I just ran into a scary Y2K problem.

I got a new Visa card that said "This Low interest rate is good for
the next three years, all the way until July 1 1981" !!!!!!!!

1981?????

"D'oh"  I said, quoting Homer Simpson, and promptly called the 800
number to complain.

I asked "So what do I do when, in January of 2001, I get a bill for
20 years worth of unpaid interest?  " The customer service person was
flummoxed.

BTW, this question comes up all the time in my designs.  "are you Y2K
compliant?"  I say  "My toaster timer doesn't even KNOW what Day it
is, let alone the year!"

There are Bozos going around saying that every embedded controller in
the world will crash at midnight on Dec 31, 2000.  These people should
place a cold soldering iron in a dark place and turn it on, for
punishment.  Most of them are trying to scare people into paying them
as consultants.


> Andy Kunz wrote:
>
> > This also explains the Y2K problems.  Those applications were
> > obviously not written by assembly programmers, who would have used
> > 16-bit values for dates because they KNOW that they wouldn't want to
> > have to come back to the program at then end of every millenia.
>
> > Seriously, though,
>
>   Seriously though, it's not as if it's even necessary to use 16-bit
> data values for year dates.  Since these things (microcomputers) did
> not exist prior to 1970, and the PC till 1980, a two-digit BCD value
> provides compatibility through to 2070 or 2080, and seven bits
> through to 2098 at minimum.  For each chip or application, it's
> pretty obvious how to do it; you just write the code and it works!
>
>   Cheers,
>         Paul B.
Best Regards,

Lawrence Lile