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Missing Option (Score:5, Funny)
A chance to read up on all the superb calendar implementations that make their way into common consumer (and not so consumer) products.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
It's amazing how much software ends up released with no, or wrong, leap year calculations. You'd think that they could get ordinary (YYYY % 4) right, but Nooooo.
Re:Missing Option (Score:5, Informative)
Except (YYYY % 4) is not how you calculate leap years.
End-of-century years that are exactly divisible by 4 but not by 400 are common years. 1800, 1900 or 2100 are not leap years, while 2000 was a leap year.
Re: (Score:2)
It becomes even more complicated when you take into account that this rule only applies to the Gregorian calendar. Other calendars have different rules and the Gregorian calendar wasn't always the standard, so for instance it would make little sense to calculate whether year 1000 was a leap year or not using the Gregorian calendar. I doubt historical dates have all been converted to Gregorian in history books, although if I'm wrong I'll welcome any informed input on this. Any historian here?
Re:Missing Option (Score:5, Interesting)
Not a historian, but old faithful Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] has some interesting info on that.
As I understand it, dates are not converted and are left in the Julian calendar if that was in place at the time. But for countries who didn't immediately switch over, there's some confusion and they sometimes specify "old style" or "new style". Actually, there's a fair bit of confusion:
It is sometimes remarked that William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died on the same date, 23 April 1616, but not on the same day. England was still using the Julian calendar in 1616, while Spain was using the Gregorian calendar. Cervantes actually died ten days before Shakespeare.
Hence the October Revolution of 1917 is so called, despite having started on 7 November under the Gregorian calendar...
For example William III of England arrived at Brixham in England on 5 November (Julian calendar), after setting sail from the Netherlands on 11 November (Gregorian calendar).
Luckily modern computers don't have to handle these dates retrospectively, if some can't even figure out this year is a leap year.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"For example William III of England arrived at Brixham in England on 5 November (Julian calendar), after setting sail from the Netherlands on 11 November (Gregorian calendar)."
Don't underestimate the North Sea! It rivals the Bermuda Triangle when it comes to time travel.
Re:Missing Option (Score:5, Interesting)
It becomes even more complicated when you take into account that this rule only applies to the Gregorian calendar. Other calendars have different rules and the Gregorian calendar wasn't always the standard, so for instance it would make little sense to calculate whether year 1000 was a leap year or not using the Gregorian calendar. I doubt historical dates have all been converted to Gregorian in history books, although if I'm wrong I'll welcome any informed input on this. Any historian here?
Don't forget the sweet period the Swiss must have had between 1584, when the first administrative districts of the country adopted the new calendar, and 1812 (!), when the last ones did and the adoption was complete. :)
Re: (Score:2)
True, but % 4 would be an adequate approximation given the expected lifetime of most consumer products.
Re:Missing Option (Score:5, Funny)
True, but % 4 would be an adequate approximation given the expected lifetime of most consumer products.
! % 1 would be an adequate approximation given the expected lifetime of many consumer products. Yes, I'm looking at you, Logitech.
Re:Missing Option (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Missing Option (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but we're in the middle of a nearly 200 year span where YYYY % 4 will work just fine for the current year. The likelihood of any of my consumer electronics of today (or just plain me for that matter) still function in 2100 are pretty slim. Which is a shame. I think I'd find the chaos from goofed leap year calcs in 2100 would entertain me.
Re: (Score:2)
I get that, and it's not like it's hard to add the extra tidbit of code to get it right, but I can't say I've had any personal need to calculate calendars nearly a century from now.
Re: (Score:2)
I think you may be missing part of the point. If whatever electronic device you are using that will not function in 2100 has to perform a date calculation that involves dates in the future you have a decent chance of getting it wrong.
Hush! The 90 year mortgage I just signed on can end a day early, and it would be fine by me!
Re:Missing Option (Score:4, Informative)
The code I've used (C++) is:
bool isleap = year % 4 ? false : year % 100 ? true : year % 400 ? false : true;
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
static int __isleap(long year)
{
return (year) % 4 == 0 && ((year) % 100 != 0 || (year) % 400 == 0);
}
I think it was originally implemented as a #define. Hence the remaining parenthesis around 'year'?
Re: (Score:3)
Except (YYYY % 4) is not how you calculate leap years.
I agree, it's better to do (YYYY & 3).
Re:Missing Option (Score:5, Informative)
It's amazing how much software ends up released with no, or wrong, leap year calculations. You'd think that they could get ordinary (YYYY % 4) right, but Nooooo.
Hah, today it turned out that the programmers of the new information system for my country's public service were incapable after this fashion as well. No one can get a new ID card or a passport, since the identity card component of the IS went down, nation-wide.
Since this is not the first issue with the new software, the programmers of the old contractor must be rolling on the floor laughing. The new contractor clearly managed outbribe them, but the money should have been better spent on more capable programmers. The public is already in steaming rage; many of them have already happened to be greatly inconvenienced at their last visit to this or that government office, since a large part of the information system has been at a rather low level of nation-wide operational availability since its introduction in the beginning of the year. But, boy, this leap day blunder could really be the last drop of patience for the common citizen.
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Czech Republic.
Re: (Score:3)
let me help you here:
http://wins.failblog.org/2012/02/29/epic-win-photos-leap-year-explained-win/ [failblog.org]
Re: (Score:2)
The first one I ran into was the QX-PC card for my Epson QX-10.
Birthday (Score:2)
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I voted the birthday option, but it's actually my Dad's birthday. He turns 16 tomorrow!
Did you remember to accommodate the 400-year rule when counting?
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anniversary (Score:5, Funny)
Its the perfect day to get married. only have to remember it once every four years and you save loads on gifts..
A Very Special Leap Day for comics readers (Score:5, Interesting)
This year is a special Leap Day, because it creates a very rare instance of a February with 5 New Comic Book Days in it! Every month periodically has 5 Wednesdays in it, which (as every comics geek knows) means 5 days upon which new comics are delivered to shops throughout North America. It normally happens during four months each year; this year it will happen five times. For it to happen in February can only happen during a Leap Year, and only when February starts on a Wednesday, a period of 4*7=28 years. It last was in 1984 (pre-Crisis!), and the next instance will be in 2040. With distribution moving toward digital, there probably won't be comic book shops (as we know them) by then, so enjoy this 5th-visit-in-February, comics geeks... it'll be your last.
Re:A Very Special Leap Day for comics readers (Score:4, Funny)
I wish I had mod points, and I wish there was a "+1 Totally useless, but strangely fascinating" option.
Re:A Very Special Leap Day for comics readers (Score:4, Funny)
I wish I had mod points, and I wish there was a "+1 Totally useless, but strangely fascinating" option.
It's called Idle.
Re:A Very Special Leap Day for comics readers (Score:5, Insightful)
There will always be comic book shops in major markets, even if there are no new comics. There will be stacks of old comics in droves that people can purchase or collect. And there will be stacks of bound collections, books, where companies take a handful of issues and press them into a hardcover book. Not to mention digital collections available on CD/USB and whatnot.
Not to mention the plethora of comic book themed stuff since Marvel and DC started going wild with big budget movies. Shirts, toys, video games, mechanical pinball machines, board games, and so on. That's how most comic shops are now anyways. You have sections of toys, board games, video games, and then a comic book section.
If Marvel and DC keep racking up interest in their characters and franchises with movies then they'll always be creating new fans for their comics and other merchandise.
Re: (Score:3)
If there are no new comics, there will be no New Comics Wednesdays, will there? Way to completely miss the point, but some of your other comments also bear rebuttal:
If by "major markets" you mean in the two dozen largest cities in North America, you're probably right: there will always be antique shops that specialize in printed comics. But the market for back issues (that aren't Action #1, Amazing Fantasy #15, etc) has already collapsed, with the only thing sustaining most comics shops today being the we
Re:A Very Special Leap Day for comics readers (Score:5, Informative)
It gets even more interesting.
Leap years aren't quite periodic under the Gregorian calendar, since every hundredth year isn't a leap year, but every four-hundredth is. This also makes the distribution of days uneven. There are actually more Sunday February 29s than Thursday February 29s. There are 14 Wednesdays in the 400-year cycle, so it happens on average once every 28.57 years.
Utterly meaningless, but interesting nonetheless.
Re:A Very Special Leap Day for comics readers (Score:4, Funny)
Parents comment actually legitimately qualifies for every single mod option simultaneously.
Means that budget-friendly February (Score:2, Insightful)
There's no way (Score:2, Interesting)
If it's really true, Slashdot is a hell of a statistical anomaly
Re:There's no way (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, are you accounting for the yearly Slashdot 5DigitUID Impregnation Day every June 1?
Might be a correlation....and the reason they all look like Taco. B)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Well, it doesn't neccesarily have to be your own birthday.
I chose that option because my son turns four today on his first birthday.
Re: (Score:2)
There's no goddamn way 6% of Slashdot users were born on february 29th. Assuming all times of year are equal, by my math 0.068% ought to be closer to the truth.
Not necessarily your own birthday. Could be your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, or any other loved ones.
The social scientists claim that an average person can make stable relationships with somewhere between 100 and 250 [wikipedia.org] people. So, it makes sense that it's 0.068 times about 100.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a self-selecting sample though - many people probably can't be bothered to vote (I haven't). Whereas on the 29th of February, people who were born on a leapday are likely to be far more sensitive to the word "birthday" than usual, and thus may be far more likely to vote for something which acknowledges that.
There's also the possibility that people are just picking it for teh lolz. But I would guess that some significant fraction of the people picking that option are actually leapers.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a self-selecting sample though - many people probably can't be bothered to vote (I haven't).
I agree... it's such a burden!
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Leap Year Video (Score:2)
Education video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX96xng7sAE [youtube.com] from http://videosift.com/video/What-is-a-Leap-Year [videosift.com] ...
I have a birthday! (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I have a birthday! (Score:5, Interesting)
Leap day is NOT today (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Do you note your time of birth and adjust 6 hours every year?
Re:Leap day is NOT today (Score:5, Funny)
Despite being technically true this is easily the most moronic thing I've read this week.
Re:Leap day is NOT today (Score:5, Informative)
While it's true that the 24th was the traditional leap day, this explanation of why is, shall we say, orthogonal to reality. If a full day of error accumulated so early in the year, the one day every four years intercalation would be much more wrong than it actually is; if there were no leap years, a full day of error would accumulate a few minutes before midnight on Dec. 31 of the fourth year.
In fact, the reason is that in the ancient Roman calendar the days of each month were counted relative to the kalends (first day of the month), ides (fixed day about mid-month, the 15th in March, May, July and October, and the 13th in other months) and nones (two each month mid-way between ides and kalends). Thus, the Romans would have called Feb. 24 in a common year ante diem sextum Kalendas Martias (the sixth day before the Kalends of March; in Latin one counts from one in such contexts, so Feb. 28 would have been ante diem secundum Kalendas Martias in a common year). See Wikipedia on months of the Roman calendar [wikipedia.org].
After Julius Caesar's calendar reform in 46 B.C., the leap day was inserted after the 24th, and called ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martias ("second sixth day before the Kalends of March"); thus, the purpose of designating a particular day as the leap day at all becomes apparent in regards to the Roman calendar. At some point later on [wikipedia.org], the bis was attached to the first day of the two sixths (the 24th), leading to the custom of regarding the 24th as the leap day and the alternate terms 'bissextile day' and 'bissextile year' [wikipedia.org].
13 moons (Score:2)
Too bad 13 isn't as neatly divisible as 12 ...
Missing option: failing unit tests (Score:2)
It's amazing how many people mess up the date calculations in their unit tests and forget about leap years and daylight saving time.
Rename Feb 29 as "contractors' day" (Score:4, Informative)
Salaried staff get paid by the month - so they effectively work on Feb 29 for free. Contractors get paid by the day or by the week, and therefore get an extra days pay for their extra days work.
Maybe, in order to celebrate, IT staff everywhere should get their nearest "consultant" to pay for lunch today - so long as they have a cost code to bill the time to.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm salaried. I get paid every two weeks.
Re: (Score:3)
I am salaried and get paid semimonthly.
This is the second subthread where salary frequency has come up. I think that would make for a much more interesting poll.
Re: (Score:3)
No, the salaried folks get overpaid less for February on a leap year. Most months have 31 days, and most of those that don't still have 30. So February is when these folks get paid more for doing less. The company is paying you as if you had worked the normal 30.6 days that an average month has, but you're only working 28, so that's 2.6 days you're not working, but still getting paid for. On leap year, that goes down to only 1.6 days you're unjustifiably paid for.
Actually, it's the contractors who are s
Missing option (Score:4, Insightful)
The opportunity to ask my boyfriend to marry me?
Re: (Score:2)
do it. if he's smart he'll say yes so that he only has to worry about an anniversary gift every four years :)
Re:Missing option (Score:4, Insightful)
Women.
Alternate calendar ideas vs redefine seconds? (Score:2)
Rather than messing with the calendar itself, has aonyone ever thought of redefining the length of a second so that leap days become superfluous? What would be the catch compared to alternate calendar ideas (apart from having to modify every clock in existence of course)?
Captcha: redesign - seems to fit :)
Re: (Score:3)
you might be eaten by a grue (Score:5, Funny)
Rather than messing with the calendar itself, has aonyone ever thought of redefining the length of a second so that leap days become superfluous? What would be the catch compared to alternate calendar ideas (apart from having to modify every clock in existence of course)?
Well we'd eventually end up with it being the middle of the night at noon - that might cause some issues for a lot of people.
That's only a problem for those that go out into the big blue room. Sometimes they'll end up in the big black room instead. Real people that stay in the basement don't have those kind of problems.
Re: (Score:3)
In Seattle, there is only a big gray room in which the ceiling has a leak.
Re: (Score:2)
Girls proposing (Score:5, Informative)
By old Nordic tradition, on leap day girls can propose to men (and still follow tradition!). Also men are not allowed to say no, and have to pay damages if they do. 12 pair of gloves in Denmark, or a new dress in Finland, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
I never understood the whole proposing business anyway (and yes, I am married).
What's the point in having one side being required to propose to the other one? The result, a mutual agreement to marry, is the same, whoever starts the process.
Assuming traditional gender roles, it makes sense (Score:3)
If we accept the stereotype that men are less eager to commit than women, then it makes sense that it's up to men to propose. It's effectively saying "I'm the one who is more likely to cheat/freak out/etc. and yet I want to spend the rest of my life with you... so it'll probably work out". Of course, it's very arguable whether or not that's true (from evolutionary biology POV, males have less interest to commit but if we look at modern society, I'm not certain that it's men who end most relationships) and
Another Presidential Election Year.... (Score:3)
.... this certainly should have been an option.
or
The Summer Olympics year.
My previous employer must be desperate right now.. (Score:4, Interesting)
In my previous job, they outsourced certain Java programming and database modeling and building jobs to an IT company (that shall remain nameles... let's just say it also produces cheap cars).
The quality of their software was hideous. Among many, many other issues, their handling of dates and leap years was outright ridiculous. Before I was let go, I fixed some of those problems in the Java software they delivered, but many others remained. I'm willing to bet money that some of the SQL queries they wrote are still unpatched and must be blowing up in the company's face right now.
Re: (Score:2)
In your position, I would be sorely tempted to send a note today saying "hey, haven't talked to you guys in a while - how's your day going?"
(Sarcasm would vary depending on what terms you left the company.)
Re: (Score:2)
Great idea! :-D
That said, I'm sure that most of the big problems will manifest themselves tonight, when the batch processes run (with today's date). I'll send them that note tomorrow...
Alternative calendar, what's the point? (Score:2)
While a day is 24 hours long, a year is 365 days AND a few hours.
Any alternative calendar will have to reckon with this fact AND compensate with a leap day.
Re:Alternative calendar, what's the point? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think most of the efforts at reforming timekeeping systems revolve around the fact that you're counting by 12, then kinda-30, then 24, then 60, then 60, and also by 7. The real kicker is that a lot of that stuff dates back to the Sumerians, and some of the other peculiarities of the calendar (including when Leap Day is) had to do with decisions made by Caeser Augustus.
But hey, base 12 is just like base 10, if you happen to have 2 extra fingers.
and this is time-cube compliant (Score:2)
And we can finally openly acknowledge Ophiuchus as a zodiac sign while we're at it. That way, horoscopes would actually work correctly for prognostication.
We can sweep out all the ills of the modern world with one simplifying reformation.
More work (Score:2)
It just means one more working day. A day for which you won't even get paid for.
Re: (Score:2)
No,it means one less working day rather than two.
Pirates of Penzance Day (Score:4, Informative)
That's what this day means to me - a major plot point is that the main character was born on Feb 29.
Re: (Score:2)
That's what this day means to me - a major plot point is that the main character was born on Feb 29.
I'm here for you ... "Yet ...reckoning by my natal day ... I am a little boy of five?" (now that tune will be stuck in my head all day...)
Poll is a repeat (Score:4, Funny)
I swear this poll was posted like 4 years ago.
So young... (Score:2)
He was only 25. Why was he cut down in the prime of his life!?
The Pirates of Penzance (Score:2)
Digital Watch (Score:2)
A new calendar! (Score:2)
A New Calendar
30 days hath January, February, March, April, May, June...
http://world.std.com/~swmcd/steven/rants/calendar.html [std.com]
Missing Option: (Score:2)
A chance to snipe at Microsoft for getting the leapyear algorithm wrong in Excel.
Day of no pay (Score:2)
A good excuse .... (Score:2)
Leap day OK - Zune day not (Score:3)
Forget Y2K, stuffing up a calendar application so badly that the device will not work on a day at the end of a leap year is such an amusing level of programming stupidity that I'm not likely to forget it. It's almost as insane as allowing arbitrary code hidden within images to run. Some things are done so badly that they just look like they are designed deliberately to fail, so let's call Dec31 on a leap year "Zune Day" to remember why marketing should never dominate function to that level.
I'm quivering in anticipation... (Score:3)
for the leap second at the end of June.
Re: (Score:2)
People who get paid x times per month hate it. My salary is paid every other Friday, so I'll get paid for the time.
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I think you missed the point or didn't understand it. If you're a salaried employee, you get paid a fixed amount. If you get paid $54,321 per year, you get that amount regardless of the number of days in the year or month. So you get paid $4526.75 for a February with 28 days and $4526.75 for a February with 29 days. (And $4526.75 for months with 30 days and $4526.75 for months with 31 days. Salaried positions generally get paid once (1st) or twice (1st and 15th) each month and the check is either 1/12
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I suppose a company could pay salaried employees every other Friday but it seems like an unnecessary complication that creates partial paychecks at the end and beginning of each year.
Partial paychecks? Why would anyone do that? Take the salary, divide by the number of working hours in the year, and there's your hourly rate. Drop that rate into the same system that processes pay for hourly employees and you're done. If there's a salary adjustment at some point, just change the hourly rate at the appropriate date. It would be more complicated to maintain separate pay systems for hourly and salaried employees.
But yes, salaried employees would see a lower hourly rate if there were an
Re: (Score:2)
Well, GGP was talking about someone like me, who gets paid on the 15th and the 31st of the month (or the immediately preceding business day). My hypothetical coworker who earns $54,321 per Annum receives 24 paychecks per year, each amounting to $2,263.38. On the 15th, that amount was compensation for 15 days, but today's paycheck is compensation for 14 days, I suppose.
Hmm. I guess we're all talking about the same thing.
I actually work for two different employers who both use this semi-monthly pay sch
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... some of the time, anyway.
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Would it be safe to say that since there's a 1 in 1461 chance of being born on a leap year, 5-6% of people have lied on this survey?
It's not exactly lying, more of intentionally messing up the poll by selecting an option you deem less boring than the others. Though I voted for "Not at all" I can clearly sympathize with everyone messing up boring polls. Jedi anybody?
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Nobody is qualified to be president, unless you count incumbents. If the incumbent is a failure, then we should replace him/her/it with someone who might possibly not be a failure, but that is a crap shoot, and about 40-50% of the population will always think the incumbent is a failure.
Well, that is my theory. It is offset by voting by principle and not by experience. Who holds the principles that define how one makes decisions that reflect the views that I carry. People without principles or ever shifting
Re: (Score:2)
My family's beloved black lab was named Theo! I'm happy to hear the name lives on in dogdom. Your dog could also be 14.
Re:Missing Option - lost profits (Score:3)
It means I had an unplanned for labor expense in our Firm-Fixed Price Service Level Agreement. That day's extra pay for my crew won't be paid for by the customer on an already squeezed contract price.