607: 2038
Divad27182 (Talk | contribs) m (fix date according to http://www.xkcd.com/archive/) |
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{{comic | {{comic | ||
| number = 607 | | number = 607 | ||
| − | | date = | + | | date = July 8, 2009 |
| title = 2038 | | title = 2038 | ||
| image = 2038.png | | image = 2038.png | ||
Revision as of 19:14, 23 February 2013
| 2038 |
 Title text: If only we'd chosen 1944-12-02 08:45:52 as the Unix epoch, we could've combined two doomsday scenarios into one and added a really boring scene to that Roland Emmerich movie. |
Explanation
The 2038 problem is a well-known problem with 32-bit Unix-based operating systems. Unix time is stored as a 32-bit signed integer on these systems, counting the number of seconds since 1970. In 2038, we overflow the highest number we can store in 32-bit integers, leading to unexpected behavior. The switch to 64-bit operating systems will most likely be complete by the year 2038, which is why the speaker is relieved. The reference to Y2K is a throwback to the year 2000 problem, in which people were concerned that computers storing digits as two numbers (eg: 99 to represent 1999) would cause problems when the year 2000 began. In both situations, the situation is largely resolved before the actual event, leading to little if no practical problems for users.
Transcript
- I'm glad we're switching to 64-bit, because I wasn't looking forward to convincing people to care about the Unix 2038 problem.
- Person: What's that?
- Cueball: Remember Y2K? This could be even worse!
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