At 02:56 AM 1/5/99 -0500, Ward wrote:
>Tony Duell wrote:
>> > > And if I hear one more person who claims the Millennium is the 31/12/1999
>> >
>> > > - 01/01/2000 (as opposed to the correct date of 1 year later), I am
>> > > liable to get out a very large LART..
>(Forget the argument when the 2nd millennium starts -- yes, there was
>no Year Zero, but the majority of voters are impressed by the row of
>zeroes in the coming year number -- democratically, we lose. Let them
>celebrate their millennium, nick the booze from their parties, then we
>can have a proper party a year later. Inviting those who can count.)
>--
These conversations have made me think about time. The key word above, IMO,
is the last one, _count_.
Does one count or measure time?
In an analog clock, a minute starts at 60 = 00 seconds, not one. It is measured.
Once you get to hours, it is mixed. They are numbered 1 to 12, but the
morning/evening starts at 12:00. I used to always be confused when, for
example, 12:30 AM was.
In early digital clocks, one had to somehow "adjust" the hours display as a
mod 12 counter typically counts 0 ..11.
Suppose an analog computer is made as a clock. Say using voltage ramps. If
seconds were mV, the sawtooth would be reset at 60mV. Same for an index mark
on revolving disks. This could also be for hours, months, years, etc.
So for an counting computer it is 2001, but maybe for a measuring computer,
it is 2000??
End of rambling.
The issue I guess isn't the millenniun, but how computers handle the year 2000.
Don't be surprised if next year my messages are dated 1980.
-Dave
Hi,
When you say Jr unit, do you mean the complete CPU or just the disk drive?
I am a PCJr collector and would be willing to pay shipping. Please Email me
@ amirault(a)epix.net to make arrangements. Thank you.
John Amirault
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, January 04, 1999 1:08 PM
Subject: Re: 5155 floppy fixed
>>
>> turns out the reason for the post error on my 5155 was because the head
was
>> sticking and couldnt do the initial seek, thus causing the 601 post. tony
was
>> right! i didnt bother with greasing it and swapped out an identical
floppy
>> drive from an extra pcjr. anyone want a pcjr unit for the price of
shipping?
>
>Oh come on... We're supposed to be preserving classics and not stripping
>them for parts unless there's a very good reason.
>
>Anyway, it probably took more time to find the jr, open it up, and remove
>the drive than it would have done to put a couple of drops of oil (or
>better still dry film lubricant) on the rails and work the head back and
>forth a few times.
>
>>
>> david
>>
>
>-tony
>
>
I found this in a newsgroup. No telling how much of an affect it will
actually have on computers, but something else to consider when talking
about Y2k stuff...
>>>
Every 11 years the sun sends storms of cosmic rays which disrupt all sorts
of electrical devices. The last was in 1989, and they are due again in
2000. 1978 was also a year effected by mega cosmic rays and was
coincidentally the first year of Expansion Interface manufacture. Could
the rays have been the source of the EIs poor performance? I have a 1978 EI
and its never missed a beat, but I didn't own it in '78. Its all buffered,
probably against cosmic onslaughts.
>>>
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
> And if I hear one more person who claims the Millennium is the 31/12/1999
> - 01/01/2000 (as opposed to the correct date of 1 year later), I am
> liable to get out a very large LART..
Whoever said anything about it being the Millennium? It's just the year
2000, and I think that's important enough!
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 5 January 1999 12:36
Subject: Re: Why you won't fly on 1/1/00
>All of my programming life, software developers have been
>able to get away with shipping buggy software with
>virtually no liability. Now companies are already being sued for this
>particular bug by their customers.
Having read the so called "warranty" on the Windows (and other)
software packages, Microsoft is in big trouble if that is the case.
It amazes me how they have gotten away with selling stuff that
is essentially guaranteed only to take up disk space.
>A new breed of lawyer is being hatched:
>those who are trained to sue for software defects.
They are going to be busy boys/girls. And get rich.
>Prediction: the year 2000 will be the first year software malpractice
>insurance is offered.
In the USA, I wouldn't be at all surprised.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Room Internet Cafe
Port Pirie
South Australia.
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
> Is it? My current credit card has an expiry date after the end of this
> year and I've never had any problems with it.
I read that it has happened in one of those panicky articles. I guess it
was fixed the day after someone became aware of the problem.
> Sure. Nobody is saying that you shouldn't check things. Just as I don't
> expect a power cut at the end of this year, but I'll have a working torch
> (flashlight) in the house. I always do. Power failures can occur. I just
> don't expect the date per se to be a particularly likely cause of one.
I think that 'maintenance errors' could potentially occur in power plants,
and what is more likely, some will be shut down just in case.
<elevator to stop working when you're trying to make the appointment on the
<40th floor, would you? Sure, it could fail for other reasons too, but this
<is something that ought to be double-checked since we know about it.
This is exactly the stuff I refer to. Whay would an elevator care what
year it is? Some do days of the week but their clock is not date but _day_
so that say on sunday you need a pass key to get in a building that would be
open during the week. That as far as they go, very minimalistic.
Allison
In a message dated 03/01/99 21:46:40 GMT Standard Time,
ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes:
> What's so interesting about 2000? It's not a power of 2 (:-))...
Yes lets start a Y2k campaign for the correct year - 2048 ;-)
Regards
Pete
>Yet another reason to prefer open-source tools whenever possible.
Yeah - and be sure to check out the Unix 'cal' utility, it even
gets Sept. 1752 correct ($cal 9 1752), actually, correct in
Britain and the colonies, as well as 1 2000.
http://home.earthlink.net/~aske/nature/calendar.htm
Chuck
cswiger(a)widomaker.com
>This is my biggest fear of Y2K. All of my programming life, software
>developers have been able to get away with shipping buggy software with
>virtually no liability. Now companies are already being sued for this
Gentelpersons - certainly have been enjoying the thoughts on y2k,
pretty much matches my thoughts. As for the above, just look at
the Microsoft y2k statements, which claim to be compliant,
immediately followed by the big screaming-caps legal boilerplate
saying "but if your business fails due to ANY bug in the SOFTWARE,
you can't sue me, nyah nyah-nyah nyah nyah, nyah". I think the right
to peddle buggy software must be protected by 1st amendment free
speech.
My elder brother works with credit card processing in San Jose'
and last August he wrote:
" I have cards that expire now in 06/01 and 05/00 I believe.
Anyway, I have not had any problem using them.
I know for a fact that this is one of the issues that had to
be dealt with last year. In fact, for a while there, we had
to ignore expiration dates in the processing."
Chuck
cswiger(a)widomaker.com
