You don't understand the startdates?
Take, for example, 20120304.2359
Let me stick some spaces in some helpful places:
2012 03 04 . 23 59
That better?
20120304 means 4th March 2012, and 2359 is in 24-hour clock format, IE 11:59PM
Stardates in the Star Trek universe work in an entirely different way. Wikipedia has a good explanation on how Stardates work.