IEEE's user registration for their website is pretty unimpressive for the "The world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology".

On the "date of birth" calendar, you can select days <= 0 as well as > 31.

There's also no way to see or select the year. So unless you were born in the current calendar year, you'll probably have to edit the date by hand.

Finally, the user name has to be UPPER CASE. If you type it in mixed case, you get an error.

I stopped there.

Jesus christ, forum software...

 The real WTF is you were signing up for the IEEE?

 I've had plenty of conversations about floating point, but NEVER has anybody referenced or quoted IEEE 754.  Frequently mentioned, never used.  Although I'm sure a few of the GCC developers reference it privately, it's biggest impact seems to be hardware, but even that has a lot unspecified or implementation defined, nevermind that various bits of hardware ignore whatever rules are inconvenient!

 Historical significance is another matter entirely.  There used to be a lot more diversity in hardware, which it cut down.  Something to be thankful for I guess.

Rhamphoryncus:

 The real WTF is you were signing up for the IEEE?

 I've had plenty of conversations about floating point, but NEVER has anybody referenced or quoted IEEE 754.  Frequently mentioned, never used.  Although I'm sure a few of the GCC developers reference it privately, it's biggest impact seems to be hardware, but even that has a lot unspecified or implementation defined, nevermind that various bits of hardware ignore whatever rules are inconvenient!

 Historical significance is another matter entirely.  There used to be a lot more diversity in hardware, which it cut down.  Something to be thankful for I guess.

 That's a troll, right? Right?

Rhamphoryncus:

 The real WTF is you were signing up for the IEEE?

 forget IEEE,, ACM is cheaper and you get more for your membership dollars

Kemp:

Rhamphoryncus:

 The real WTF is you were signing up for the IEEE?

 I've had plenty of conversations about floating point, but NEVER has anybody referenced or quoted IEEE 754.  Frequently mentioned, never used.  Although I'm sure a few of the GCC developers reference it privately, it's biggest impact seems to be hardware, but even that has a lot unspecified or implementation defined, nevermind that various bits of hardware ignore whatever rules are inconvenient!

 Historical significance is another matter entirely.  There used to be a lot more diversity in hardware, which it cut down.  Something to be thankful for I guess.

 That's a troll, right? Right?

Nope, just jaded.

Kemp:

Rhamphoryncus:

 The real WTF is you were signing up for the IEEE?

 I've had plenty of conversations about floating point, but NEVER has anybody referenced or quoted IEEE 754.  Frequently mentioned, never used.  Although I'm sure a few of the GCC developers reference it privately, it's biggest impact seems to be hardware, but even that has a lot unspecified or implementation defined, nevermind that various bits of hardware ignore whatever rules are inconvenient!

 Historical significance is another matter entirely.  There used to be a lot more diversity in hardware, which it cut down.  Something to be thankful for I guess.

 That's a troll, right? Right?

< wanders off, whistling theme tune to "Born on the Minus Fourth of July" >

Rhamphoryncus:

 The real WTF is you were signing up for the IEEE?

 I've had plenty of conversations about floating point, but NEVER has anybody referenced or quoted IEEE 754.

 So you probably know there's more to IEEE than floating point numbers and still post this??

savar:

On the "date of birth" calendar, you can select days <= 0 as well as > 31.

There's also no way to see or select the year. So unless you were born in the current calendar year, you'll probably have to edit the date by hand.

Pshaw.  I was born Oct 31, 1978.  It's currently Dec 1, 2008.  I simply need to state that I was born on December -10668, 2008

I tried this on Firefox/Ubuntu and Safari/OSX10.4. WIth Firefox, it showed Dec in the first box and 2008 in the second box, and i could choose a year from 1948 to 2067. With Safari, it showed up like the screenshot you posted, with a 0 as default and every number from -60 to 59 in the list. Seems to be an issue with their javascript and Safari.

topspin:

 So you probably know there's more to IEEE than floating point numbers and still post this??

That's a good point actually.  It must be my strange little software world where IEEE almost exclusely means floating point.

Rhamphoryncus:

topspin:

 So you probably know there's more to IEEE than floating point numbers and still post this??

 

That's a good point actually.  It must be my strange little software world where IEEE almost exclusely means floating point.

Yes, it being a worldwide standards organization relating to everything from medical devices to wireless protocols.

 Aye.  In hindsight I wouldn't have said anything had I considered the view of an electrical engineer (or whatever), rather than a programmer.

 Oh well.  Nothing for me to do but concede it and move on.

DaveK:

It's just a rumour started by the IEEE to try and cover up the gummint's contacts with ALIENS!!!1!!!

Carnildo:

Is that a Java applet they're using for the calendar, or is there some other reason why the "save" and "cancel" buttons don't match the rest of the user interface?

Eternal Density:

DaveK:

It's just a rumour started by the IEEE to try and cover up the gummint's contacts with ALIENS!!!1!!!

And all devoted readers of this forum should be aware that aliens ARE floating points...

And how many aliens, pray tell, fit into a point?

And if their points float, doesn't it take enormously long to reach the earth? 

No way you speak truth here. We all know that aliens travel in pyramids. 

Ilya Ehrenburg:

And how many aliens, pray tell, can dance on a point?

Ilya Ehrenburg:

No way you speak truth here. We all know that aliens travel in pyramids. 

 This is probably the same IEEE who kept on messing up the magazine subscriptions of one of my university lecturers. She discovered that they were using (first_name, last_name) as a primary key.

jeffg:

 forget IEEE,, ACM is cheaper and you get more for your membership dollars