# I dont have time to read all these



## CaliDave (Dec 14, 2006)

*Welcome, CaliDave.*
  Status: TUG Member
    			You last visited: December 14, 2006 at 06:23 PM 			
Private Messages: Unread *65534*, Total 27.

[_Fixed - mg_]


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## Denise L (Dec 14, 2006)

Wow! And I thought the limit was 100  !


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## johnmfaeth (Dec 15, 2006)

What 65534 actually means is -2 

How?

The software must be using 2 "bytes" to store the count. Normally, the largest number that can be held in 2 bytes is 65535.

Picture a 16 digit number in base 2. Base 2 only allows 1's and 0's. The maximum in our number system that can be expressed in base 2 (binary) in 16 digits is 65535.

Picture a car odometer that only goes up to 65535 and then rolls over to 00000 again. If it was at 00000 and you drove backwards for 1 mile it would read 65535, one more and it would read 65534.

Confused? Here's the numbers 1 to 10 in our normal base 10 decimal system translated into base 2.

0    =   0
1    =   1
2    =   10
3    =   11
4    =   100
5    =   101
6    =   110
7    =   111
8    =   1000
9    =   1001
10  =   1010

Computers use base 2 because its storage areas have only 2 values (states), either on or off.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense to some, it is difficult to explain in a short posting.

Either way it is a software "bug"


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## rifleman69 (Dec 15, 2006)

johnmfaeth said:
			
		

> Picture a car odometer that only goes up to 65535 and then rolls over to 00000 again. If it was at 00000 and you drove backwards for 1 mile it would read 65535, one more and it would read 65534.




Didn't you see Ferris Bueller's Day Off?  The odometer doesn't go backwards.


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## johnmfaeth (Dec 15, 2006)

Hey Rifleman,

When we were 17 (now I'm 45) we talked a friend into taking his fathers car on a small roadtrip. Ran up 80 miles and he was terrified because his dad checked the mileage and mpg every time he got gas.

We jacked up the rear and put it into reverse. It actually went back about 8/10's of a mile and then stopped. Wouldn't go back a full mile's digit. It was a 68 Plymouth Fury.

Needless to say, he was in trouble with his dad the next day for "cruising around like a hooligan".

So "assuming you have an odometer that goes backwards" need be inserted when reading my post  

John


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## talkamotta (Dec 16, 2006)

When I was 16, now Im 53, I had friends that were boys that would  stop the mileage counter on my father's car.  When we were done cruising around, the boy would then hook it back up.  

It would cost me a kiss, they were kind of cute so it wasnt too painful.  Would have done it for nothing...but I needed the counter stopped.


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