The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 486 Millennium Bug

Unfortunately, Volvo and Scania did not receive the diesel engine because Liu Hua could not fully trust these Europeans and Americans, and the patent for the diesel engine was still pending.

Representatives from Volvo and Scania were extremely frustrated. They had also decided to reduce costs to expand their market share in China, but now they were already one step behind Chinese truck manufacturers.

Moreover, they had done their research beforehand. Although the current social atmosphere in China is a bit off, with people showing a tendency to idolize foreign things, it's not surprising that they've done so.

However, this group consists mostly of wealthy people or intellectuals. For ordinary people, the focus is still on cost-effectiveness, and when prices are similar, they prefer domestic products, which reflects their simple patriotism.

Volvo fared slightly better; without diesel engines, they ordered some gasoline engines in preparation for developing a family car aimed at Chinese consumers.

Scania is a truck manufacturer, so they didn't get anything this time. In addition, they are also professional engine manufacturers, so after this incident, they simply gave up the idea of ​​importing engines from Taiyi Heavy Industry.

However, they never imagined that this unintentional action would cause their already small market share to gradually shrink, eventually disappearing from the choices of Chinese drivers.

Liu Hua has been keeping a close eye on international news lately because he noticed something had changed. A major event that was supposed to cause national outrage in May hadn't happened yet, even though it's now November.

Liu Hua still remembers that when our National Day military parade showcased the latest national treasure, the other side of the strait quickly announced the parameters of our powerful weapon, and this has not happened yet.

Liu Hua had a general idea of ​​what was going on. Everything was connected. Because of our good secrecy, our powerful weapons maintained a huge deterrent effect, which is why the Americans didn't dare to make any small moves.

In his previous life, Liu Hua heard a livestreamer named Tingfeng de Chan on a short video platform say that because they had lost their deterrent power, the United States had taken a series of probing actions with the aim of completely destroying them and making them forever a processing center for their low-value goods.

However, Liu Hua now has some worries, because after the new millennium, due to a series of actions by the United States, our national fortunes have exploded.

I don't know if my little butterfly effect will influence the great explosion of our national destiny. If it does, then I will be guilty of a terrible sin.

But upon closer examination, the US has already committed all the evil deeds it could in the Middle East and offended all the people it could. It shouldn't simply vanish because of Liu Hua's influence. Liu Hua doesn't have that much merit.

Just as Liu Hua was preparing to go to the laboratory to immerse himself in the research of the dual-pulse engine, CCTV reporter Xiao Shui found Liu Hua again, wanting to interview him.

"Reporter Shui, what brings you to interview me today?"

Xiao Shui asked with a smile, "Academician Liu, have you noticed that there's a topic that everyone in society is discussing right now?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "I didn't pay attention. I'm preparing to go into seclusion to cultivate and work on a groundbreaking invention. I haven't been paying much attention to what's going on in society. What topics?"

"The Y2K problem."

Liu Hua immediately understood, but he pretended not to know and asked curiously, "What Y2K problem? Or some kind of parasite problem?" "Of course it's not a parasite problem, it's a computer problem. As an authority in our country's semiconductor industry, haven't you been paying attention to this topic?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "In the past year or two, I have focused on heavy industry and haven't paid much attention to semiconductors. Even when I have, my attention has been on 3D printers, not computers."

"The so-called Y2K problem means that as we are about to enter the new century, the computer time will jump from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000. At this time, the computer may misread 2000 as 1900."

Liu Hua nodded: "Oh, I see. I hadn't noticed that. Does Microsoft's Windows system have this drawback?"

Xiao Shui keenly noticed the keyword; Liu Hua was referring to Microsoft's Windows operating system.

"Wait a minute, Academician Liu, you just mentioned that Microsoft's trial operating system had this problem. Didn't your Red Flag operating system, which you designed back then, have this problem?"

Liu Hua nodded: "Didn't you ask other people who understand computers before you came to ask me? Any programmer knows that the Red Flag operating system uses four digits to express the year, so there won't be this so-called Y12K problem. If we had a Y1K, the problem could occur between December 31, 9999 and January 1, 1."

"We all know that Professor Liu, you were the chief editor of the Red Flag operating system back then." Xiao Shui asked curiously, "Why didn't you, like Western programmers, use only two digits to represent the year to save bytes?"

“When I was writing this part, I already felt that if we used two numbers to express the year, there would be such a problem in the year 2000, so I eliminated it from the root.”

Xiao Shui smiled and said, "Why did you notice this problem, while Western scientists did not?"

"How many years of history do they have? What lessons can such a short history teach them?" Liu Hua said with a smile, "Our ancestors used the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches for commemoration, and also added the emperor's reign title. This way, everything is clear. Does Western history have a clear way of recording years? They don't even have history books."

"You mean that historical experience can also greatly help our research on high technology?"

Liu Hua nodded: "That's right. Don't think that our ancestors were backward in ancient times. Scientific research in the 1970s discovered that our ancestors used chrome plating on Qin swords. The purple used on the terracotta warriors also pushed back the year when humans synthesized purple to before Christ."

Liu Hua tapped the table: "I have a strong feeling that if we study the craftsmanship of our ancestors in depth now, our basic materials may make great progress."

The entire interview lasted only about ten minutes. Xiao Shui originally came to ask about the Y2K bug, but the conversation somehow veered off-topic into historical experience.

However, since a satisfactory answer has been obtained, the interview has come to a successful conclusion.

When CCTV broadcast the interview, it caused a huge uproar. First of all, the fact that our computer system doesn't have the Y2K problem is something to be proud of.

Secondly, Liu Hua was inspired by the ancient Chinese system of dating. Of course, all of this is just speculation by the audience, but it did not stop the public from having another wave of archaeological enthusiasm.

(End of this chapter)