4 ms·

Y2K 2.0: Banking software is not ready to handle Zimbabwe's inflation.

12 points by gaika 18y ago

RobertL 18y ago
"Inflation" isn't zimbabwe's problem. Zimbabwe's problem is political tyranny. It's a nation hell bent on self genocide. We need to stop worrying about inflation there and "just let it go". Build a fence around the whole country and don't let anyone in or out until nothing moves inside but the wild animals.
- tornadoteddy 18y ago
  Hmmm. So does this mean the Zimbab's shouldn't be expecting a visit from you anytime soon there Robert.
- rw 18y ago
  The people of Zimbabwe are not a buffer zone.
henning 18y ago
I wonder if a lot of relational database schemata intended to store monetary amounts can't handle amounts in the quadrillions. PostgreSQL can only go up to 92233720368547758.07 (http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/datatype-money.html http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/datatype-money.htm...) -- 17 digits. Zimbabwe is pushing its limits. SQL Server 2000's money datatype limit is a few orders of magnitude smaller (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa933242 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa933242(SQL.80).aspx), and so a 15 digit number can't be stored in it AFAIK.
- neilc 18y ago
  The "money" type in Postgres is deprecated (e.g. see the locale-dependent restore issues that doc link mentions). "numeric" is an arbitrary precision data type that is probably a better choice for representing currency.
mdasen 18y ago
<sarcasm> Hello, my name is Robert Mugabe. I am the Leader of Zimbabwe. My treasury has excess funds that we cannot currently use in Zimbabwe due to political circumstances. I would like to see this money put to good use and you seem like a good person. If you send me $50,000 in good faith, I will mail you 100 billion dollars within a month. </sarcasm> Hey, it's a scam that's honest! Maybe ;-)
sethg 18y ago
My first thought reading this, of course, was "they should have written the ATM controllers in Lisp".
felipe 18y ago
On the bright side... Brazil also suffered from hyperinflation during the late 80s and early 90s, requiring programmers to deal with the craziest policies you (or the IMF) can imagine -- From nationwide account freezes to exchanging entire currencies overnight. As a result, today Brazil has one of the most advanced banking systems in the world, even compared to systems in the US and Europe, and extremely competent senior programmers and innovators in the industry.
- ovi256 18y ago
  Maybe we'll see some good mathematicians from Zimbabwe soon. You know, guys that grew up counting in quintillions and using scientific notation every day. They should have quite a knack for big numbers.
gaika 18y ago
They just dropped 10 zeros to fix the bug: http://redwoodage.com/content/view/143539/49 http://redwoodage.com/content/view/143539/49
mattmaroon 18y ago
Wow, call me crazy, but I'm buying one of those on eBay immediately.

12 points by gaika 18y ago

"Inflation" isn't zimbabwe's problem. Zimbabwe's problem is political tyranny. It's a nation hell bent on self genocide. We need to stop worrying about inflation there and "just let it go". Build a fence around the whole country and don't let anyone in or out until nothing moves inside but the wild animals.

tornadoteddy 18y ago
Hmmm. So does this mean the Zimbab's shouldn't be expecting a visit from you anytime soon there Robert.
rw 18y ago
The people of Zimbabwe are not a buffer zone.

henning 18y ago

I wonder if a lot of relational database schemata intended to store monetary amounts can't handle amounts in the quadrillions. PostgreSQL can only go up to 92233720368547758.07 (http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/datatype-money.html http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/datatype-money.htm...) -- 17 digits. Zimbabwe is pushing its limits. SQL Server 2000's money datatype limit is a few orders of magnitude smaller (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa933242 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa933242(SQL.80).aspx), and so a 15 digit number can't be stored in it AFAIK.

neilc 18y ago
The "money" type in Postgres is deprecated (e.g. see the locale-dependent restore issues that doc link mentions). "numeric" is an arbitrary precision data type that is probably a better choice for representing currency.

mdasen 18y ago

<sarcasm> Hello, my name is Robert Mugabe. I am the Leader of Zimbabwe. My treasury has excess funds that we cannot currently use in Zimbabwe due to political circumstances. I would like to see this money put to good use and you seem like a good person. If you send me $50,000 in good faith, I will mail you 100 billion dollars within a month. </sarcasm> Hey, it's a scam that's honest! Maybe ;-)

sethg 18y ago

My first thought reading this, of course, was "they should have written the ATM controllers in Lisp".

felipe 18y ago

On the bright side... Brazil also suffered from hyperinflation during the late 80s and early 90s, requiring programmers to deal with the craziest policies you (or the IMF) can imagine -- From nationwide account freezes to exchanging entire currencies overnight. As a result, today Brazil has one of the most advanced banking systems in the world, even compared to systems in the US and Europe, and extremely competent senior programmers and innovators in the industry.

ovi256 18y ago
Maybe we'll see some good mathematicians from Zimbabwe soon. You know, guys that grew up counting in quintillions and using scientific notation every day. They should have quite a knack for big numbers.

gaika 18y ago

They just dropped 10 zeros to fix the bug: http://redwoodage.com/content/view/143539/49 http://redwoodage.com/content/view/143539/49

mattmaroon 18y ago

Wow, call me crazy, but I'm buying one of those on eBay immediately.