[TUHS] Validating the s2-bits tape epoch

Warren Toomey wkt at tuhs.org
Sat Dec 24 05:25:08 AEST 2016


On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 07:15:04PM +0200, Diomidis Spinellis wrote:
> "Finally, the date(1) a.out on the tape uses 1971 as its archive. How
> annoying! After a bit of discussion, Dennis and Warren have agreed that 1972
> is the most probable epoch for s2-bits."
> 
> I thought I could validate the epoch by looking at the distribution of
> weekdays for the three alternative years (1971 to 1973).  Here are the
> results.
...
> As you can see, unless weekends at the Bell Labs were highly atypical, 1972
> has the most probable distribution of work among the days of the week.

Thanks Diomidis, that helps to confirm the 1972 date for the s2-bits tape.

Cheers, Warren



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