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100 Years of Macintosh

Posted by pudge on from the happy-birthday dept.

Zero seconds on the Mac OS system clock is January 1, 1904. The Mac OS epoch hits 100 years ... now. That's assuming you live in the Pacific time zone, anyway: the Mac OS epoch is unique in that it is time zone-specific. Of course, none of this applies unless you are running Mac OS, and all you Mac users are using Mac OS X, right? (Geek note: the Mac OS epoch is unsigned, which is why it can count over 100 years from 0 seconds, and 32-bit Unix can't, though it can count backward to 1901.)

13 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Mac OS 9.2.2 seems to be OK by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 4, Funny
    You're lucky. I'm on OS X and my computer just asked me to go outside to replace the AE35 unit.

    --
    http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  2. That's one bad apple. by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ewwww... I don't think I want to see what a 100 year old Apple looks like.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  3. Oh Yeah?! by dupper · · Score: 4, Funny
    Well I set the arbitrary starting time on my OS to January 1st, 1804, so take that MacOS: The dupperOS epoch hits 200 years... 3h14m ago.

    Nya, nya!

  4. For sale: orignal 1904 Mac by catbutt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fresnel lens has a small scratch, and vacuum tube port is broken, but otherwise mint. Best offer.

    1. Re:For sale: orignal 1904 Mac by deglr6328 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sir, I wish to solicit you for a possible exchange of similar electric appliance! I will gladly offer you utilisation of an iGrammo (45 second playback model) for your '04 Mac!! Respectable gentlemen are urged to reply with serious disquisitions only, as this apparatus may be potentially be used to play back musical composition containing lascivious lyrics...Ladies know your limits!

      --
      - "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
  5. Re:Hardware clock by kitzilla · · Score: 4, Funny

    > Little know fact (or widely known) almost all Macs will reset to January 1, 1969 if the batter is removed.

    Removing the batter from most apples will completely ruin the pie. So a reset would seem appropriate.

    --
    This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
  6. Ha! by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ha! Us Windows users don't have this problem. Microsoft won't let us use a Windows OS that old! *SmUG*

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  7. Re:Dear Apple, by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I am a homosexual. I bought an Apple computer because of its well earned reputation for being "the" gay computer."

    Okay, the whole 'Mac users are gay' troll is very stale now. Here's something a little fresher:

    "I heard that OSX is based on eunichs!"

    (man I hope the mod dudes are in good humor today.)

  8. more than that... by netsrek · · Score: 4, Funny

    I seem to remember being amazed at just how many damn dates there were... and being even more amazed that people knew them...

    nothing compared to that guy who came up with the internationalisation bug/easter egg that took three minutes just to describe....

    I thought WWDC was full of nerds, but then Stump the Experts was like concentrated nerd juice...

    --

    i don't read slashdot anymore.
  9. Good question! by axxackall · · Score: 5, Funny

    I agree all those epochs are too random, including the birthday of Jesus Christ. IMHO the only meaningful and universal epoch is a time of the Big Bang. All time should be count from that.

    --

    Less is more !
  10. Related Comic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Related comic
    :)

  11. One of the weirdest stories ever... by tuxedobob · · Score: 4, Funny
    1. There is no article.
    2. The story is cool anyway.
    3. Most of the comments (in my threshold, 1+, anyway) are actually funny.
    4. Pudge posted this on time. This means that either he a) lives in PST and spent midnight posting this, or b) lives elsewhere and stayed up so he could post this.
  12. Re:Ugh. by Red_Winestain · · Score: 4, Funny
    Well, there hasn't been a leap second since 1999. There won't be one this year. Has the planet finally caught up with Unix?

    Reference