Y2k RANT003: CE/TD - the lesser spotted Y2k Scam

Here is a much quoted text, SUPPOSEDLY giving provenance to Time Dilation or TD. We are now supposed to take this as PROOF. The assumption is that because Compaq is involved that this is all now a done deal, and we must now rush out and buy the "Fixes" for this APPARENT problem. Compaq has just been dropped off my list of preferred suppliers for supporting this obvious scam.

"Time Dilation - also known as the Crouch-Echlin Effect - is a THEORY involving a REPORTED date / time anomaly on PCs using an older, "non-buffered" Real Time Clock (RTC) component. REPORTS indicate that during repeated power on / off cycles, PCs with this RTC MIGHT post an incorrect date. The problem is SUPPOSEDLY exacerbated IF dates are set beyond the year 2000.

As a service to customers, Compaq is conducting engineering investigations of the Time Dilation theory and will make the findings available to customers. We are evaluating this issue thoroughly and will take appropriate steps, IF needed, to ensure our customers continue to have the best possible computing experience.

Based on all available information and internal testing, no Compaq systems APPEAR to be affected. The REPORTED failures SEEM to be inherent to older generic or "white box" machines.

Is it just me, or do these statements smack of the Wooliness of Cloud Cuckoo Land? There is not one definitive or verifiable FACT in any of it.

I have emphasised the various "weasel" words such as THEORY, REPORTED, SUPPOSEDLY, MIGHT, IF, SEEM. None of these strike me as words that convey confidence or exactitude. We still do not have one verified sighting.

This is certainly a brave new method for proving theories, "We can't find it, therefore it must exist". At last, they have found a way around the difficulty of proving a negative. Compaq have severely impaired their credibility with this one.

A crock, in any other guise, is still a crock.

In the words of the Sages of our Age:

 Try not.
 Do, or do not.
 There is no try.
      - Yoda

 Is or Is Not,
 There is no Might or Seems.
   - Slug

B>)