mem@sii.UUCP (Mark Mallett) (10/02/86)
Well, folks, it has happened to me again. For the second time in the last couple of years I have been the victim of a bug in ATT phone billing. You may recall my posting the first time it happened, a year or two ago. It seems that it is possible to place a call right before midnight and get charged for an extra 24 hours. (It is quite a thrill to open up a bill and see a $350 phone call in it.) I suspect, as I did the first time, that someone is reading the date before reading the time of day, and not bothering to see that they make sense together. I thought that everyone knew enough to verify that synchronized variables are indeed in synch, especially when it comes to reading date/time values. Probably some big IBM billing computer somewhere. I would hope that this problem isn't in unix!! -mm-
barr@calma.UUCP (10/04/86)
In article <448@sii.UUCP> mem@sii.UUCP (Mark Mallett) writes: >It seems that it is possible to place a call right before midnight and >get charged for an extra 24 hours. (It is quite a thrill to open up a >bill and see a $350 phone call in it.) > Hmmmmm. Does this mean that if I place a call from an Airphone while flying east across the International Date Line that I'll get a *credit* for 24 hours worth of conversation on my next Visa bill?? I gotta try that next time ... -- Ken Barr {ucbvax,sun,csd-gould}!calma!barr Calma Company calma!barr@ucbvax.ARPA Disclaimer: Calma lets me use their computers and their mailstops. Unless policy has changed, my opinions should not be considered as gospel.
fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) (10/15/86)
In article <448@sii.UUCP>, mem@sii.UUCP (Mark Mallett) writes: > I suspect, as I did the first time, that someone is reading the date > before reading the time of day, and not bothering to see that they > make sense together. I thought that everyone knew enough to verify > that synchronized variables are indeed in synch, especially when it > comes to reading date/time values. > > Probably some big IBM billing computer somewhere. I would hope that this > problem isn't in unix!! > > -mm- I can see from your remarks that you haven't been reading the discussion of how to recognize leap years that has been going on in net.lang.c. :-) Fabbian Dufoe 350 Ling-A-Mor Terrace South St. Petersburg, Florida 33705 813-823-2350 UUCP: ...akgua!akguc!codas!peora!ucf-cs!usfvax2!jc3b21!fgd3