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Time to panic about Y2K38?
In a nutshell, the year 2038 problem, as it is also known, is that most Unix-like operating systems represent time as the number of seconds since January 1, 1970.
On 32-bit systems, that second count is a signed 32-bit integer. What that, in turn, means - unfortunately for us all - is that the latest time that can be represented is 03:14:07 UTC on Tuesday, January 19, 2038.
Macworld dominated the headlines last week, so it's likely many unsuspecting readers were in too comfortable a state of Mac nirvana to realize what was happening in the rest of the world. Snap out of it, people! Y2K38 is coming, and as of Saturday, the 30-year countdown has already begun!
Slashdot's bloggers can always be counted upon to be on top of potential crises in the geek world, and a good thing too, because there's been very little mention of the impending crisis elsewhere. But sure enough, alert Slashdot blogger kdawson sounded the alarms on Tuesday with a post calling attention to the Y2K38 phenomenon, and his was followed by no fewer than 530 comments.
