[ctippett]

You mentioned Bosch and I can't think of anywhere or anyone else who'd be interested in this little bit of trivia, so a random comment on a thread about filing the edges off a laptop seems like a fitting place to share it.

Bosch dates their appliances using a thing called the Fertigungsdatum Number. The first two digits represent the year of manufacture, the second two are for the month. Except the year doesn't align with the actual year, you first have to add 20. Why 20? Well, Bosch first started using their internal dating system back in 1920 and appliances from that year started with the code "00". I had an oven that had a date of "7808", which means it was manufactured in August 1998 (it lasted almost 30 years before we finally had to replace it last month).

In 2020 the system wound back around and started with "00" again.

[fransje26]

And the majority owner of Bosch is the Robert Bosch Stiftung (Robert Bosch foundation), which uses its dividends to fund projects in social sciences, public health and education.

[AndrewOMartin]

What a tragedy Robert Bosch Stiftung isn't receiving the dividends into his personal accounts, as this means he's not incentivized to keep innovating or to reduce prices.

[bluedevil2k]

He’s also been dead for 80 years, which also removes his incentives.

[vitorfblima]

There's always an excuse...

[graemep]

See what happens when you miss a /s out?

[throwaway173738]

I think you should look at their catalog. Their dishwashers have some wacky innovations like zeolite dryers. Their windshield wipers are very high quality and easy to install. These are just two examples.

[mlrtime]

At least you didn't go full 2026 anti capitalism rant that Bosch shouldn't exist to donate revenue in the first place :)

[OoooooooO]

"Fertigungsdatum Number" is just the german word for "production date Number".

[Trollmann]

So essentially the epoch system we see in use for timestamps as well, including overflow behavior edge case.