1234567890 - The Time is Coming! (Vanity)

Self ^ | 13 January 2009 | Self

[ShadowAce]

OK, geeks and geekesses!! The Unix Time is counting down to a cool epoch moment. On Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 23:31:30 UTC (That's 5:31:30 PM CST for you non-geeks out there), the internal clocks of all Unix and Unix-type machines (ie Linux and Mac OSX), will reach 1234567890.

While this is cool, it doesn't really mean as much as January of 2038 when 32-bit systems will overflow, causing an issue similar to Y2K. Luckily, computers are starting to migrate towards 64-bit OSes, and the 64-bit time clock won't overflow for hundreds of billions of years, so we're safe.

For those of you who would like to watch the countdown, perhaps party while it approaches, or jest generally be geeks at work, you can watch it here.

Have fun!!

[ShadowAce]

[WayneS]

I’m guessing unix time passes slower (or at least SEEMS to pass slower) than regular time, since not having your “equipment” any more would tend to make life a bit of a drag.

[ShadowAce]

LOL!

[markomalley]

Oh no, time for the apocalypse! Will Linus Torvalds have his revenge upon society????

[ClearCase_guy]

I don’t suppose UNIX does anything funky on Dec 21 2012, does it?

[ShadowAce]

Not that I'm aware of.

Except it will stop due to the Mayan END OF THE WORLD!!!!

[SkiKnee]

What kind of clock has 23:31:30 as 5:31:30pm? Isn’t 23:00 11pm? What am I missing?

[ShadowAce]

23:31:30 UTC, which is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

[The_Victor]

I don’t suppose UNIX does anything funky on Dec 21 2012, does it?

UNIX will stop working, but only the Mayan computers will be effected.

[Vinnie]

Do I need to stock up on water and nonperishable foods?

:)

[DouglasKC]

TEOTWAWKI

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"1234567890 - The Time is Coming!"

I'm picking nits here, but doesn't a 'countdown' actually count down instead of up? I'm probably missing something since I'm not a geek.

[Travis T. OJustice]

And toilet paper.

[Travis T. OJustice]

The count (amount of time units) is decreasing (down) as the time (accrual of time units) increases to the specific point mentioned. The current count is around 7 hours. In another hour, it will be around six hours, hence, a countdown or remaining time units until the even in question occurs. Time will keep progressing at it’s standard rate, though. At least, i sure as heck hope so.

[theDentist]

So basically, the machines will continue running, it’s just an interesting sign-post along that server’s life??? Just curious as I have a couple here.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

1234567890 in the title vs. 9876543210, was my point. I apologize for being so A-retentive.

[Travis T. OJustice]

No, you raise a valid point. Depends which scale you are looking at, though - total time (increasing count) or remaining time (countdown).

[ShadowAce]

Yup—no problems at all. Just an neat curiosity.

[ShadowAce]

The way Unix keeps track of time is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970.

This afternoon, it will be 1,234,567,890 seconds since then.