Re: Debian and the millenium bug
amos@butch.gezernet.co.il (Amos Shapira) wrote on 05.01.98 in <[🔎] 199801051739.TAA18051@butch·2>:
> In message <[🔎] xe1lnwx6mu7.fsf@paycheck.thok.org> you write:
> |> a 64 bit variable, it's good for another 4000 years.
> |
> |Uhhh -- no. If it went from 32 bits to *33* bits, that would get us
>
> Actually, the current limit of 68 years (1970 + 68 = 2038) is posed by
> the used of SIGNED int (31 bits) instead of unsigned bits:
True, but please don't change that. You'd break the doc-rfc package -
there are RFCs from 1969 in it :-)
> |4000 years. This gets us more like 16 billion billion years (american
> |billions - 16 x 10^18 is what I mean, but it's off the top of my head...)
>
> Where did you get this 4000 years figure anyway? 33 bits would just
> double the duration from 136 years to 272 (bringing us to year 2242).
True. And 64 bits gives us +/- 68*4*10^9 years, or over 250*10^9 years.
10^9 = 1 milliard (where applicable) or 1 billion (elsewhere). Nothing
like billions of billions there.
Hmm. I think that goes farther back than the beginning of the universe, so
it's probably barely enough :-)
MfG Kai
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