#A03‚ just like the UNIX timestamp‚ uses a 32-bit integer
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Visit Tumblr Blog
Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.
Last Seen Tumblr Blogs
Fun Fact
Celebrities use Tumblr as well.
Text
A good and relateable way to introduce the heart of the Y2K bug and the Year 2038 problem.
Congratulations to all AO3 users! Important Milestone reached!
Bookmark database overran!
#The Year 2038 problem is based on the UNIX timestamp#which-rather than storing the actual time- instead counts how many seconds have passed since midning UTC Jan 1 1970#It makes date calculations easier to store and work with.#A03‚ just like the UNIX timestamp‚ uses a 32-bit integer#which means it can count up as high as 3:14:07am Jan 19 2038.#One second later and the intefer overflows and crashes the system.#Like the Y2K bug‚ developers thought this would be sufficient because- ideally- any software using this standard would be replaced#We've already run into problems with computers trying to calculate figures into the future beyond this point.#The date needs to be speciall handled.#So now the UNIX timestamp has been boosted up to a 64-bit integer (adding an extra binary digit).#This means it can store timestamps up to 292 billion years into the future. That's about 21 times the age of the universe.#Well. 21 times the age of the universe plus the 13.1 billion years between the birth of the universe and Jan 1 1970.
63K notes
·
View notes