>The answer is that its a binary representation of the date
>
>YYYYYMMMMDDDDDHHHHHMMMMMMSSSSS
>101000011000101011010101001111
>
>Where YYYYY = Number of days since 1980
>MMMM = month 1= January etc
>DDDDD = day of month
>HHHHH = hours in 24 hour
>MMMMMM = minutes
>SSSSS = no of secs on 1:2 ration ie 30 secs is 15 here
>
>Which leads to another question ... what happens to 2.6 when the year reaches 11111 = 1980+31 = 2011
>

It'll be 11 years beyond the date that MS discontinued support...wanna bet what happens?