I thought the coding/design pattern was to set the initial value of any counter 1 minute (or whatever eon makes sense in your application) from the roll-over so

I thought the coding/design pattern was to set the initial value of any counter 1 minute (or whatever eon makes sense in your application) from the roll-over so you'd see it 'right away' if it was badly handled. It's like you should use specific types with default values...