From my old PubSub pal and fellow software engineer Mike Zaharee comes a link to a massively depressing story about the next space shuttle mission. It seems that NASA is considering delaying the launch until after the New Year, because — wait for it — they don’t want the ship to be in space when the calendar “rolls over”, because the shuttle’s software can’t handle it.
“The shuttle computers were never envisioned to fly through a year-end changeover,” space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told a briefing.
Well, on second thought, I can see his point. I mean, that’s a holiday, for Pete’s sake.