Well, what do you know. I've got a real Leap Year Glitch, right here in my own home. I favor those inexpensive Casio Wrist Watches, which all have the same chip. Today, my watch thinks its Tuesday, March 1.

I doubt if this is going to bring down the economy or anything, but I though it was interesting. Makes me feel sort of like a part of history. And, I could see where this could cause some people a little bit of trouble, as the Casio watch chip seems to be about the most widely used one here in the USA.

As for me, I'll just wait until tomorrow and patiently tell the watch that it is now Wednesday, March 1, not March 2.

-- E. H. Porter (E.H. Porter@just wondering.about it), February 29, 2000

Answers

Does your watch keep track of the year?

-- (most@watches.dont), February 29, 2000.

Every watch in the house has an incorrect
date! Indiglo watch 3-1; Chinese make 2-1;
Casio 3-1

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), February 29, 2000.

And my watch has no date adjustment!
I won't be able to fix it. No years
on any of them.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), February 29, 2000.

My Avocet watch (which contains an Altimeter) does list today as 2-29- 00, so someone got it right.

-- E. H. Porter (E.H. Porter@just wondering.about it), February 29, 2000.

Its not a chip glitch. Your cheap ass Chinese watches probably just didn't have leap years programed in initially. Now if they fritzed out and we're keeping time properly, that would be significant....

-- DeRonin (DeRonin2000@yahoo.com), February 29, 2000.

My point was that if a watch does not keep track of a year, then there is no way for it to know if that year is a leap year. Some will compensate by allowing only 28 days for every Feb., forcing the user to correct the problem on leap years. The only other choice is to assume Feb always has 29 days, which will force the user to correct the problem for non-leap years.

So, it may be a "leap year bug" but it would have happened in 1996, and will happen again in 2004, so it's not a "Y2K leap year bug."

-- (most@watches.dont), February 29, 2000.

Did you miss the fact that one watch reports
2-1. It will never make it to 3-1 whether it
is a leap year or not.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), February 29, 2000.

Did you miss the fact that one watch reports 2-1. It will never make it to 3-1 whether it is a leap year or not.

Probably because it's a worthless piece of crap.

-- (most@watches.dont), February 29, 2000.

My cheap Casio watch showed "March 1" too. Not surprising, since it doesn't keep track of the year. However, I was able to set it to February 29.

Haven't checked my VCRs yet...

-- Richard Dymond (richard_dymond@northdoor.co.uk), February 29, 2000.

My Casio AQ-51 (a dual mode, analog/digital display) showed 3/1. I set it to 2/29. Now I wait to see whether tomorrow is 3/1 or 2/30.

-- Charles Underwood Farley (chuck@u.farley), February 29, 2000.

mostwatches@don't -- While I appreciate your insites, your theory makes entirely too much sense to merit serious consideration.

I personally believe this behavior in watches is somehow related to the mysterious DST (or "daylight savings time") glitch, which causes many digital watches to unexpectedly be inaccurate by an hour. Annecdotal evidence suggests that the average digital watch experiences this problem about twice a year.

While this has not caused many problems to date, the World's digital watch population is ageing. Perhaps these DST Glitch faults are being reported to the watch data buffers, which then slowly fills up. When full, after say about four years, it starts acting in unpredictable and unexpected ways -- in this case, rather than being only an hour off, it is a full day off. Not a problem -- YET! But the problem is obviously increasing as we speak. We've gone from one hour errors to one day errors. I'm just speculating here, of course, but how soon before we start seeing one month errors? HOW SOON BEFORE OUR WATCHES WILL NO LONGER TELL TIME AT ALL, AND MD-80'S BEGIN TO FALL OUT OF THE SKY LIKE RAINDROPS?

I don't know about you, but I'm running out today to buy a few cases of spring-wound analog watches and a Kevlar Umbrella (they work for Chemtrail Spray too).

Just a thought.

-- E. H. Porter (E.H. Porter@just wondering.about it), February 29, 2000.

Granny's gonna rain on the picnic. My Casio Data Bank 300 IS showing correct time, date, and year. (It's the geeky watch with large data bank, multi functions, calculator and waterproof too.) Peace

-- granny-TX (westamyx@bigfoot.com), February 29, 2000.

Perhaps these DST Glitch faults are being reported to the watch data buffers, which then slowly fills up. When full, after say about four years, it starts acting in unpredictable and unexpected ways -- in this case, rather than being only an hour off, it is a full day off.

This is completely untrue. It is a well-known fact that when watch data buffers fill up beyond their capacity, it causes the watch to explode and leak data all over your wrist. This is perfectly harmless and the data can be washed off with ordinary soap and water.

-- (most@watches.dont), February 29, 2000.

most@watches.dont -- an excellent theory. Have you discussed it with Carl Jenkins? Perhaps pipelines and MD-80's use embedded Casio watch chips for some arcane purpose, and those chips are just starting to explode. While the leaked data may be harmless to people, perhaps is is jamming or clogging mechanical systems.

If investigators were to check the jackscrew lubricant in MD-80's for leaked data residue, it might shed substantial light on this matter.

With further input of this calibre from dedicated citizens such as yourself, I've no doubt that we can still make TEOTWAWKI a reality!

-- E. H. Porter (E.H. Porter@just wondering.about it), February 29, 2000.

My Indiglo travel clocks (I use two alarms when I travel; I have a hearing loss) and my Movado wristwatch all show the correct date.

Seems the bug is confined to the less expensive timepieces, n'est ce pas?

-- Frequent Flyer (ticketholder.in@the.air.org), February 29, 2000.

OK, there's gonna have to be a worldwide recall of these lesser-quality watch chips. Some poor terrorist might be planning to use one as a trigger to a thing-that-will-go-boom and the poor sap'll be waiting literally for ever to get his or her jollies!

-- redeye in ohio (not@work.com), February 29, 2000.

My Timex thinks it's 3/1, but since there is no way to set the year, I guess this is a known issue every 4 years. Hope not too many embedded systems can't be reset (if it matters). We know that in 1996, a leap day bug ruined an entire factory. Something about thinking it was a weekend and shutting down power, which allowed molten liquid to congeal inside of pipes, they had to rebuild the plant. (I'm not too specific because this is reported in better detail in other threads.)

-- Ceemeister (ceemeister@hotmail.com), February 29, 2000.

most@watches.dont -- an excellent theory. Have you discussed it with Carl Jenkins?

Yes, He indicated his approval by nodding his head and drooling slightly. I believe he will post several relevant articles on the mating habits of rhesus monkeys as evidence of my theory.

Perhaps pipelines and MD-80's use embedded Casio watch chips for some arcane purpose, and those chips are just starting to explode.

Yes, both pipelines and MD-80's are manufactured at the same location and are made of the same material - "pipeline aluminum with Casio watch chips." I believe the manufacturer is Baskin-Robbins.

While the leaked data may be harmless to people, perhaps is is jamming or clogging mechanical systems.

This is possible. And by "possible" I mean that it is absolutely certain beyond the shadow of a doubt.

If investigators were to check the jackscrew lubricant in MD-80's for leaked data residue, it might shed substantial light on this matter.

It might, if the world operated as it does in your charming naive scenario. The sad reality, of course, is that the investigation has long been completed and any investigator who would have discovered anything of that nature would have been immediately murdered along with his entire family and friends, their bodies having been long ago incinerated by the NTSB goon squad.

With further input of this calibre from dedicated citizens such as yourself, I've no doubt that we can still make TEOTWAWKI a reality!

God, I hope so!!

-- (most@watches.dont), February 29, 2000.

I feel deprived. My watch only has those pointy things that go around in circles (I think they used to be called "hands"). And it never told me the date in the first place, so I'm no more clueless today than I was yesterday (or will be tomorrow).

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), February 29, 2000.

My semi-Heinz variety "Milan" turned to 3-1 this am,reset to 2-29; "Milan": parts from Japan assembled in Thailand

-- george (jones@choices.com), February 29, 2000.

Ya know, EH, I was just looking at the threads on the Japanese- European glitches and I got to thinking and looking. 'Bout everything in the house is made by the Japanese, including parts in this lovely machine my honey built for me. Just a thought.

-- little wifey (littlewife@home.com), February 29, 2000.