Epoch countdown

Epoch countdown

Terribly geeky, i know! Many modern computers count their time in the number of seconds since Unix Time, an epoch beginning on 1st January 1970.

In about 8 minutes it is going to reach 1,234,567,890 – something which i find oddly exciting! Keep up with it on coolepochcountdown.com

Update: GOT IT!!

My little ruby program recorded it for me!

Also, coolepochcountdown.com started doing fireworks and playing "Celebration" at 1234567890 o'clock! It was excellent!! :D

Also, there are many geeky celebrations on Flickr!

Posted: February 13th, 2009
Categories: computer, geeky, netbook
Comments: View Comments.
  • You have been more than impressive!
  • This is a good post and a good thing to know about it.
  • andrewpall
    Thanks for sharing.
  • This is really interesting. Continue to do what you do, I really enjoy reading your articles.
  • GOOD BLOG
  • That real cool thing, thanks for sharing it, I truly loved it!
  • williamgibson
    Will be back to check for more.

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  • CAT
    LOL, that's really cool!
  • Kapitano
    Excellent. I know exactly what I was doing at the Epoch making moment. I was growling at an old tower computer which had decided all four of it's USB sockets were going to fail simultainiously.

    An Epoch fail indeed.

    How strange there were no dire predictions a la the millenium.
  • Haha! FAIL! Funny, my dad's computer did that recently.

    I think there were a few dire predictions along those lines, made in jest really. I think everyone gets that it's *just a number*. A really cool number, most definitely, but nothing to worry about on a technical level.

    However, there is a very serious epoch-related prediction that is due on 19th January 2038. The number of seconds since 1st January 1970 will reach 2,147,483,647. You may recognise that number as the highest that can be represented as a signed 32-bit integer. Most 64-bit computers are safe, but literally millions of systems - in fact hundreds of millions - including many embedded systems - use 32 bits to keep track of time. If they are not changed in time they will underflow and appear to go back in time to 1901.

    It's actually more serious than Y2K because it's more to do with hardware than software.

    Worldwide calamity, here we come!!!
  • Ari
    LOL, that's really cool!

    BTW, what happened to your OpenID support?
  • I have changed to Disqus for the very cool features it offers in linking comments across blogs, the threaded commenting and email replies. It does mean that i've lost the OpenID, but Disqus promise me that they are planning to enable OpenID soon, so it will come back!

    Thanks! :D
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