[TUHS] The 2038 bug...

Bakul Shah bakul at iitbombay.org
Fri Jan 1 05:18:02 AEST 2021


2038 is closer than 2000 was to the present time and will be upon us
before we are ready for it! I suspect people will still be running 32 bit
systems in all sorts of places and running the Unix equivalent of “dusty
decks” for critical systems. May be even in emulation mode! Who’d
want to fund rewrites of large software monoliths?

I imagine I will still be playing with this ultimate toy of computing in 2038,
if I am able! Still writing new programs for fun along with everything else!
People will still be writing “make” replacements, inventing new programming
languages that won’t be much of an improvement over the present lot, and
arguing over the same old things. Assuming we haven’t crossed the AI singularity.
Which I doubt.

> On Dec 31, 2020, at 12:10 AM, arnold at skeeve.com wrote:
> 
> Will there be that many 32 bit systems left by then?  time_t these
> days tends to be 64 bits, and I think at least the Linux file systems
> store them that way.  Microsoft counts time from January 1, 1980, so
> that buys them until 2048. :-)
> 
> I'll be (G-d willing) 79 then; I hope around, but I also hope not
> overly involved with computers. :-)
> 
> Arnold
> 
> Niklas Karlsson <nikke.karlsson at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I'll be a mere 58, so not even retired yet. I fear it will be a very
>> interesting time, in the "May you live in interesting times" sense.
>> Niklas
>> Den tors 31 dec. 2020 kl 08:21 skrev Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org>:
>>> As the new year is about to kick in (down-under anyway), it got me to
>>> thinking (always dangerous): how many here will be around for it to pick
>>> up the pieces that are no doubt still lying around?
>>> I'll be about the ripe old age of 85, so I may be around to see the
>>> Imminent Death of the Internet (Film at 11).
>>> 2100?  Forget it...  Too bad, as "Revolt in 2100 (?)" is one of my
>>> favourite Heinlein books.
>>> Others?
>>> -- Dave


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