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Leap year software glitch closes fuel pumps across New Zealand
(www.straitstimes.com)
Y2K finally happening!
I'll never forget seeing "Y2K compatible" flashlights in the dollar store.
Someone wrote their own date library.
Don't hate the player. Hate the organization that requires several levels of justification meetings and approvals for adding any 3rd party library.
[Insert Tom Scott Video Here]
All those Kiwis better make sure their gas tanks are full before Dec. 31st. Because if the software can't handle February with 29 days, it probably ca t handle a year with 366 days either.
Why does the fuel pump need to know what date it is?
So they can log how much is being used, track how old it is, etc.
Why wouldn’t a company want to have the date alongside their inventory and sales.
Cause the actual date doesn't matter.
You log epoch time, and convert as needed.
Though the as-needed convert may be the issue.
Surely you can do all that without tying the functioning of the entire pumping system directly to the time stamp though, right?
According to the article, it's the payment processing system.
I'm not sure I want a system which rolled their own date handling holding my credit card details. Wanna bet they rolled their own crypto too?
Well, I think it's not about what we want at all. It's about what they can get away with while not affecting the CEO's compensation.
We're just the livestock they harvest money from.
Was this just cos they cross the date line first and thus the bug was fixed before anyone else had to deal with it. Plus laughs in australian
smirks in Australian
Leap Day William at it again!
this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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