On Mon, 4 Jan 1999, Tony Duell wrote:
> Even if you set the date then there may not be problems. If the date is
> only used for 'cosmetic' purposes (heading a printout, something like
> that), then it may be wrong, but the device will keep working.
> The main problem comes when the date is used for something more. And the
> real problem comes when it's used for a maintenance timer. Some things,
> lifts (elevators) being the most common example, have to be inspected
> every so many days. And there's a timer in the control unit that shuts
> them down - safely (go to ground floor, open doors) if this timer
> expires. The timer is reset by the service engineer when he does the
> inspection, of course.
>
> Now, on most such systems the timer is a simple day counter. And AFAIK
> counting days does not depend on the month or year, or anything else. So
> they keep working as ever. To do it this way is simple, it takes little
> programming (to work out a date 90 days in the future is a lot more work
> than counting to 90), and it doesn't suffer from problems.
The only thing I can think of where a date issue would cause a system to
be Y2K non-compliant is something that tracks days throughout the year,
and thus would need to know if February is 28 or 29 days this year.
> For the average person, the only thing that might have problems is the
> VCR. I personally wouldn't try to set the timer past the year 2000. I'd
> not try to automatically record a programme over 01/01/2000 00:00. I'd do
> it by hand. Realistically, though, most VCRs don't have problems.
> Paradoxically, the more intellegent ones - the ones with barcode
> programming, video+, automatic dayname setting based on the date are more
> likely to have problems than the older ones.
The VCR I bought in 1993 (Panasonic) has a 4-digit year field for
programming, and does go to 2000 and beyond.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Mon Jan 04 1999 - 15:33:28 GMT