Yes, a new doomsday scenario. Life couldn’t go on without one. Make sure to stock up on canned goods. Leave your iPod behind, it’ll be worthless. Probably even that watch you’ve got on your wrist. Cell phone, forget it. The Internet will be no more.
Apparently, a bug similar to the millennium bug will affect Unix-based systems, like those that run the tubes, in the year 2038. The bug, being dubbed the “2038 bug,” arises because Unix-based systems store the time as a signed 32-bit integer, in seconds, from midnight on January 1 1970.
This would be a great short story. Assuming some dumb ass forgets to update their software when they’ve had 30 years to do it.
2 responses so far ↓
Trudi Topham // March 14, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Guaranteed to happen. Come the year 2000 some pillocks hadn’t Y2K-proofed their machines in spite of the 12+ years’ warning.
Not that it caused the collapse of the global economy or anything.
blah // December 30, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Yay We can all live like pioneers!