From what I understand that flare (number 1 ranked flare) was so strong that we really do not know how large it was. The instrumentation monitoring it was saturated. That is why its size is listed as X28+. There really are some informative web sights now on-line concerning solar weather.
ps - I also had underwent many months of corporate training after leaving college. But hey, we don't count that.
Putting a coda on this sunspot thread, it seems that as of today we haven't seen a sunspot for seveal months.
They're speaking of something like a Dalton Minimum.