Another Site Problem related to Inductors

Last time I mentioned about the computer software issue on a site. Well this time I had a hardware issue. And what an issue it was! My installations have climbed up from 10 units a month back to some 25 units now. All were running perfectly. My site engineer was ready to sign the MOM and come back. This is when a unit suddenly blanked out. Within next couple of hours another 4 such units had a similar problem.
Opening of the enclosure revealed that the inductor close to the power supply had blackened. The units are powered on 12 V DC. There are 2 supplies internally one of 5Vand other of 3.3V. The engineer measured the regulated voltages but found no 5V and 3.3V. There was not much he could do there so he sent all the problematic units by courier back to Pune.
At the lab we powered up the units and found that the inductors had burnt off. Our currents were 300mA @ 5V and 250mA @ 3.3V.
We are using LM2574-ADJ as the switch mode regulator. The switching frequency of 2574 is 52KHz.
The inductors which we were using were in a 'half watt through hole resistor' package. We ordered the ferrite core inductors for the same from our local x'mer manufacturer. Our units started working on them without any issues.
Since we wanted to be doubly sure that everything was working well we tested the units at 40V.
Old inductors invariably failed at this voltage but the new ones never did.
Another interesting thing that we noted was that when the old inductors when failed they had their lead would loosen up.
We have sent the modified PCB's to the site. I will inform if we develop any new problems.

Timecore Software issue

Mine is a electronic systems design and development company. We develop customized instruments. 

We have developed a instrument which monitors the vehicle fleet. One of the functions is that it logs the vehicle start time and vehicle stop time. This data is first downloaded from the vehicle to a handheld device and from there it is transferred to the computer.
On computer we have a VC++ MFC application running. Everything was running fine for nearly a month and we were getting all the data correctly.
Suddenly we started getting error: "Debug Assertion Failed. File Timecore.cpp Line 40"
On opening the Timecore file, I found this data:
CTime::CTime(int nYear, int nMonth, int nDay, int nHour, int nMin, int nSec, int nDST){
struct tm atm; atm.tm_sec = nSec;
atm.tm_min = nMin;
atm.tm_hour = nHour;
ASSERT(nDay >= 1 && nDay <= 31);
atm.tm_mday = nDay;
ASSERT(nMonth >= 1 && nMonth <= 12);
atm.tm_mon = nMonth - 1; // tm_mon is 0 based ASSERT(nYear >= 1900);
atm.tm_year = nYear - 1900; // tm_year is 1900 based
atm.tm_isdst = nDST;
m_time = mktime(&atm);
ASSERT(m_time != -1); // indicates an illegal input time
}
The text in blue is the text that is on line 40.
The engineer is in Vizag and top honcho of the customer is visiting site tomorrow. Effectively this put our balls in the compression mode. (We are based in Pune)
Since the error is in the initialization of CTime we thought that we had not init the declaration correctly. But the check up that followed revealed that there was no mistake on our side.

Further enquiries from the site revealed that one of the units from had its RTC (real time clock) programmed to year as 2063.
I initially ignored this because the CTime documentation said that
"The upper date limit is 12/31/3000. The lower limit is 1/1/1970 12:00:00 AM GMT."
source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/78zb0ese(VS.80).aspx
2063 falls well within the limit.
A possible pitfall here could have been that I am using VC++ 6.0 and the documentation could be for the current version.
I kept doing what every good engineer does when he does'nt have a solution. I kept googling. Nothing came up. Out of desperation I clicked on Translate the Page next to:
http://topic.csdn.net/t/20041214/16/3644707.html
What a useful thing that was. I came to know that CTime Line 40 uses the mktime function which can handle year upto 2038 only. Problem solved.
Technology is a great thing. It helps us solve all the problems that we created with the earlier technology.

Barack and Us

This is the day after Barack was sworn in. This is also the day after when my grandmother sat up late to see the swearing in ceremony. This is also the day after when my father called my sister (who's in US of A) to know whether she was watching the ceremony. This is also the day after when my mother understood the meaning of 'The First Lady' and that it is not a post.

This is also the day after, when I am hopeful. I am hopeful that this man will bring in the change.
The inaugural speech, we hope, is a reflection of the man's personality and also of his intentions. We hope that God gives him the strength to implement what he says.

The part of the speech that struck me most was:
"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met."

Hoping that the speech was drafted by Obama himself, I feel that this man is a realist.
He sees the problems and puts them across to the people. He also informs them that the solutions are not going to be simple or fast. At the same time he inspires them by saying "we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."

He has to now prove himself by his actions.

We as Indians hope that Obama does what he says. That he calls a spade a spade. He does not expect us that we "forgive" Pakistan. (Personally I feel that Rice made a very stupid statement especially when she knew that she would be out of the office the next day). We hope that he continues his war against terror. He helps Afganistan to rebuild itself. We hope that he does not alienate the Muslims in general. We hope that he does not help Israel with it's overt agressions and supressions.
I personally hope to him that his personal life is not affected. That he changes the US policies against Cuba and ends their alienation. That he invests a lot in Space programs and gives the world and the scientists the opportunities to create new technologies.
I hope that the hope that he has given us and energized us also gives him the strength.
To do better.