[SweetLlamaMyth]

Is there an actual indication that these are connected to a network? Depending on how these devices work, some failure may have caused them to get reset to a factory default, requiring a password to be set before accepting settings like a message.

[pessimizer]

Why would they all fail at the same time unless they're networked? Exactly the same bug triggered by the system clock?

They shouldn't even know the time. All they need to do is count to the same number over and over.

[SweetLlamaMyth]

> Why would they all fail at the same time unless they're networked?

Because temperature swings in the area over the weekend caused some physical issue in the devices? Because someone figured out how reset them, and reset a bunch for laughs? I agree that network is a likely root cause, but it's also an assumption.

[thesh4d0w]

Cities do all sorts of syncing / timing of lights in order to optimize traffic patterns, to do that they need a network connection.

[pessimizer]

Makes sense, but I'm replying to a comment that wondered if the assumption that the lights were actually networked was a good one. I thought it was, because they all went out at the same time.