Vast and Infinite

Here are some computer symptoms.  See if you can guess the cause:

• You can’t log into GMail using Chrome.  Google claims you have an unsupported browser, then gives you bizzare circular http redirects.  Firefox is fine.  Clearing cache and cookies does nothing.
• Google Reader shows that you have umpteen new items, but when you click on “All Items” or any of the categories, it says “no new items”.  Same behavior in Chrome and Firefox.
• AVG Antivirus (free edition) complains your virus definitions are out of date, even though you just updated.

Pretty whacky, eh?  What could be causing it all?  Turns out it’s all due to having the system clock set one month into the future.  

And how could that have happened?  Easy!  Suppose someone in your family (who shall remain nameless) wants to look at a calendar for December.  They double-click on the clock in the lower-right corner of windows and advance the month so they can see the calendar.  Then they forget to click “cancel” and the time resets.  It’ll be a while before Windows time synch kicks in and fixes things (or somebody notices).  Until that time, all the symptoms above will persist.

(Sigh.)  Why must my computers be so difficult lately?