Zune 30s Bricking | The Coffeehouse

Ray7

Charles said:

Re Zune 30 Bricking: I'd imagine the flaw is under review as we type. You think the Zune team might have an inkling of what's going on? They are preparing a statement; one that will contain accurate information which explains the problem they are investigating. My Zune 30 is also a paper weight right now. It's an unfortunate side effect of a coding error for sure.

I don't think it is the coding error that is the problem; we expect a certain number of bugs to crop up in released software. The concern is, that following the big deal that Microsoft made about how they'd overhauled their testing procedures, it's a little odd that something this basic managed to slip through. Bearing in mind that a screw-up like this causes a thousand times more bad publicity for Microsoft, than it would for any other company, I would expect a thousand times more diligence.

Charles said:

Re: C9 Team: Let's not turn this unrelated coding error in Zune30 into a means of offending the developers who spend so much time building, maintaining and innovating Channel 9. That's not cool at all and I wouldn't expect this type of crap from Niners. Relent.

In the real world, progress is actually measured by results, not the 'time and effort' put into achieving them. We appreciate the time and effort the development team has put into C9, but I for one, think the result certainly doesn't warrant the time and effort; downloading a free PHP pack would have given you a much more reliable, useable forum.

Ray7

VB Man said:

Long live ze ipod.

Yes, rather glad I didn't manage to get hold of one now.

So what are my choices: Buy from a company that bricks their products by accident, or a company that bricks their products deliberately?

... think I'll just buy a Nokia smartphone.

VB Man
Year of the Linux MCE.

In reply to Ray7

#Jan 1st @ 9:44 PM

When did Apple deliberately brick a product?

Ray7

In reply to VB Man

#Jan 1st @ 9:53 PM

The iPhone. Now you can argue that they are within their rights, but once someone has bought something, then I reckon they're pretty much free to do what they want with it. Apple thinks different (we still own it, even after you've forked over a few hundred quid for it).

But I shouldn't have made the comparison on reflection, since this is an entirely different kettle of fish. What we're talking about here, is an amateurish mistake made by Microsoft.

A much fairer comparison would have been the case when Apple shipped iPods preloaded with a virus, and tried to blame Microsoft for it.

Apologies folks ... I've wandered off-topic.

Ray7

In reply to Ray7

#Jan 1st @ 9:22 PM

There maybe some issues with the Zune DRM as well according to the Vaughan-Nichols blog

ComputerWorld said:

There's one additional problem if you have DRM (Digital Rights Management)-crippled content on your Zune from Zune Pass, "you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device." Until you do, you won't be able to play any of this music.

Bit of a pain if you're away from your machine over the new year...

Sad

BlackTiger
If you stumbled and fell down, it doesn't mean yet, that you're going in the wrong direction.

Same people are developing Windows7...

Never oursource your work to India! LOL!

alwaysmc2
It's not stupid; It's advanced!

In reply to blowdart

#Dec 31st, 2008 @ 11:29 AM

To be fair, if one were to call Zune support on that day one would have been greeted by a message about the problem, with an explaination of how to fix it, and even an apology.

VB Man
Year of the Linux MCE.

In reply to alwaysmc2

#Jan 2nd @ 10:53 AM

Wait.... Microsoft had an automated message telling customers to remove the non-removable battery?!

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

In reply to VB Man

#Jan 2nd @ 10:59 AM

Dag burn it... the Zune came back to life. I was hoping it would be permanently bricked so I could get something back for it...

alwaysmc2
It's not stupid; It's advanced!

In reply to VB Man

#Jan 2nd @ 10:59 AM

Of course not! Tongue Out

The instructions were to disconnect the Zune and let the battery die, then turn the device on after January 1st, 2009, "and we're really sorry about this."

CreamFilling512

The bug was in Freescale Semiconductor's clock driver for Win CE and also affects Toshiba Gigabeat players. Freescale is part of Motorola (or at least was) so its no surprise the code sucks.

alwaysmc2
It's not stupid; It's advanced!

In reply to CreamFilling512

#Jan 3rd @ 12:30 AM

Hmm... That's interesting. I never thought about the underlying framework that the Zune firmware was written on. I guess it makes sense that it's Windows. Tongue Out

Shining Arcanine

In reply to Dodo

#Dec 31st, 2008 @ 6:10 PM

This is precisely the style of coding which I see all the time in my Computer Science classes and have learned to hate greatly.

Here is how I would do it:

// Take Years in Chunks of 4
years += days / 1461 << 2;
days = days % 1461;

// Compute Remainder
years += days / 365;
days = (days % 365) - (days / 365 > 0);

It is shorter, easier to comprehend (for me anyway) and if there are any mistakes, the code would have a hard time clearing test cases because of its heavy dependence on modular arithmetic. It is also an O(1) computation, whereas the Microsoft code is O(n), which means that every new year, all of the Zunes in the world are a little slower than they were the previous year.