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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-23-2007 @ 11:55AM
uhh said...
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?
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12-23-2007 @ 12:04PM
Nelson said...
Oops, Linux user*
12-23-2007 @ 12:36PM
Joseph said...
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?
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12-23-2007 @ 1:35PM
Thud! said...
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!
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12-23-2007 @ 1:39PM
Nathan said...
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?
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12-23-2007 @ 1:46PM
Mark said...
Anyone who is still using a 30 year old version of Linux or BSD by that time deserves to be blown up.
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12-23-2007 @ 2:50PM
Naser Hossain said...
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 :)
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12-23-2007 @ 4:58PM
Kamal said...
OK Everyone, switch to Windows.
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12-23-2007 @ 5:02PM
SteveS said...
"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...
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12-23-2007 @ 8:59PM
pritesh said...
use 64 bit os. problem solved?
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12-23-2007 @ 11:44PM
jared said...
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...
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12-24-2007 @ 4:02AM
Nathan said...
Now that makes sense...Spacejunk falling=chrsitians thinking it is the second coming...
12-24-2007 @ 3:48PM
Mysterius said...
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...
12-24-2007 @ 4:48AM
RP said...
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. :-)
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12-24-2007 @ 4:40PM
michael said...
Thankfully, I don't use anything UNIX. :)
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12-26-2007 @ 7:07AM
Craig Bushell said...
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.
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