Tag: Announcements

Advisory: 30GB Zune issues noted today, related to time and the leap year

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 31/12/2008
1 Comment on Advisory: 30GB Zune issues noted today, related to time and the leap year

First it was questions about whether or not we’d have to worry about the coming Leap Second, then today after our power came back on, customer questions about the Zune 30.

As we have a couple of Zune 30s in our home going strong, I was surprised to see a post on the Zune Insider blog WRT the 30 GB Zune and news of issues reported today related to leap years (which some referred to as Zune2K and Y2K9), especially with all of the efforts we have applied to dealing with time and calendar changes around the world.

The team has been working throughout the day on this issue, and Paul from the Zune Insider blog offers this update this afternoon:

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year.

The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

Customers can continue to stay informed via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).

We know this has been a big inconvenience to our customers and we are sorry for that, and want to thank them for their patience.

From the FAQs:

Q: What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation?

This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.

Q: What’s the timeline on a fix?

The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.

Q: Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008?

There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.

The Zune service is unaffected — as are all Zune 80, 120 and Zune flash models — so we’ll be listening to music via our PC this evening.

Happy New Year.

Tags: Microsoft, Zune.

http://tinyurl.com/7sjl6f

Tags Announcements, customer support, hardware, music, news, Your Questions, Zune

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Your questions: do we have to worry about the coming Leap Second when it comes to Microsoft Windows and other products?

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 29/12/2008
3 Comments on Your questions: do we have to worry about the coming Leap Second when it comes to Microsoft Windows and other products?

As I Tweeted today (no, really, I can stop any time) I saw a question today on the subject of the coming leap second, as noted in the MSN posted article, 2009 to arrive not a second too soon, from Space.com’s Joe Rao:

"Wait a second.

"The start of next year will be delayed by circumstances beyond everyone’s control. Time will stand still for one second on New Year’s Eve, as we ring in the New Year on that Wednesday night. As a result, you’ll have an extra second to celebrate because a "Leap Second" will be added to 2008 to let a lagging Earth catch up to super-accurate clocks.

"By international agreement, the world’s timekeepers, in order to keep their official atomic clocks in step with the world’s irregular but gradually slowing rotation, have decreed that a Leap Second be inserted between 2008 and 2009."

So I heard last night and saw this question today…

One Leap second will be added at the end of this year. I wonder whether it will have impact on Windows, SQL Server or other Microsoft System. It seems that our SystemTime structure will reject the 60 second, and FileTime will ignore the LeapSecond.

"KB article Q909614: How the Windows Time service treats a leap second and Blog "Please Look before you Leap a second" seems indicate we have not need to worry about Leap Second."

Great end of the year question.

Besides counting down "3, 2, 1, 1… Happy New Year!" to ring in 2009 in a couple of days, you’ll find more documenting the impact of a leap second in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 909614, How the Windows Time service treats a leap second (as Michael Kaplan noted in his most excellent post).

In short, W32Time does not account for a leap second being dependent on the NTP server. Most applications and services may be unaffected, but sysadmins and IT professionals should know that the leap second is not addressed until the next time sync following the official addition/ subtraction of the leap second. Consumers really have nothing to worry about save questioning whether or not the time is accurate as broadcast during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve when the crystal ball drops in Times Square.

Info on syncing clocks to absolute time, please see KB 816042, How to configure an authoritative time server in Windows Server 2003, and KB 884776, How to configure the Windows Time service against a large time offset.

General information on the Windows Time Service is also available in the team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/w32time/default.aspx. More articles/ information in which you may be interested:

An excellent article on maintaining sync to the Windows Time Service on a domain (aka Domain Sync) from Ryan Sizemore on the aforementioned blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/w32time/archive/2007/09/04/keeping-the-domain-on-time.aspx
Instructions on how to use the NIST Internet Time Service (ITS) with computers: http://tf.nist.gov/service/pdf/win2000xp.pdf
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html

(Of interest: The concept of a leap second is actually in question, and an ITU working group is evaluating whether or not the process of adding/subtracting leap seconds should be discontinued.)

Anyone else have additional information, guidance they’d like to offer? I’ll add to this post as it comes in.

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, leap second, DST.

http://tinyurl.com/9sjvre

Tags Announcements, DST, news, of interest, Windows Server, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Your Questions

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Announcements: the kick-off of Microsoft Answers beta, courtesy of Chris Kilbourn

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 15/12/2008
1 Comment on Announcements: the kick-off of Microsoft Answers beta, courtesy of Chris Kilbourn

A new site has hit Microsoft.com, in support of our customers: the new community on the Microsoft Answers Site, Microsoft’s first consumer-focused support community. Chris Kilbourn (the Lead Site Manager for TechNet) posted today about the launch…

“A few times in my career, I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved with the turn-up of some major web sites. Today marks another one of those events.

“I am very pleased to announce that my team, in coordination with many others across Microsoft, has just launched Microsoft Answers Beta for Windows Vista!

“It is a web site for everyone who uses Windows Vista at home, and has questions about using or fixing problems with Vista. With community-driven forums, it is a place for Microsoft customers to discuss and ask questions about Vista.

“Take a look, and leave us know what you think in the Microsoft Answers Beta feedback forum.”

The Microsoft Answers Site is an interactive community self-help experience moderated by dedicated support engineers and (from my Windows POV) provides a place for consumers to quickly and easily find all sorts of Windows Vista support content. Microsoft Answers is available today as a beta release, and I found that the Windows Vista section is where you can post your questions and answer some, too.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve seen a number of customer interactions being fielded about Windows Vista and many of our products across a wide variety of communities (including various comments posted on Twitter, and deeper exchanges on Get Satisfaction and the green button to name a few).

This latest effort should help connect consumers within a Microsoft forum, in a way that we’ve seen through the communities that we have for developers and IT professionals in MSDN and TechNet. I like the structure that Microsoft Connect has brought to the pre-release and beta process. It’s good to see that we have an interactive effort to connect consumers with our employees in more than an ad hoc way (such as through blog feedback and comments, which I get from time to time).

Microsoft Answers is available today as a beta release. For more, please visit http://answers.microsoft.com/windows and provide your feedback on the experience.

Added 12/16/08: I’m reminded by my friend Matt that ahead of Microsoft Answers, I need to provide a tip of the hat to Windows Live. We also recently launched support for Windows Live customers at http://windowslivehelp.com/:

Windows Live Solution Center is the first fully integrated online consumer support experience for Windows Live. Combining topic-driven blogs, technical solutions and community conversations, the Windows Live Solution Center offers dynamic support for Windows Live services.

From a friend: a suitable short movie on wisdom

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 07/12/2008
1 Comment on From a friend: a suitable short movie on wisdom

I just received this from my incomparable friend, JuliAnn: the Wisdom Book movie: it seemed appropriate to include it here:

http://www.wisdombook.org/

Please watch this video. Then take a deep breath and a few glorious minutes to take it in. Ask yourself- "What is the wisdom I carry to share with the world, what would I say if asked to share in this book?"

Tags: whack, advice.

Tags advice, Announcements, of interest, People, whack

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Advisory: Office for Mac 12.1.4 Fixes Entourage Meeting Invite Issue

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 03/11/2008
1 Comment on Advisory: Office for Mac 12.1.4 Fixes Entourage Meeting Invite Issue

As you may know from previous posts, we have both Macs and Windows PCs at home ( think that we even have some CPM and Unix lurking around somewhere). One benefit is that I get to be the IT administrator for both, although the family uses Windows Vista exclusively. As such, I was a bit mystified when I ran into a problem with a recent update for Office for Mac 2008 — version 12.1.3 – which introduced a bug that impacted the ability to send meeting invites via Entourage.

Well, the MacBU has resolved the issue in a little more than a week, with 12.1.4 fixing the Entourage Meeting Invite Issue.

"We’ve been working hard for the last week and a half to bring Entourage users today’s 12.1.4 update. It’s incredibly frustrating when we get through a release process and a new issue is introduced by an update. When we start to hear feedback and customer reports about issues with an update, I simply cringe because so much work goes into preventing that from happening. Unfortunately, the recent Office for Mac 2008 12.1.3 update introduced a bug that prevented some Entourage users from sending meeting invites to others. We’re sorry."

The MacBU has identified the root cause and has worked on an update to correct the issue as posted here. Version 12.1.4 should now be available and corrects this issue. The update will be available through the Office 2008 auto-update tool and on mactopia at http://www.microsoft.com/mac.

Thanks to Ash Savage and the Microsoft MacBU team for this update.

(Also posted here on the excellent Entourage MVP Blog.)

This is a good time to recommend that you have a backup of a known good version of Office 2008. as noted in this posting: Revert to a previous version after a bad update.

Tags: Apple, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, Entourage, Customer Service.

http://tinyurl.com/67bx47

Tags Announcements, customer service, customer support, Entourage, Office