Was I wrong about the Date/Time bug? Not a chance

Nothing could have proven how naive we are as computer users than these letters.

technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Was I wrong about the Date/Time bug? Not a chance

Nov. 25, 1999

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©1999, Al Fasoldt

   "You are REALLY dumb," one letter started.
   "Surely you have better things to do," another one began.
   I got dozens of similar letters a few weeks ago from people who thought I'd lost my mind. All the critical letters made one point -- that I had the brains of a flea if I really thought the Date/Time settings application in Windows was messed up. I had pointed out that Windows changes the date immediately if you are simply looking at how various dates fall in different years -- even if you do not click OK and do not save any settings.
   Nothing could have proven how naive we are as computer users than these letters. Every single one of them was wrong. Each person who wrote to tell me I was a dolt had made an assumption, and that assumption was just plain incorrect.
   Some of the letter writers had not even checked their own PCs. They just fired off a note to me to tell me to dry up or drop dead. That's Wrong Assumption No. 1. They assumed that whatever it was that I was complaining about, I was wrong and Microsoft was right and their PCs were just fine, thank you. Ostritches would be proud.
   A few of the others had, in fact, checked their PCs but hadn't followed the instructions I listed in my article on how to prove the bug exists. Because they weren't looking at the actual results of this bug, they figured I was a dodo.That's Wrong Assumption No. 2. They assumed that going off half-cocked is OK and failing to use the brain God and nature gave them was an acceptable demonstration of humanity. (It's not. No matter how many excuses you make for people, acting dumb when you're smart is not OK. You have a mind; use it.)
   And some others failed to read what I wrote, period. They saw the headline and that was as far as they went. Typically, letters from this group complained that I was wasting everybody's time. "Where'd you get the idea that clicking OK to change the date was a bug?" one idiot wrote. The fact that he missed the entire point is secondary. What matters more is that he has an attitude problem.
   And isn't that what we're talking about here?
   Start with the Date/Time bug. Windows 95 was coded up and delivered to the public in 1995. It sported the Date/Time bug in all its flaming glory. Did Microsoft fix it? Of course not. Maybe in Windows 95B, the next version of Win 95? No. Then in Windows 95C? Surely in 95C? No. In Windows 98, then? No. In Windows 98 SE? No.
   Isn't this bug something that Microsoft can fix? Of course it is. Is this bug something that Microsoft WANTS to fix? No, of course it doesn't want to fix it. That's Microsoft's attitude problem. It's not quite as simple as I'm making it out to be, so let me explain it.
   Microsoft doesn't know about bugs. It knows about "issues." Things that go wrong with its software are not faults. They are issues. If Windows refuses to shut down, that's an issue. Ford and Toyota can't get away with that kind of word game in the automobile industry, but Microsoft sails blithely along creating a new language in the software business. Why? Because it has an attitude problem.
   Microsoft's attitude is clear to anybody who's ever had kids. There's a point in every child's life where everything that happens in somebody else's fault. This is a phase kids go through. They can't understand responsibility and so they can't accept responsibility.
   Bugs don't just happen. They come from sloppy programming. (There's a misconception that bugs are unavoidable in modern software. That's not true. Programs don't have to have bugs.) And since they come from sloppy programming, somebody must be responsible for them.
   The solution, if you're Microsoft, is to eliminate bugs by eliminating the word from your language. You call them "issues." Bugs don't exist any more.
   This is not a word game. Calling Coca-Cola a "lifestyle choice" is a word game. Calling a bug an "issue" is an attitude problem.
   Common sense tells us Microsoft would not have developed this attitude problem if it had faced competition. You can't ignore shoddy workmanship and stay in business in a competitive market. You can't make utter crap and stay in business when you have real competition. (Study the way the Windows Notepad works, with its refusal to open in the same location, its failure to remember if word-wrap should be turned on and its inability to handle even medium-size files, to see how Microsoft designs software when it cares nothing about what a competitor might do.)
   Take this a step further. Big companies set examples. Very big companies set very big examples. Guess what example a giganto company sets? And now guess what kind of example that will turn out to be if the giganto company in question is broadcasting its attitude problem for every Tom, Dick and Harry to emulate? It's no wonder I get comments from people who defend Microsoft in one breath and then advertise their lack of basic English, math, science and communications skills in another!
   If you can understand the Date/Time bug as a manifestation of Microsoft's attitude problem, you're more likely to realize that fixing the bug is not a Big Thing. A single Microsoft engineer could do it in 35 minutes. (Microsoft doesn't have at least one software engineer it could spare to fix this bug?) The bug hasn't been eradicated not because it's unfixable but because Microsoft doesn't want to hear of it. That's Microsoft's attitude. When you change the language to get rid of things you don't like to deal with, all you're really doing is hiding in the bathroom while Mom and Dad clean up the mess you made. All you're really doing is acting like a spoiled child.
   As for the Date/Time bug itself, if you're still smugly thinking that some dimbulb computer writer misunderstands how to set the date and time, let me explain this to you in very simple terms. If you open the Date/Time window and make ANY change to the display of the date or time -- just to see how various dates fall -- the change you made in the DISPLAY is made immediately in Windows, EVEN IF YOU DID NOT CLICK OK.
   An astounding bug, yes?