Re: Importance of mathematical exactness.

Charles Kwan (ckwan@banet.net)
Sun, 17 Jan 1999 17:06:50 -0500


Here is the link to the New York Times website.
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/12code.html)

Patrick Carney wrote:

> Hi-
> I saw an interesting article in the paper at school today. I thought it was
> the NY Times, but I cannot seem to find it on their website. Anyhow, it seems
> that there is an error in most computers which will cause them to be off for
> a week when they change their clocks to daylight savings time. It talked
> about what people might have this as a problem. But the interesting thing to
> me was that the reason is that some programmer wrote < when it should have
> been <=. How often have we all seen that as well as had students complain if
> we take off for it. Here was a whole article stressing how important such a
> difference is.
>
> Hope this is of some use in your classes.
>
> As ever,
> Bro. Pat Carney