The world ends on January 19, 2038: thanks Unix!

by Danny Mendez Dec 23rd 2007

If you thought the Y2K bug had a lot of world ending potential, you might want to skip this post right now. If we don't blow ourselves up by 2038, the end of the world is going to have little to do with nukes and a lot to do with Unix because Unix systems can't keep track of the date past January 19, 2038.

According to Y2K38.info, Unix keeps track of the date and time using a four byte integer that represents the number of seconds past January 1, 1970. The integer can only get so big before having to restart from zero. If a machine can't restart it's time, which may be the case for many Unix systems, it will crash. Hackosis confirms this problem has the potential to affect Linux boxes too. Unfortunately, machines running on *nix operating systems act as the backbone for much of the cyber-world, meaning we may see anything from planes falling out of the sky to the internet shutting down when this hits.

Are you scared yet? Probably not, and neither are we. 2038 is far, far away, and it's very unlikely that we'll be using the same technology for pretty much anything when the year comes. Also, there's way too much money to be lost to a simple little bug, and no company's going to stand by and let that happen. Finally, keep in mind that Y2K38.info has been around since before the year 2000, meaning the author wrote much of the content on the site without seeing the results of the Y2K bug. However, the site is still up, so the author must believe it's still a problem. For those interested, the site is headlined by a countdown timer in binary, decimal, and date forms, which are definitely worth checking out if you're into ones and zeros.

Tags: bug, end of the world, EndOfTheWorld, trojan, unix, virus, world's end, World'sEnd, y2k, y2k38

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

uhh said 11:55AM on 12-23-2007

Why doesn't some UNIX user just set the clock a minute prior to doomsday and see if it resets or blows up when Y2K38 passes?

Nelson said 12:04PM on 12-23-2007

Oops, Linux user*

Joseph said 12:36PM on 12-23-2007

The domain Y2K38.info was only registered on 29-Nov-2007 - only a few days ago! (In fact the .info TLD itself is only a few years old.)

The information posted there may predate 2000, but how do you know that?

Thud! said 1:35PM on 12-23-2007

2y38 seems far off, but procrastination is a very human trait (http://the-ping.blogspot.com/2007/12/2038-and-march-of-sloths.html). The money and interest isn't focused on preventing global warming and overpopulation damage in two decades, let alone measly integer problems three decades out. If we're still here then, I'll probably be available for UNIX conversion consulting gigs!

Nathan said 1:39PM on 12-23-2007

Nope, sorry, 1/19/08 is a Tuesday. Worlds ends on a Thursday.

Set my clock on Windows XP to see what'd happen, kept right on tickin'

So...anyone think that we may have another Y2K scare on our hands?

Mark said 1:46PM on 12-23-2007

Anyone who is still using a 30 year old version of Linux or BSD by that time deserves to be blown up.

Naser Hossain said 2:50PM on 12-23-2007

Damn those unix hackers. Now only if we had Justin Long and "Warlock" with us.

Oh' I forgot, we would also need Bruce Willis to "Yippee Ki Yay" then :)

Kamal said 4:58PM on 12-23-2007

OK Everyone, switch to Windows.

SteveS said 5:02PM on 12-23-2007

"Are you scared yet? Probably not, and neither are we. 2038 is far, far away, and it's very unlikely that we'll be using the same technology for pretty much anything when the year comes."

I'm sure that's what the original UNIX developers were thinking 37 years ago about today...

pritesh said 8:59PM on 12-23-2007

use 64 bit os. problem solved?

jared said 11:44PM on 12-23-2007

Well, NASA is using 30 year old computing technology in the current Space Shuttles, probably there will be a lot of space junk running RedHat falling out of the sky on January 19th or whatever...

Nathan said 4:02AM on 12-24-2007

Now that makes sense...Spacejunk falling=chrsitians thinking it is the second coming...

Mysterius said 3:48PM on 12-24-2007

Sorry to spoil the fun, but even the most crazy-enthusiastic backers of the Shuttle would laugh at the idea of the current fleet serving into 2038. And if they were flying in 2038, computer glitches would be the least of my worries...

RP said 4:48AM on 12-24-2007

I'm not too worried.

30 years ago, this is what computers looked like:

http://www.thocp.net/timeline/1978.htm

They ran BASIC. DOS 1.0 wasn't even out 'til 1981!

So another 30 years from now -- it's actually quite a long time, technology-wise. (OK, in 30 years I may have to eat these words. Contact me at the space colony where I'm living. :-)

michael said 4:40PM on 12-24-2007

Thankfully, I don't use anything UNIX. :)

Craig Bushell said 7:07AM on 12-26-2007

You think running MS Windows or other operating systems besides UNIX is going to solve your problem.

Firstly, certain Windows versions including Vista are somewhat POSIX compliant, which is a horrible UNIX standard to make software work on anything.

UNIX BSD code has been used and acknowledged by Microsoft in Windows for years.

Recent Vista innovations(?) include updated open source BSD UNIX stuff. I don't know what that does but so does Apple OS, at least beyond OS X. So Tiger etc. will be in trouble if we procrastinate.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters