I've got a theory...

A friend posted a silly poll about the Mayan calendar, and its impending end as of 2012. It had options like "the world will end", "it will roll right over like an odometer" [edit: This is in fact the case], and "are you kidding? The world started ending years ago!"

A little lightbulb went flashy-flashy in my head. No, I wrote. None of those. (Well, actually, I ticked the poll-button saying that, but give a girl some dramatic license.)

No. The calendar is the Mayans' Y2K problem.

Computer programmers were aware of the Y2K problem well before it even happened (even at the time they were programming the things) but they thought, "Oh, it is such a long time until 2000; this is the 1970s. That's 30 whole years. Surely these programs we are writing now will not last until 2000. They will have plenty of time to rewrite them, and they will replace them like they do any worn-out equipment, and meanwhile, that is two whole bytes we could be using for something else, because memory is fiendishly expensive." (I recall my father telling me that he was involved in a Y2K argument at least two decades before Y2K.)

I am sure that some of the Mayan calendar engineers said, "Look at this, why do we need to write the calendar out further than 2012, which is stupidly far in the future? How much stone do you want us to use, anyway? And do you really want to pay rock-chippers to chip out another thousand years that our grandchildren's grandchildren won't even see? Talk to us about it in a few hundred years." Tragically, their culture then ebbed and was conquered before they could update their calendars.

Docadmin Weekend

I got off to a late start, but I did get launched, and opted to skip some of the optional steps I'd thought of. JD had been running a fever, and therefore declined anything like a rally or vigil.

I brought along both laptops (the old creaky full-size laptop Thalia, and the netbook Disaster Area) though I only wound up using Thalia.

I called MissKat partway there, and we chatted cheerfully until she had to go see to her lobsters.

It was good to see JD and Ryan. I got there just as they were ready to put the cookie dough in the oven, and I snagged pictures of the process. ( Docadmin chicanery is a go. )

And we weren't even drinking.

55 tweets for 2009-6-21

In the last 24 hours, I posted the following to Twitter:

• Sunday, 0007: I'm at Stockton - http://bkite.com/08JQI
• Sunday, 0240: I'm at Pacifica - http://bkite.com/08JYY
• Sunday, 0445: RT KHATAMI - today - beating suppressing and arresting of our people will make the situation worse for the Gov - it must stop- #Iranelection
• Sunday, 0445: RT:: KHATAMI - The Gov can retain respect by releasing all political prisoners and reinstating communication for the ppl - #Iranelection
• Sunday, 0446: RT: KHATAMI - The people have spoken and we must respect that - #Iranelection - Gov cannot kill and imprison the ppl for speaking RT RT RT
( read the other 50 )

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