Re: knwn bugs and Y2K? Message #4 Posted by DaveC on 15 Dec 1999, 3:49 a.m., in response to message #3 by Frank Rizzo
Ah! The exploding-HP35-on-the-millenium bug. Yeah Frank, I'm afraid its time to wave goodbye to your faithful old friend and bury it in that lead lined carrying case you bought (you did buy the lead-lined case didnt you?). HP designed a tiny nuclear battery powered CMOS countdown clock disguised as a capacitor into all their machines, taking the battery out won't fix things. The picture at http://www.hpmuseum.org/gallery/35expl.jpg gives some idea of the power of the explosion (what HP didnt tell you was the exposure time of this photo, you though it was a normal snap, in reality the exposure time was around 1x10-6 seconds). Beware, timing 27 years exactly is not an exact science as the Mars Explorer scientists found out to their cost, they used a '35 board as a maths coprocessor (slow but sure) and look what happened! I'd stop using the HP35 now and bury it in a deep hole (around 8ft), surround it with barbed wire and claim tax relief for a 'containment vessel'. Hope this helps,
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