[bemontanaman]

I've been following the back and forth regarding Apple vs. Microsoft. So far, Spiderich has made the best arguments.

My wife has an iPod. I have a Zune. I've seen and used both iTunes and the Zune software. If you compare the two, just on user experience and user interface design, the Zune software is far superior, in my opinion. When was the last time Apple did a MAJOR overhaul of iTunes? If it's more than 2 yrs then they are WAY behind in the times. iTunes may have been released post-90s but the UI is dated. It's hard to find the preferences (it should be very simple - either Tools->Options or View->Options (or Tools->Preferences or View->Preferences). Synching and copying music to the iPod device is a pain. Just because an iPod is the highest seller of MP3 players doesn't mean it's the best. Everyone just happened to get on the same bandwagon which caused it to be the best. Do you really think that every single iPod user is happy with their iPod?

And the iPod is in no way perfect. I'm sure there have been issues over the last 8 yrs or so (or however long its been since it was released). it is absolutely humanly impossible to release something "perfect" - I know, I write software for a living. No matter how much testing you do or how many betas you release you can't find every single bug in your software.

Just accept the fact that some people prefer to use non-Apple hardware and go with something else - for whatever reason. It is a free country and we all have the right to make our own choices as consumers. Everyone should respect that right.

Now, as far as what this thread is supposed to be about (the Zune End 2008 Bug) - I didn't experience it because I didn't turn my Zune on. I turned it on after I heard about it and everything worked fine. I synched up and everything is working fine.

And if you think about what Microsoft has done over the past 30 yrs you should be thanking them, not bashing them. Yes, they've made their mistakes, that goes without saying. But they have created standards throughout the industry that have made computers accessible to virtually everyone. Without those standards we'd probably be stuck in the '70s with buying time for using servers and mainframes. Just imagine having to deal with that on a daily basis...and maybe Google will finally get an OS together that has a chance of rivaling Microsoft Windows. We'll have to see about that...

[JaywalkerExtraordinaire]

{quote}When was the last time Apple did a MAJOR overhaul of iTunes?{quote}

Version 8 was released in recent months.

{quote}It's hard to find the preferences (it should be very simple - either Tools->Options or View->Options (or Tools->Preferences or View->Preferences).{quote}

Try Edit -> Preferences. Unfortunately, Windows doesn't seem to offer (or promote?) a standard location for developers to place their preferences, which can be confusing for users trying to locate the preference panel.

{quote}Do you really think that every single iPod user is happy with their iPod?{quote}

Nope. Nor do I believe that every Zune owner is happy with their Zune, or that every creative owner is happy with their Zen, etc. It's a fact of life that sometimes people make purchases that they are not completely satisfied with. Still, I think that most people are happy with their MP3 players regardless of which one they choose. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

{quote}Just accept the fact that some people prefer to use non-Apple hardware and go with something else - for whatever reason. It is a free country and we all have the right to make our own choices as consumers. Everyone should respect that right.{quote}

I've never had any problem with that. What bothers me is when I read about things the "can't be done" in iTunes (that I can do easily in iTunes) or thing that "Apple forces iTunes users to do" (that I don't do when I use iTunes). It's not because it's iTunes, it's because I dislike misinformation in general.

{quote}And if you think about what Microsoft has done over the past 30 yrs you should be thanking them, not bashing them. {quote}

MS has done as many (if not more) things to hinder the industry as they have done to advance it, but this is not the thread to discuss that. Nor is this the thread to make excuses for Microsoft's Zune bug by spreading FUD about iTunes and iPods.

[oldfellow]

Why should a leap second inserted into GMT cause a software crash?
I have not seen any explanation , and wonder if anyone can point me towards one.

[oldfellow]

Dear SkateNY,

My memory about the Y2K problem, which really ended up as a non problem, is that that programmers(not just Microsoft), disn't put date in full 4 digit format,was to save space on the extremely small amout of memory available in the early days of mico-computers (as they then called).

The 21st Century seemed a long ,long way away.

Forgive them they were not as wise as you present day geeks.

[oldfellow]

Hello MarieJP,

My daughter gave me a nice IPNano, and when I got onto the Apple site about Ipods, I found that I could download an 80 page manual.

It is free ! .

Happy New Year

[SkateNY]

So, along the way, when the 21st Century was on the horizon, no one at the behemoth software company thought to make time in the course of a day to look underneath the hood to see if there was a problem? A problem that ended up costing over 13 billion dollars for tax payers?

That's isn't an explanation; it isn't even an excuse.

Interesting that only Microsoft overlooked this issue. Maybe they didn't believe they'd be around at Y2K?

>>Dear SkateNY,

My memory about the Y2K problem, which really ended up as a non problem, is that that programmers(not just Microsoft), disn't put date in full 4 digit format,was to save space on the extremely small amout of memory available in the early days of mico-computers (as they then called).

The 21st Century seemed a long ,long way away.

Forgive them they were not as wise as you present day geeks.<<

[bemontanaman]

The Y2K problem was not just Microsoft. It was actually more about the Cobol and FORTRAN programs that other companies were using. Their databases were only using 2-digit years (i.e. 1/1/89 or 2/29/88). The reason they used only 2 digit years was because of the expense of memory. Back "in the day", memory was extremely expensive (be it RAM or disk drive space) so to save memory companies used 2 bytes instead of 4 bytes of memory - or in some cases, 8 bytes instead of 16 bytes (it depends on how the data was stored).

There were a lot of companies that started looking and modifying their code several years before Y2K. And it is not as easy as "looking under the hood." It all depends on the design of the code and the storage of the data. And do you know for a fact that there weren't people at "the behemoth software company" looking into the Y2K problem several years before Y2K?