4 ms·

Why does the device allow the user to set the date back before the device was released?

serf 11y ago
Rather than wonder why a device isn't more restrictive to the user, why not wonder why a device has problems with arbitrary dates?
- pklausler 11y ago
  I think that we can be more generous to a vendor who didn't test sufficiently for a failure mode that would be a legitimate use only to a (reverse) time traveller who wouldn't be able to connect the device to any network in existence in 1970 anyway. Seriously, people are complaining about problems when they go out of their way to set the date to a bogus value? Some behavior is its own punishment, people!
  - Ezhik 11y ago
    I don't think the ability to completely disable a device is ever justifiable, especially on an Apple product.
  - vacri 11y ago
    You mean a failure mode that is simply the time server saying "start of epoch, no offset"? There's a ton of ways for an offset to be zeroed by accident. Hell, two years ago I was setting up logstash, and was wondering why none of my front-end searches were getting loglines. Turns out the front-end was expecting four-digit years and I was saving two-digit years - by widening my search to include the year 14AD (rather than 2014), there were my loglines. I don't expect a vendor to intelligently handle this error and fix it for me, but I do expect a product not to irrevocably break itself if such an error does crop up.
gcr 11y ago
Why allow you to set your own date anyway? The device should just talk to an NTP server. Wouldn't want a malicious human setting an incorrect date now, would we? That's dangerous!
- Ezhik 11y ago
  I was writing some calendar code recently, and changed my date to ensure that the right month and year were selected at all times. How locked down is locked down enough?
  - gcr 11y ago
    What does "right month" and "right year" mean? Server time or local time? Either you're trusting the user's device, or your clock is always 12 hours off for some users.
  - umanwizard 11y ago
    I'm pretty sure your parent commenter was being sarcastic.
rdancer 11y ago
Three equally important reasons: 1. Added complexity 2. No discernible benefits 3. Time travel
madaxe_again 11y ago
So you can have the same date on your phone and computer with a flat clock battery, of course.
collyw 11y ago
iTimeTraveller is to be released next year.

serf 11y ago

Rather than wonder why a device isn't more restrictive to the user, why not wonder why a device has problems with arbitrary dates?

pklausler 11y ago
I think that we can be more generous to a vendor who didn't test sufficiently for a failure mode that would be a legitimate use only to a (reverse) time traveller who wouldn't be able to connect the device to any network in existence in 1970 anyway. Seriously, people are complaining about problems when they go out of their way to set the date to a bogus value? Some behavior is its own punishment, people!
- Ezhik 11y ago
  I don't think the ability to completely disable a device is ever justifiable, especially on an Apple product.
- vacri 11y ago
  You mean a failure mode that is simply the time server saying "start of epoch, no offset"? There's a ton of ways for an offset to be zeroed by accident. Hell, two years ago I was setting up logstash, and was wondering why none of my front-end searches were getting loglines. Turns out the front-end was expecting four-digit years and I was saving two-digit years - by widening my search to include the year 14AD (rather than 2014), there were my loglines. I don't expect a vendor to intelligently handle this error and fix it for me, but I do expect a product not to irrevocably break itself if such an error does crop up.

gcr 11y ago

Why allow you to set your own date anyway? The device should just talk to an NTP server. Wouldn't want a malicious human setting an incorrect date now, would we? That's dangerous!

Ezhik 11y ago
I was writing some calendar code recently, and changed my date to ensure that the right month and year were selected at all times. How locked down is locked down enough?
- gcr 11y ago
  What does "right month" and "right year" mean? Server time or local time? Either you're trusting the user's device, or your clock is always 12 hours off for some users.
- umanwizard 11y ago
  I'm pretty sure your parent commenter was being sarcastic.

rdancer 11y ago

Three equally important reasons: 1. Added complexity 2. No discernible benefits 3. Time travel

madaxe_again 11y ago

So you can have the same date on your phone and computer with a flat clock battery, of course.

collyw 11y ago

iTimeTraveller is to be released next year.