mastodon.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

Administered by:

Server stats:

383K
active users

Josh Bressers

I feel like we aren't calling the 2038 problem the "epocholypse" often enough

We should all try harder to make this a thing

@joshbressers: Not to be confused with an echopocapocapocalypselypse.

@joshbressers @vmbrasseur there’s a Facebook event called “The End Of Unix Time” that you can attend if you like that kind of thing.

@vmbrasseur @adrianco @joshbressers

Lost me even sooner. Once I see “Faceb” I’m out before “ook”.

@joshbressers I'm looking forward to it becoming 1970 again.

@joshbressers @joytrek Years of reporting my birthday as Jan 1st 1970 in every online system that asked, maybe the epochalypse is finally when some of those start to blow up :)

@joshbressers As someone who spent many 70-hour weeks making sure Y2K wasn't an apocalypse, I couldn't agree more!

@joshbressers Apologies, will get right to that. I was distracted by how much more powerful Miyake events are than Carrington events.

@joshbressers I hope to have the option to retire by then. I will be 57 👴🏻

@joshbressers If only a few bears in this forest of ours are talking about it would it be ok to call it an echoepocholypse?

@joshbressers I'm sorry, I had to edit this to correct k to ok. Big sighs. :)

@joshbressers why? By 2038, the only 16-bit machines in action will be "Retro". Even IoT devices are migrating to 64 bits - including 64-bit daytime structs.

@thor @joshbressers The 2^16 epochalypse happened at 18:12:16 on 1970-01-01.

@sheogorath @joshbressers really?

In my primary job (500+ workplaces) we have a near 100% penetration of x64.

In my secondary (handful of workplaces but 250+ servers) we have a 100% penetration of x64.

At home, we have 3 "workplaces" with 2-5 devices per station. All 64-bit. The only 32 bit unit in action is my son's Nintendo Wii. And the only computers not fulfilling 64 bits are in my closets (80's and 90's retro computers).

Oh, my $20 oscilloscope is 32-bit. (Cortex A3) but...

@thor @sheogorath @joshbressers Some industries have 20-30 year lifespans on equipment that was shipped with 32 bit full fat OSs and may not be replaced or even replaceable before 2038. I personally know of equipment with 32 bit CPUs (all that was available) that will likely need some form of SW fix deployed to cope with it before the HW can be replaced. And a lot of those things are … quite important.

I post this from a 16-year-old computer
I can still buy 32-bit machines today. if they are buggy and also last 16 years... they'd better be fixable

@lxo the only 32 bit machines you can buy (new) today are IoT (like ESP32, Arduino, etc) and for most of them, handling a date is not something of importance. All x86 currently available (new) are x86_64/amd64. Intel only manufactures 32-bit CPUs for embedded systems and AMD doesn't do 32-bit at all.

Generally, when writing for an embedded system, it is YOUR responsibility to handle data correctness - not the OS'.

yeah. how about the GPS in your brand new car? or the shop-list management component in your fridge, or the TV show recorder, or the internet firewall with time-based rules? are those on sale today ready to work 16 years from now? surely they won't be covered by warranty by then, so if customers are going to be stopped from having the software fixed by third parties, that's planned obsolescence with a new twist to escape liability

@lxo There is no GPS in there, and even if there was, it would have rolled over at least several times by now. It has a rollover period of 19.6 years. The firewall is 64-bit already and it is also such a low-cost item that your argument doesn't even hold water using those. You are seeing dragons and ghosts where there are only gusts and shadows.

i was not about you specifically, sir
anyway, it looks like you're saying there's no problem whatsoever, that all products for sale and in shelves today will be either fine 16 years from now, or it will be ok for them to turn into landfillers, even if mindless greed didn't lead their makers to deprive users of the possibility of fixing this sort of problem.
do I get you right?

@lxo no, you're not. I'm saying there won't be any major problems. I'm also saying that if you purchase today expensive equipment without taking into account the possible issues that can arise wrt you planning to use it past its recommended lifetime, much of the responsibility lies on YOUR shoulders.

But you just be you and keep yelling at clowds. I'm old enough to remeberber Y2K and its non-issues. Linux already proven that Y2K38 is solvable in software.

I'd rather not buy any computing equipment (regardless of price) whose software only the vendor is allowed to audit or fix.
I'm old enough to remember how much work went into checking and fixing stuff so that Y2K was a whimper rather than a boom.
yeah, fixable software can be patched and problems can be avoided. it's proprietary software that only suppliers can fix that has me worried, because they're more likely to leave old stuff unmaintained, unfixed and unfixable to make you buy their newer products

@lxo That is your prerogative. You cannot however extend that view to everyone else. Consumers have the right to be disinformed, ignorant dweebs - and manufacturers do have the right to be corner-cutting bat-dung. It is bad, yes, when these proxy their problems to unsuspecting individuals - but that is permissable to regulate.

And I'm old enough to remember Y2K too - and it wasn't that much of a problem in gov/geo nor in uni.

@lxo oh, by the way - I didn't catch the "they'd better be fixable" part - what's your meaning? Today's computers are barely fixable and crApple has proven to us that it's only going to get worse (if they have a saying). But "fixing" the 2038 date issue - depends on the platform. If you have a relatively moden Linux, then it's 2038-safe, even on 32-bit machines, as internally it uses a 64-bit struct. As for MacOS and Windows - YMMV.

@joshbressers I tend to think that people just expect every problematic system to already be in flames by 2038 ... 😕

@joshbressers @anildash It’s in my long-term roadmap as “The Epochalypse”!

@joshbressers I dunno. Let's just get it fixed. Like I worked so hard fixing systems in the 90s that were going to fail, or had already failed - only to later have everyone tell me Y2K was a hoax because planes didn't fall from the sky.

Let's just get on with it and let those systems fail that people in charge of the purse strings don't want to fix.

@joshbressers Future me's problem and I don't like that guy :D

@joshbressers It has happened, and I endorse the notion.

Even Wikipedia offers the term in its introduction: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_203

HN search: hn.algolia.com/?q=epochalypse

Turns up:

en.wikipedia.orgYear 2038 problem - Wikipedia

@joshbressers maybe looking into it... *Checks notes*... First of December 2037. A month sounds like plenty of time ^^

@joshbressers we should because otherwise we'll end up with Y2Kv2

@joshbressers you want everyone to help to immanentize the Epocholypse?

Deal :)

@joshbressers I'll be 80 if I'm still alive in 2038. Hope I don't have a Unix based pacemaker. Seriously, though. Is this any more real than the Y2K bug was? I remember Art Bell saying he was going to follow the bug around the world starting at the International Date line. I was up all night myself working because of Y2K fears that came to nothing, and I listened to his show. It was on Atlantis. He sure did sell a lot of hand cranked flashlights leading up to it though.

@joshbressers Matt Parker’s “Humble Pi” has a nice chapter on this. It’s in chapter two or three I think.

And it’s on Libby, for those who are tight on $.

@joshbressers it's the UNIX binary millennium and yes that phrase dates back to the last millennium bug

@joshbressers Luckily our super-modern computer programs don’t ever rely on digital dates like those primitive old relics from the 20th century, right?

Right??

Right?!?!

@joshbressers it is called that on Wikipedia

@joshbressers
For those who aren't aware. This is similar to Y2K, where many computer programs won't be able to store the time correctly.

@joshbressers I'm with you: we can't just roll over on this issue.

That's my 32 bits' worth.