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End of the World?

12/18/2012 4:18:00 PM -- Ted Krapf

<p>So, the Mayan's 'predicted' the end of the world? &nbsp;Seems strange that they would do such a thing. &nbsp;I guess every civilization has thought of their beginning and their demise. &nbsp;As advanced as the Mayans were, their mathematics didn't take leap year into account. &nbsp;The actual number of days in a year is 365.2425, not 365. &nbsp;This is because a day is not precisely 24 hours.<br /> <br /> </p> <p>Now, since the Mayan's didn't take this into consideration, they had a rounding error. &nbsp;Now after centuries of .2425 missing from their calendar, our perception of the 'end date' is WAY off. &nbsp;In fact, if their calendar predicted the end of the world, it would of been sometime during the summer of 2011. &nbsp;I don't know about you, but I'm still here.<br /> <br /> </p> <p>I think what is interesting here is how this relates to the Y2K bug, and even Windows 7. &nbsp;If you aren't old enough, the Y2K bug was simply computer engineers not realizing their their systems built years ago would ever stay in use after the calendar got to 2000. &nbsp;So to save memory, their date was only two digits long. &nbsp;As a result there was the potential for the computer to think it was Jan 1st, 1900 the day after Dec 31, 1999. &nbsp;This (slippery slope) could of potentially caused horrible things to happen, like the power grid and communications systems to go bonkers. &nbsp;Between foresight for fixing the bugs and dumb luck, nothing really happened. &nbsp;But this begs the question... what about a current operating system like Windows 7?<br /> <br /> </p> <p>In a not-so-scientific way, I opened my Windows calendar and arrowed over to the very end of it. &nbsp;And by golly it stops at December 31st, 2099. &nbsp;Now using the same logic as the Mayan theory..<br /> <br /> </p> <p>1.) Microsoft is pretty smart, knows a lot of math, and to a degree is very forward thinking<br /> 2.) Microsoft is a super power in its own right<br /> 3.) Microsoft wields powers that seem like magic to many people<br /> 4.) Microsoft has a global influence<br /> <br /> </p> <p>With all <em><strong>this knowledge</strong></em>, I've determined that Microsoft has predicted the end of the world as being December 31st, 2099. &nbsp;To that affect, if you'd like to purchase special end of the world canned goods, please make your gold&nbsp;bouillon&nbsp;out to TKConsulting.</p>

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