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Time's Up: 2^30 Seconds Since 1970

Posted by michael on from the bzzzzzt dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "In Software glitch brings Y2K deja vu, CNET points out a small wave of Y2K-like bugs may soon hit, though it gets the explanation wrong. It will soon be about 2^30 (1 billion, not 2 billion) seconds since 1970 (do the arithmetic). Systems that use only 29 bits of a word for unsigned/positive integers, or store time as seconds since 1970 in this format, may roll back to 1970. (Many systems that do not need full 32 bit integers may reserve some bits for other uses, such as boolean flags, or for type information to distinguish integers from booleans and pointers.)"

3 of 675 comments (clear)

  1. Re:OH NO! by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 0, Redundant

    No, plastic sheets are the more modern stuff (Y2k+2).
    Back in Y2k days, it was just duct tape and WD-40.

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  2. SCO... by JebusIsLord · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Well, someone check their kernel source to see if SCO is going to flake out... ...we are apparently in possession of their sources, after all :)

    --
    Jeremy
  3. Re:Some systems... by j-pimp · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Um, not to be quarrelsome or anything, but I'm not sure sure you'll find anyone here willing to make that distinction.
    I know. It was flame bait and I just wanted to post an educated rebuttal.

    --
    --- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.