# Party like it's 1234567890! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 6, 2009, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686 "2009-02-06T09:33:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/1 "2009-02-06T09:33:54Z")
One for the true geeks. As reported in several IT news sites, next Friday, Feb 13 at 23:31:30 GMT the posix time will be 1234567890. There is a countdown (or up) clock [here](http://coolepochcountdown.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/2 "2009-02-06T09:50:54Z")
Hmmm, and it falls on Friday the 13th, you say? ::starts to stockpile supplies:: ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/3 "2009-02-06T11:43:57Z")
That’s cool! My old team at work used to write a POSIX wrapper layer for a proprietary OS. Bet they will be stoked at this. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/4 "2009-02-06T18:31:19Z")
When was 0000000001? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/5 "2009-02-06T18:42:02Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > When was 0000000001? The second after midnight on January 1, 1970 GMT. (Unix heads number from 0, not 1.) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/6 "2009-02-06T18:45:30Z")
[Midnight at the beginning of Jan 1, 1970](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/7 "2009-02-06T19:29:57Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > The second after midnight on January 1, 1970 GMT. (Unix heads number from 0, not 1.) Which means the world will end on [03:14:07 UTC, Tuesday, 19 January 2038](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem). ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/8 "2009-02-06T20:42:53Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Which means the world will end on [03:14:07 UTC, Tuesday, 19 January 2038](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem). No, it just means that everyone will have to buy a new computer. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/9 "2009-02-06T20:43:38Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > which means the world will end on [03:14:07 utc, tuesday, 19 january 2038](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/year_2038_problem). epoch fail! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/10 "2009-02-06T20:49:45Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Which means the world will end on [03:14:07 UTC, Tuesday, 19 January 2038](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem). Run that computation for signed 64-bit integers and see what date you come up with. Will the sun still be alive to see the rollover? ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/11 "2009-02-06T21:21:19Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > epoch fail! that pwns on so many levels, you win teh thread. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/12 "2009-02-07T01:18:23Z")
This event even has a ready-made [theme song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OdbCLfXUV4). You would just need to yell “0!” every time they chanted “123456789.” ---
**Author:** ![Pseudocode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/59ef9b/32.png) [@Pseudocode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pseudocode)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/13 "2009-02-07T04:19:25Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > that pwns on so many levels, you win teh thread. Did you see the [xkcd comic](http://xkcd.com/376/) link on the countdown clock page you linked to? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/14 "2009-02-07T05:09:58Z")
Ironically a couple weeks ago I googled “Epoch fail” because i was wondering if anyone had made a Unix joke about it. So I was late to the joke but came up with it independently. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/15 "2009-02-08T04:31:45Z")
So who wants to school the dumb guy (me) about what in the hell you all are talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/16 "2009-02-08T04:37:43Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > So who wants to school the dumb guy (me) about what in the hell you all are talking about? “Unix time” is, roughly-speaking, a count of the number of seconds since a reference time-and-date. This reference time-and-date is midnight at the beginning of Jan 1, 1970; it’s referred to as the “Unix epoch”, where “epoch” simply means “a reference point in time”. This Unix time is used by many computers as the base for their internal timekeeping. The count is stored in many older computers in such a way that it can be expressed as the number 1234567890 on February 13th. And it will roll over somewhat like an odometer in 2038. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/17 "2009-02-08T17:14:08Z")
Cool! Thanks **Sunspace**! ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/18 "2009-02-09T12:20:17Z")
The 32 bit Unix time will roll over in 2038, 64 bit time will last until the sun burns out. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/19 "2009-02-09T12:25:38Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Cool! > > Thanks **Sunspace**! No problem! It’s my job to explain this kind of stuff. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686/20 "2009-02-09T19:13:26Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > epoch fail! You, sir, are my new hero. Wait a minute. January 1, 1970? You mean Nixon gets the first Moon landing AND this? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.:mad: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/party-like-its-1234567890/484686.md?page=2)