The worldwide simultaneous bricking of 30GB Zunes has generated tons of attention, even showing up on CNN.com’s home page.  Microsoft recently came out with a ‘fix’ and, well, you’ll have to be patient.

Apparently the problem relates to how the Zune 30GB deals with the leap year.  The good news is that the fix really just requires you to wait until January 1, 2009.  The bad news is until then, well, your Zune 30GB is useless.

Gizmodo has a detailed note from Microsoft and a Q&A here.

This is really an odd problem, and it’s kind of a bummer to have my Zune sitting here useless…but at least things look like they will sort themselves out soon.

Last night my 30GB 1st gen Zune was mysteriously bricked.  It wouldn’t boot up…the startup screen just showed endlessly until the battery ran out.  I thought that perhaps my device had finally given out, but it appears, according to Engadget, that the problem is happening worldwide.

Apparently at midnight on January 31st to users of the 30GB Zunes without warning  or any user interaction.  It is really one of the strangest problems I’ve come across, and it sucks because now my Zune is unusable.

Microsoft has said it’s working on the issue but no word when a patch will be out.  Until then, Zunes are just useless pieces of plastic.

After a couple of false starts I finally got to actually eat at Mana Bu’s.  Well, more precisely I actually went there at a time when the line was reasonable and there was a good variety of musubi’s in stock.

For me Tuesday at 11:15am worked well.  I was one of two customers in the store and the shelves were mostly fully stocked.  White rice musubis are on the window-side of the store.  To the right are the 10 grain musubis.

I tried the ahi mayo, baked salmon, spicy ahi and takuan.  The spicy ahi and takuan were on 10 grain and the others were on plain white rice.

The verdict?

For $1 and change per musubi the price was reasonable and the portions are good.  I could have used a bit more salt in the rice, and a bit more fillings, though.  For example the baked salmon just had a tiny bit of salmon in the middle…I’ve had sake omusubis where the salmon is mixed throughout the rice, making the whole thing very flavorful - I think that’s the route to go.

Not all musubis at Mana Bu’s had nori, but the ones that did were soggy and rubbery.  It’s hard to prevent that with nori, but still, I prefer the crisp nori that you get from say, Kozo’s roll-your-own handrolls.

Overall I think the place was a bit overhyped and it’s tough to live up to that.  I’d certainly return on a frequent basis if I could be assured that the line would be reasonable and there would be decent selection.

The problem is that’s not the case.  It’s a crap shoot at Mana Bu’s, and unless you want to get there close to the 10:30am opening you’re potentially gonna get stuck in a long line or be left with only limited selection.  Hopefully they’ll work on that, or they won’t last long after the novelty of the shop fades.