Re: 1999 !

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Bob Cowling (cowling++at++autometric.com)
Mon, 04 Jan 1999 17:40:59 -0500

I hate to think that the first great debate on the Performer
mailing list this year is 1999 v. 2000 v. 2001.

But - I agree with Tom. The 70's include the years from 1970
through the end of 1979. This clearly shortens some preceding
decade to 9 years (or we start with year 0, like Tom suggests).

I think in the year 20400, beings
will just call this era the 1000's, and include up to the end
of 1999. Making 2000 the start of the milennium.

The bigger question is what will we in the English speaking
world (verbally) call the years
2000-2009? Someone said the "oughts" - as in "ought one". I'm
already tired of saying "in the year two thousand". From now on,
I'm going to say "ought ought" or perhaps "double ought".

tesmith wrote:
>
> Why not just leave year 1 where it is, and call the year before
> that 0. That way we can all call 2000 the new millennium. It doesn't
> sound like many people want to carry Dionysius Exiguss's (the monk
> who started this mess in 525 because they didn't know about 0s back
> then) mistake any further.
>
> As long as we accept that either method starts after the birth of
> Christ there will be no change other than people won't have to go
> around explaining why 2001 is really the start of the new millennium.
>
> To fix the problem about when the birth of Christ really was and adding
> at least 5 years to the calendar would be quite expensive; way beyond
> the Y2K problem, and causing many more man years of needless explanations.
> Our descendants in 2999 will thank us when planning millennium parties.
> They'd never give it a 2nd thought that the 4th millennium will begin
> in 3000.
>
> Happy New Year,
> Tom
>
> Angus Dorbie wrote:
> >
> > > Intrinsic Graphics Inc. wrote:
> > >
> > > Happy new year, the last before the new millennium.
> >
> > No it's not. This is a date, think Fortran not C, 1 is the first
> > index in the array.
> >
> > Cheers,Angus.

-- 
Robert Cowling                                 (703) 923-4035
Director, Engineering    Advanced Visualization & Integration
Autometric, Inc.                      rcowling++at++autometric.com


The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author and do
not necessarily reflect those of Autometric Inc.

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