OT: Happy Holidays

From: Charles E. Fox <foxvideo_at_wincom.net>
Date: Sat Dec 25 15:24:50 1999

At 05:28 PM 12/25/1999 +0000, you wrote:
>> >century (and the 2nd millennium). The new millennium starts on 01/01/2001.
>> >
>> >-tony
>> >
>> Hey, Tony, I thought all computer types counted 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9!
>
>Indeed I do -- most of the time. Heck, I even once used '_at_' as a letter
>zero (well, it comes immedidately before 'A' in the ASCII table) when
>lettering the sections of a document.
>
>Had _I_ been designing a calendar, there would have been a year 0. And a
>century 0. And a millennium 0. And, for that matter, a zeroth of every
>month. We'd currently be in the 19th century (and at the end of the 1st
>millennium).
>
>But that's not the calendar we all use. The 19th century ended on
>31/12/1900, and the 20th centrury started on 01/01/1901. That's within
>living memory (just). Now, if you can honestly justify a century of 99
>years, I'd love to know how.
>
>Celebrate the year 2000 if you want. But don't call it the start of the
>next millennium.
>
>-tony
>
        I'm willing to argue either side of this, and I have. When a child is
born, or when you buy a new car the period starting from the birth or
purchase (as the case may be) is part of its first year, and 365 (more or
less) days later it is one year old. Its existence is not beginning at its
first birthday, but at the beginning of its first year.
        Now what I would like some of you scientific types to explain to me is how
folks living in the years 'BC' designated them. They couldn't say "this
year is 45 BC'" because they didn't know when it was going to happen. I'm
afraid I'm not quite old enough to remember.

                                                        Regards

                                                        Charlie Fox


                                Charles E. Fox
                       Chas E. Fox Video Productions
                793 Argyle Rd. Windsor N8Y 3J8 Ont. Canada
        email foxvideo_at_wincom.net Homepage http://www.wincom.net/foxvideo
Received on Sat Dec 25 1999 - 15:24:50 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:31:56 BST