James,
Unix time is calculate from the number of seconds elapse since midnight Jan.
1 1970. The number is stored as a signed 4 byte integer ( why it's signed I
don't know as it looses half of its range), and the time number will overflow
sometime in 2038. This from 31557600 seconds per year ( with a 1/4 day for
leaps), 2147483648 as the largest positive number that can be held in a 4 byte
interger. Comes up 68.049+ years, or 1970 + 68.049 = 2038.049 or somewhere
around the 18th of Jan. 2038.
H.
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: James Nazarian Jr <James.Nazarian@Colorado.EDU>
Reply-To: James Nazarian Jr <James.Nazarian@Colorado.EDU>
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 12:19:48 -0600 (MDT)
>9/9/99 is the end of Unix time. Unix has a counter that counts seconds
since it was first started I don't know how many years ago. on 9/9/99 the
size alloted for the counter will be filled and unix will stop (assuming
it was never upgraded to fix this problem.
James Nazarian
'71 B roadster
'74 BGT bastardization with big aluminum heart :)
'63 Buick 215 cubic inch 'heart'
On Wed, 8 Sep 1999, Dave Houser wrote:
> Friends,
> As I sign off tonite, I'm reminded that my birthday tomorrow has a
> special meaning in the old computer code leading to possible Y2K probs.
> At 9/9/99, programs were scheduled to stop. Is this so?
> Thanks goodness, there's no chips in my MGs.
> Cheers,
> Dave Houser
>
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