An Excellent Analysis of the Zune 30 GB Leap Year Bug

It is unlikely that any of our regular readers is a Zune owner, but I have found the revelation and analysis of the bug in Zune 30 GB players that locked it up for all of New Years Eve to be fascinating. If you missed the original analysis, basically there was a bug in the year calculation function that runs just before the end of the boot cycle which ended up in an infinite loop on the last day of a leap year.

This article is a great read on the bug, and illustrates why QA is so important and how even now Software Engineering is an art. There are many solutions, but few which are both bug-free and elegant.

All 30 GB Zunes Froze Today?

This seems unbelievable, but I am reading about it everywhere from multiple sources. But to be fair, I have not confirmed it with anyone I know who owns a Zune (Yes, I do know one guy). It is being reported that this morning, all 30 GB Zunes froze up and will not reboot or reset. There are isolated reports of successful unfreeze after letting the battery drain completely. Microsoft has yet to post anything about it on their own pages.

Wow, I can only imagine the apocalypse if this happened with the iPod or iPhone. How many people will be sitting in Times Square grumbling because their Zune won't play? Does this mean the end for Microsoft's attempt to invade the musical marketplace?