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Z2K...Microsoft Explanation...A Conspiracy?
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01-Jan-2009
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As some of you may have heard, or experienced, a particular model of the Microsoft Zune MP3 player “froze” up, around 2:00 AM, on January 1st. Sounds kind of strange that only one model (the Zune 30) was affected, while the rest were seemingly fine. As well, the excuse for the problem was weirder still – that Microsoft “forgot” that 2008 was a leap year. I think the Area 51 Weather Balloon story holds significantly more space-water than this...and here is why:
Programming
As a programmer, I myself have written calendar programs. I've written them with Microsoft-based programming languages. As well, I've really only written one, it wouldn't make sense to start from scratch each time. One must wonder why an organization the size of Microsoft, although having the ability to waste resources, would not have developed a better (or one at all?) coding management system that would prevent such ridiculously unnecessary waste in the human resources department. This of course means that if one Zune falls, they all should, as well as Windows, Office, and just about every other program on the face of the planet.
Surprisingly, this is not entirely anything new. With the latest version of Microsoft Office Excel, initially it had some bugs when it couldn't do math right. Yeah, a spreadsheet program couldn't do math. It's predecessors all could do math. Why were the various algorithms, based more on mathematical properties than particular code language structures, all redone? Why were the tested and true methods thrown out the Window? Doesn't make sense, does it? Clearly, Microsoft has a LOT of problems, and it isn't with their 'bloated' code; it's with their 'bloatedly redundant code libraries'.
The Gregorian Calendar
In the Western World (and pretty much everywhere else that wants to do business with us), we utilize what is known as the Gregorian Calendar. It may amaze you to find that some people are not living in the year 2009; for example, people living in Islamic countries are in the year 1430 (I think, my math may be in error...). The beauty of the Gregorian Calendar is that it is entirely mathematical, and broken down into a formula that allows you to correctly calculate even to the day of any year, and compensates automatically for leap years. Perhaps Excel 2007 was doing the Gregorian Math? Probably not; at least, not on a Zune.
2:00 AM
A very interesting point made was that the problem occurred around 2:00 AM. This suggests that when the problem should have occurred, smack dab at midnight, the Zune operating system just went with it, but at around 2 AM, suddenly said, “no, that's it, I'm sleeping this one off until tomorrow.” Which, of course, if that is true, means Microsoft should be worth considerably more, as they have clearly cracked the code to genuine Artificial Intelligence. And I think it is a very scary thought indeed to have a billion Bill Gates running around; I think Bill would agree.
The obvious response to this is that “the error occurred when the devices tried syncing up with a time server.” This, as well, makes absolutely no sense. By definition, when a computer syncs up with a time server it accepts the time server's time in place of its own, that is the whole purpose. If a computer systematically rejected a time server time that would completely defeat the purpose of syncing.
February 29th, 2008
Another interesting problem is that, if this device syncs with a time server, why was the error not caught on February 29th, 2008? You honestly mean to tell me of all the anally retentive computer users out there, and the millions of Zune's sold, that nobody happened to notice they were a month off on a leap day – a day that everyone makes special mental note of as it is somewhat of a rarity?
There are surprisingly a myriad of other reasons as to why Microsoft's explanation makes absolutely no sense. Frankly, short of seeing the genuine code for the device, I would sooner believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster. This obviously was a perpetrated scheme. The only real question...is by whom? |
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