Have you ever looked through your TrapDoor logs and wondered what THIS
means?

        : 23-Oct-94 21:46:00  TrxID: 2eaad992/2eaadb67

In TrapDoor's log, the first TrxID number is the one of OUR system, the
second one (if the other end sends it) is the TrxID the other end sent
us.  It uniquely identifies the session in an important way.

The Transaction (or Transmission) ID number that TrapDoor uses is the
Unix timestamp.  This is defined as the number of seconds past midnight
on 1 January 1970.

This might seem like a large number, but it's not - not to a computer,
anyway.  In fact even in late October 1994, only 783 million seconds
have elapsed since 1 Jan 70.

If this number is represented in HEX, even less digits are required.
Using an 8-digit HEX number, dates up to the year 2106AD can be
represented, before a ninth hex place is required.

Not only TrapDoor uses the Unix timestamp for the TrxID numbers, but so
do virtually all other mailers.  This value is what the computer's time
is set for.  So you can check your clock against another system.  If you
call a different time zone, you can see what local time the other system
is using.  You can confirm the date and time of any occurence you have
the Unix timestamp for.

Whether you're using your Amiga in 2106AD or not, I don't know, but I do
know that this value is an excellent one our computers can use for at
least the length of their limited lives.  And it can be exchanged between
all platforms - from Cray to Amiga to MacIntosh - where it would mean
exactly the same thing.

    Mea Culpa, Peter Deane
 c8345041@cc.newcastle.edu.au

 PERMSSN    UID  GID    PACKED    SIZE  RATIO     CRC       STAMP          NAME
---------- ----------- ------- ------- ------ ---------- ------------ -------------
[generic]                11270   17176  65.6% -lh5- 3fb5 Oct 24  1994 PluTrxID
[generic]                 1999    4371  45.7% -lh5- 03a1 Oct 24  1994 PluTrxID.doc
[generic]                  971    2706  35.9% -lh5- d40f Oct 24  1994 PluTrxID.lst
---------- ----------- ------- ------- ------ ---------- ------------ -------------
 Total         3 files   14240   24253  58.7%            Mar 13  1995