3 ms·

Why are there leading be zeros?

• szatkus 2y ago
  It's one of those weird HN things... https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2550 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2550
  • stogot 2y ago
    I don’t think it’s a “HN” thing
• eesmith 2y ago
  https://longnow.org/ideas/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-and-10k-compliance-at-home/ https://longnow.org/ideas/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-an... > The Long Now Foundation uses five-digit dates to guard against the deca-millennium bug (the “Y10K” problem) which will come into effect in about 8,000 years. As you may have noticed any reference we make to a year begins with a zero: 01977, 03012, 02000, 00521, 01215, etc. > It’s an idiosyncrasy to which we are dedicated. It’s nerdy fun, but it has a serious point, too. As our co-founder Stewart Brand points out: the present moment used to be the unimaginable future.
  • tombert 2y ago
    You just gave me a new phobia: in 8,000 years we still be running the same servers for our payroll systems.
    • eesmith 2y ago
      .. and in COBOL.