Re: What are we going to do with our clocks at 2000 AD?

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <336BDFB1.47ED@swbell.net>,  <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:
>     You could just set your clock to Dec. 31, 1999 11:59:50 PM and watch 
>what happens. However, it will be more fun to just wait. No matter what 
>anyone says, you will not really know until the dawning of the new 
>millenium. 

   Bzzzzt! There was no year 0 ('AD' is the abbreviation of 'In the
year of our Lord', ie.e Jesus. AD 1 was (well, supposed to be, but the
monk couldn't do math right) the first year of Jesus's life, and the
first year in the system), so while you may get to see a bunch of
zeros, the new century and milennium does not start until 2001.

   And setting your clock ahead and letting it roll over is a
perfectly fine way of testing how your computer will behave. No, the
laws of physics will not change just because of some extra zeroes in
the totally arbitrary calendar (tip: if you do the math right, Jesus
was really born about 4-7 B.C., so if the calendar was right, we'd
think we were in the new milennium). A lot of computer programs will
fail just because of shortsightedness. However, unless you missed the
suicide party go get on Hale-Bopp, you should have enough sense to
realize that humans and the world will go on just as before.

   [I think there's going to be a bumper crop of suicides in 2000
as a lot of brainwashed folks wake up and realize that the world is
just the same no matter what the year is. Oh well, more oxygen for
the rest of us who have their heads on right.]

Nathan "Get a clue, don't believe that crud or kill yourself" Mates


--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein