2038: The Year the Internet Will End?
Alas, when the date became January 1, 2000, the world didn't end. In fact almost no computers were affected at all. This was partially because of expensive and hurried fixes to millions of computers, and partially because the threat was vastly overstated by the media.
Now another date looms on the horizon -- 3:14:07 AM on January 19, 2038. The "2038 bug" will affect any Unix or Posix based systems such as the Linux servers that power the web and Macs running the Unix-based OSX. Posix based operating systems store date and time as a four byte integer (technically only 31 bits) counting seconds from January 1 1970. When the number of seconds reaches 2,147,483,647 seconds, the clock will reset to -2,147,483,648, or 8:45:52 PM Dec 13 1901.
What could happen? Well we've actually already seen some of the effects of this bug. In May of 2006 the bug brought an AOL (our parent company) web server to its knees. The server was designed to never timeout, but rather than set a the timeout to simply never occur the timeout was set for a billion seconds in the future. When the one billion seconds, or just over 31 years 251 days and 12 hours, past the January 19, 2038 threshold the scheduled timeout was scheduled to happen in the past, 1901, and the server crashed. A similar problem took out the Mars Rover Spirit temporarily in 2004 when it started sending nonsense messages back to Houston from the year 2038. If our current systems were left as is we could expect them to start crumbling one by one, and on the morning of January 19, 2038 Switched.com would suddenly go offline as our server crashed.
Despite our sensationalist headline, neither the world nor the Internet will end in 2038. In fact with just under 30 years to spare we're pretty confident that any issues will be resolved before the doomsday scenario has a chance to play out. Besides, in 30 years shouldn't we have fancy new-voice controlled holographic computers like those promised to us by 'Minority Report?' We're pretty sure the pre-cogs weren't using Leopard.
From Newsvine and 2038bug.com
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
JBJG24M @ Mar 15th 2008 6:20AM
DOPUBT THAT I WILL BE AROUND THEN SO IT SHOULDN'T EFFECT ME ANY!!
vance Brendle @ Mar 15th 2008 6:44AM
in 2038 I will be92 dont think Iwill be here for it
Geo @ Mar 15th 2008 6:47AM
Please stop coming up with this crap and 'hyping it out of perspective'... The Y2K thing was nothing buy a scam... Just get to work!!!!
HACKER @ Mar 15th 2008 8:11AM
JBJ ... YOU SELFISH BAST*RD ...........
gayle @ Mar 15th 2008 8:22AM
I'm more worried about the SUPERBUG that looms over us now.(Mersa). Computers can be replaced.
Theresa @ Mar 15th 2008 8:41AM
I love the exerpt from "Bachelor Party". And even though I don't like to be reminded of how old I am, it sure gave me a laugh...haha!
Autumn @ Mar 15th 2008 8:49AM
EEeeeeGGyyyaaaddss..So Fix The Damn Problem..You've Got 3 decades..for F.S. such Retards and Worthless Paranoia Instigators.Oi..what ELSE is New???
terry @ Mar 15th 2008 8:53AM
I have MRSA and it nearly killed me. Treatment in the past have been 4 surgerys. Antibiotics, 2 pills a day at $100 per pill for 2 weeks. Hospital stays and physical therapy. The last episode of MRSA I treated at home with a phenomenal product. No doctor, no hospital, no antibotics and no huge medical bills. I have photos to prove this.
Gary @ Mar 15th 2008 9:11AM
The only programmers stupid enough to not be able to fix this work for comcast where the movie menu flips back when you look at info on the movies that started before the current ones!
JRStrafer123 @ Mar 15th 2008 9:13AM
This is simply another ploy by hype-mongerers!
pinkydink @ Mar 15th 2008 9:15AM
The worls is supposed to end on Dec.21,2012 anyways,according to the ancient Mayan calendar,so why worry?
mikesmom @ Mar 15th 2008 9:24AM
I think we should be more worried about the environment. And how about Bush's "peace bringing" war in Iraq?
JAMES SCHULKE @ Mar 15th 2008 9:26AM
I CANNOT BELIEVE SO MANY NUT CAN BELIVE SOME BIG NUT BUT I LIKE THE ONE ABOUT THE NAKED LADY AND THE BEST ONE IS WE WILL BE DEAD OR TO OLD TO CARE
Bill @ Mar 15th 2008 9:31AM
Will it reset my tombstone?
TAF @ Mar 15th 2008 9:41AM
ok...went and looked into it and it seems to be legit...
The good news is that is seems to be largely limited to Linux and Unix systems and mostly of the 32-bit variety. Given that even the current 64 systems still have components that are 16- and even 8-bit I'm not holding my breath on that score, but god help me maybe running Windows (or what passes for it at that time) in 2038 will be a good thing (?!?!?)
Malware Tech from Mid-west US
ROFLMAO @ Mar 15th 2008 9:47AM
So the Rover sent messages in our time 2004 from the year 2038 and they say it was a glitch? Anyone ever stop to think that maybe the Rover WAS in 2038 and we're the one's who are in the past?
Back to the Future Part One Mo' Time!!!
Buck @ Mar 15th 2008 9:55AM
What a bunch of "Bravo Sierra"!
#1. AOHell runs WINDBLOW$ software, otherwise us LINUX users would be able to access it and have accouts!
#2. Ok, 30 something years? Linux is OPEN SOURCE, so we all have the "code" and potential to fix this "bug" long before it hits.
#3. Computers are moving to a higher bit software so this is a moot point. Just another "WIN$UX$" iD10t trying to bring down Unix & Linux...."We are MICRO$HAFT, Resistance is futile...you WILL be assemilated!"
Buck @ Mar 15th 2008 9:58AM
OMG!!!
My WIN$HAFT Spell checker didn't work! Imagine that, Bwahahahahahaha!
"They told me to load WIN XP or better, so I loaded Kbuntu Linux."
zxr250cc @ Mar 15th 2008 10:00AM
The third link, from RINO is a malware link designed to install a trojan on your computer. I am referring to the one about Britney Spears naked. It leads to a site that wants you to update ACTIVE X. that is the trojan file. You should delete that link and comment.
Ryan in Detroit @ Mar 15th 2008 10:12AM
If I'm still using this computer in the year 2038, then something really bad happened to the economy. We'd better get our tech support in India to work on this right away!
since everyone is listing their age in here, in 2038, I'll be 65. I may not have any social security but I hope I'm still alive by then. And still in chatrooms on the internet.