Micro$oft

Having dealt with my fair share of timezone issues while programming, I find leap year issues really funny. Thank you Microsoft for starting off my year with a laugh.

Many Zune owners successfully revived their failed music players Thursday morning, while others were still unable to overcome a leap year-related glitch that caused thousands of the devices to simultaneously stop working on New Year’s Eve.

“Mine is back up and working as of a minute ago! Thanks Zune Team,” a user named “blcknwhte” posted at 9:19 a.m. ET on the Zune Web site’s forum.

“I’m glad things are back to normal but this was a major inconvenience,” posted someone named JaximFlash. “I have 2 Zune 30s and I had made a playlist of songs to play during a New Year’s Eve party.”

Microsoft Corp., maker of the Zune, said a bug in the internal clock driver, related to the way the device handles a leap year, caused the malfunction in older Zune 30GB models.

Matt Akers of the Zune Product Team wrote Wednesday on Zune.net that the problem should resolve itself after 7 a.m. ET Thursday. The Zune support page says users should allow the internal battery to fully drain, then recharge by connecting the Zune to a computer or AC power after noon GMT (7 a.m. ET) on New Year’s Day.

“Once the battery has sufficient power, the player should start normally. No other action is required — you can go back to using your Zune!” the site says.

At work, our corporate network is mainly all Microsoft. Sure there are roles filled by some linux machines and for our ISP services, its almost all unix/linux. But for email, calendaring, document sharing, its Micro$oft all the way.

I’m the black sheep of the office running OSX on a mini. I’m “testing” software, honest =)

Due to the nature of the corporate network, I find it is just easier to run the Microsoft office suite which means working with Entourage on a daily basis. Its not the greatest thing in the world, but it gets me by.