Paul writes:

> today someone asked me what the Julian date was for today; I replied 01031,
> with
>  tomorrow
>  being 01032, etc.   Another person said that's not what a Julian date is
at
> all,
>  and upon looking it
>  up on a web site - one site says it is 2451941 another site defined Julian
> date
>  as the number
>  of days since Jan 1, 4713 BC and that today is 1757966.

For more than you ever wanted to know about Julian Dates, see:

     http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/mjd.html

However, it is worth noting that a Julian Date calendar (which only counts
days, not weeks, months, or years), can start from any arbitrary starting
date. In that regard, many of the major software vendors (Microsoft, AICS
Research, etc.) start their calendars at midnight, Dec 31 1899, so that Jan 1
1900 is day 1 of the calendar.

Wirt Atmar