Size of python data types is pretty irrelevant when DNS SOA serial number is an unsigned 32-bit number. January 1st, 2043 would be
4301010000 YYMMDDHHMM
which is > 2**32, and thus invalid.
Ahhh! I see. Thanks. I'll do something different.
This is all pretty academical, of course. It's just that you've created a totally new _class_ of y2k-like bugs, with your YYYYMMDDHHMM - 200000000000 scheme, and I think that's worth some kind of a prize.
How kind! Maybe that balances out the one real y2k bug I fixed in 1999. I'm still looking forward to the year 2008 bug that no-one seems to be worried about (2-digit year read by a program/language that treats leading zero as an octal indicator - and yes, I have seen an example). Thanks again for your comments.