Intellectual Property Law

Leap Year Code Glitch Shutters South Carolina DMV

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

Call it Y2K Jr.

Feb 29, 2008 is a leap day, a confusing concept that shut down South Carolina's Department of Motor Vehicles until noon Friday because of a software glitch.

Meanwhile, across the country, the 2/29 glitch turned amateur vulcanologists into disoriented time travelers, as the Mount Saint Helens high-definition VolcanoCam displayed images time-stamped March 1 instead of Feb. 29.

The USDA Forest Service, which runs the VolcanoCamHD, tried to calm the public by reassuring that VolcanoCam Classic properly handled the extra day.

Calendar makers insert the extra day about every four years to correct the fiction that the earth circles the sun in exactly 365.000 days.

On the VolcanoCam News blog, the USDA explained the mishap, saying that the HD cam's software and hardware were actually battling over what date it was, but the ignorant hardware kept winning the battle.

Unfortunately, that means the high-def images could continue to have the wrong date as late as July, because rangers can't get to the remote camera until after this winter's snowfall melts.

Meanwhile, Stan Freeman at The Republican, a western Massachusetts newspaper, has a good story on how people with 2/29 birthdays have been battling stupid software for decades.

Recovery was much faster at the South Carolina DMV, where the system came back online around noon, according to spokeswoman Beth Parks.

Even with the emergency patch, the DMV's software couldn't clear a suspension, issue a new commercial driver's license or sell a motor-vehicle record for the remainder of the rogue day.

Parks says not to worry, however.

"We expect the problem to be fixed by tomorrow," Parks told THREAT LEVEL.

Hat Tip: Randy Alfred

Full post as published by Threat Level on February 29, 2008 (boomark / email).