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Category: Technology
Posted on: January 1, 2009 10:03 AM, by Greg Laden
I do not have the vaguest clue what a Microsoft Zune is, but there are reports that they are all crapping out roughly at the same time for unknown reasons. Microsoft technical support is on vacation, so apparently they don't know about it. Details can be found here.
It is a good thing it is only the Zunes that are doing this, and not, say, the Microsoft Air Traffic Controller Thingie or the Microsoft Heart Implant Thingie.
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Comments
It's a leap year problem as explained here.
Posted by: Tristram Brelstaff | January 1, 2009 10:35 AM
Lets not forget Windows for Nuclear subs
"December 25, 2008: The British Royal Navy has developed a modified version of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system for its warships. The first version, "Windows for Submarines," is being installed on the fleets nuclear submarines. Versions of this operating system is being adapted for surface ships as well."
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20081225.aspx
Posted by: Kevin | January 1, 2009 10:55 AM
Pretty tricky code, leap year handling code.
Posted by: _Arthur | January 1, 2009 12:33 PM
2008 was a leap year, so December 31 was ordinal day of year 366, making that the likely trigger for the freeze.
The freeze came before the leap-second insertion, so that would not be the problem. (BTW, December 31st ended in the sequence 23:59:58, 23:59:59, 23:59:60, and 00:00:00 launched 2009.)
Ask any programmer what the average length of a year is. The only correct answer is 365.2425 days. Any other answer and they don't know how to correctly handle leap years.
Posted by: 6EQUJ5 | January 1, 2009 12:54 PM
There was also a leap second this year. I heard that crashed a couple of nuclear powered satellites.
Posted by: Andrew | January 1, 2009 1:16 PM
Zune was marketed originally in 2007, and was nicknamed "the iPod Killer".
Yeah, I know - we all got a good laugh out of that...
Posted by: yogi-one | January 1, 2009 8:45 PM
I chose to get a 120GB Ipod for my birthday rather than a Zune solely because I had a free program (which I had downloaded earlier for another reason) on my computer that is able to convert almost any kind of video into an Ipod compatible video. Now I'm glad for my decision. :)
Posted by: Monimonika | January 1, 2009 10:19 PM
There was also a leap second this year. I heard that crashed a couple of nuclear powered satellites.
They must have been running windows
Posted by: Greg Laden | January 1, 2009 11:32 PM