caused it to require a reboot approximately every 24.5 minutes ;-)
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Sounds like you are on the wrong end of the 24.5 day cycle :)
That's what my wife keeps telling me. :(
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
Hmmm, did the auto-focus programmer used to work on the Patriot anti-missile system?
Table-ized A.I.
Under most circumstances, you would be correct. However, there are certain situations under which it is grammatically correct to omit the final mark of punctuation: when a speaking character is defenestrated mid-dialogue; when the narrator has just discovered himself to be his own grandpa; and (as is clearly the case in the grandparent post) when quoting the first line of a limerick:
Wish I had mod points, this entire thread is one of the funniest ever on /.
Second quite possibly only to last week's delightful essay on the breakdancing robot
Of course it would be
somewhat remiss of me
Not to mention that I find most everything hilarious because I just don't get out a whole lot.
Our jokes aren't like your jokes
Woke up today, and just can't focus!!!
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Ahh, but what if it's someone *else* who has to go back and change your clever algorithm next year? Surely after he figures it out he'll be pleasantly impressed and grateful for the challenge you so kindly provided.
This is why I don't comment my code.
So since January 1st, 1970?
Yes, but on the other hand, piss off you pedantic bastard.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Word.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
It was a single line comment. No terminator necessary.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law