5 ms·

Y2K20 Parking Meter Software Glitch Causes Citywide Snafu

50 points by lelf 7y ago

iforgotpassword 7y ago
It should be sufficient if we hot-patch the end date to 2030 - we'll surely have updated or replaced those systems until then. I'm curious what part of the system even required specifically coding an end date, and not just sanity checks relative to the current date.
- officialchicken 7y ago
  > I'm curious what part of the system even required specifically coding an end date, and not just sanity checks relative to the current date. It's working as designed... liability and support was shifted to the owners (cities) prior to the event.
- jiveturkey 7y ago
  my unsubstantiated guess is that this is a licensing scheme. reminds me of the parking garage in hoboken that wouldn't pay for a new software license. omg was that over a decade ago? i'm getting old. https://www.govtech.com/magazines/gt/Robot-Garage-Hijacks-Cars.html https://www.govtech.com/magazines/gt/Robot-Garage-Hijacks-Ca...
- nottorp 7y ago
  I’m sure that’s what they also thought in 1981 when storing only 2 digits of the year and we all know how that turned out.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    I honestly am using 2 digit years again because I know I'm not going to care in 2100.
    - nottorp 7y ago
      Creating job security for the developers of 2098, I see :)
mxuribe 7y ago
I have no experience with parking meters, but surprising that software updates need to be done at the site/hardware (as opposed to, say, online or "over the air" or updates).
- Jamwinner 7y ago
  Easier to secure and administer I would guess. More and more orgs are realizing that IOT admin is a bigger burden than a liberator to those who are responsible for upkeep.
- mannykannot 7y ago
  If we can judge the vendor's competence from the problem reported here, then if they had made them updatable wirelessly, they would likely be easily hacked.
coin 7y ago
> Y2K20 It’s 2020. Why use a cryptic abbreviation with more characters? If they want to use the SI “k” prefix shouldn’t it be Y2.02k?
- M4v3R 7y ago
  It's probably just a play on the original "Y2K" name for the problems in year 2000.
  - glenngillen 7y ago
    Might also be actually related to the same problem: https://twitter.com/jef_poskanzer/status/1213258774938415104?s=20 https://twitter.com/jef_poskanzer/status/1213258774938415104...
- analog31 7y ago
  Perhaps it's a reference to a standard for labeling electronic components. For instance a resistor with 3300 Ohms will be labeled "3k3" on a diagram. It eliminates the decimal point, which might be hard to read or even fall off if it's printed on a tiny component.
  - a1369209993 7y ago
    That would be "2K02". It's actually a (bad) abbreviation of "two[2] thousand[K] twenty[20]".
megaframe 7y ago
This is so funny I just had a similar bug yesterday and named it our y2k20 bug, just a path name change that someone forgot to map correctly
ChuckMcM 7y ago
One of a number of errors that are showing up. My favorite are the websites that regex the '20' out of the year to get just the decade, "Whoops!" In many ways I'm glad we didn't bother to fix the bugs this year like we did for the 1999 - 2000 transition. Way too many people think that Y2K was just some big 'scare tactic' and nothing ever happened. It is sad that operations is always like that, you work your arse off things operate smoothly and the unknowing just say "I don't see what the big deal was all about."
- Unsimplified 7y ago
  Reliability work is unfortunately under-observed and under-valued... until its absence triggers an incident.
alias_neo 7y ago
Who wants to bet that is not a numeric bug, but a certificate expiry?
mickotron 7y ago
We had to do an emergency patch to the config of a well-known data analytics platform, because their regex to identify/extract 2 digit years did not cater for anything beyond 2019... We dodged that bullet, but shows a lack of foresight by said company. Lucky we don't have much data that has 2 digit year dates.
sschueller 7y ago
It only effects card payments. Cash still works. It appears the CA certs may have expired and a secure connection to the credit card server can't be established. Easy fix but you do need to update your machines from time to time...
perl4ever 7y ago
My Android phone started glitching and freezing just after the new year. I'm assuming it's a hardware failure, but I wondered if it were a year 2020 bug (or a virus).

50 points by lelf 7y ago

It should be sufficient if we hot-patch the end date to 2030 - we'll surely have updated or replaced those systems until then. I'm curious what part of the system even required specifically coding an end date, and not just sanity checks relative to the current date.

officialchicken 7y ago
> I'm curious what part of the system even required specifically coding an end date, and not just sanity checks relative to the current date. It's working as designed... liability and support was shifted to the owners (cities) prior to the event.
jiveturkey 7y ago
my unsubstantiated guess is that this is a licensing scheme. reminds me of the parking garage in hoboken that wouldn't pay for a new software license. omg was that over a decade ago? i'm getting old. https://www.govtech.com/magazines/gt/Robot-Garage-Hijacks-Cars.html https://www.govtech.com/magazines/gt/Robot-Garage-Hijacks-Ca...
nottorp 7y ago
I’m sure that’s what they also thought in 1981 when storing only 2 digits of the year and we all know how that turned out.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  I honestly am using 2 digit years again because I know I'm not going to care in 2100.
  - nottorp 7y ago
    Creating job security for the developers of 2098, I see :)

mxuribe 7y ago

I have no experience with parking meters, but surprising that software updates need to be done at the site/hardware (as opposed to, say, online or "over the air" or updates).

Jamwinner 7y ago
Easier to secure and administer I would guess. More and more orgs are realizing that IOT admin is a bigger burden than a liberator to those who are responsible for upkeep.
mannykannot 7y ago
If we can judge the vendor's competence from the problem reported here, then if they had made them updatable wirelessly, they would likely be easily hacked.

coin 7y ago

> Y2K20 It’s 2020. Why use a cryptic abbreviation with more characters? If they want to use the SI “k” prefix shouldn’t it be Y2.02k?

M4v3R 7y ago
It's probably just a play on the original "Y2K" name for the problems in year 2000.
- glenngillen 7y ago
  Might also be actually related to the same problem: https://twitter.com/jef_poskanzer/status/1213258774938415104?s=20 https://twitter.com/jef_poskanzer/status/1213258774938415104...
analog31 7y ago
Perhaps it's a reference to a standard for labeling electronic components. For instance a resistor with 3300 Ohms will be labeled "3k3" on a diagram. It eliminates the decimal point, which might be hard to read or even fall off if it's printed on a tiny component.
- a1369209993 7y ago
  That would be "2K02". It's actually a (bad) abbreviation of "two[2] thousand[K] twenty[20]".

megaframe 7y ago

This is so funny I just had a similar bug yesterday and named it our y2k20 bug, just a path name change that someone forgot to map correctly

ChuckMcM 7y ago

One of a number of errors that are showing up. My favorite are the websites that regex the '20' out of the year to get just the decade, "Whoops!" In many ways I'm glad we didn't bother to fix the bugs this year like we did for the 1999 - 2000 transition. Way too many people think that Y2K was just some big 'scare tactic' and nothing ever happened. It is sad that operations is always like that, you work your arse off things operate smoothly and the unknowing just say "I don't see what the big deal was all about."

Unsimplified 7y ago
Reliability work is unfortunately under-observed and under-valued... until its absence triggers an incident.

alias_neo 7y ago

Who wants to bet that is not a numeric bug, but a certificate expiry?

mickotron 7y ago

We had to do an emergency patch to the config of a well-known data analytics platform, because their regex to identify/extract 2 digit years did not cater for anything beyond 2019... We dodged that bullet, but shows a lack of foresight by said company. Lucky we don't have much data that has 2 digit year dates.

sschueller 7y ago

It only effects card payments. Cash still works. It appears the CA certs may have expired and a secure connection to the credit card server can't be established. Easy fix but you do need to update your machines from time to time...

perl4ever 7y ago

My Android phone started glitching and freezing just after the new year. I'm assuming it's a hardware failure, but I wondered if it were a year 2020 bug (or a virus).