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Their calendar only runs out on December 21st 2012 because A) they filled up the big slab of stone with dates; and B) they thought that many years would plenty and they could always add more on when they needed to.
The world will probably end at 0307 on Tuesday 19th January 2038 because all the clocks in the computers around the world store the time as signed 32-bit integar and at that time the integer will reach 01111111 11111111 11111111 11111111. When it steps over, the computers will interpret the time as 21:45:52 on 13th December 1901 and the internet will break, planes will fall from the skies and everyone will start killing each other.
We've got 28 years left yet.
I totally agree. Being the computer genius I am. XD
"The South is America. The South is what we started out with in this bizarre, slightly troubling, basically wonderful country--fun, danger, friendliness, energy, enthusiasm, and brave, crazy, tough people." - P.J.O'Rourke -
"A hero of war is that what the see just medals and scars so damn proud of me"
I totally agree. Being the computer genius I am. XD
That date is also known as The Unix Millennium Bug, Y2K38.
Info:
The year 2038 problem (also known as Unix Millennium Bug, Y2K38 by analogy to the Y2K problem) may cause some computer software to fail before or in the year 2038. The problem affects all software and systems that store system time as a signed 32-bit integer, and interpret this number as the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on Thursday, 1 January 1970.[1] The latest time that can be represented this way is 0307 UTC on Tuesday, 19 January 2038.[2] Times beyond this moment will "wrap around" and be stored internally as a negative number, which these systems will interpret as a date in 1901 rather than 2038. This will likely cause problems for users of these systems due to erroneous calculations.
Further, while most programs will only be affected in or very close to 2038, programs that work with future dates will begin to run into problems much sooner. For example, a program that works with dates 20 years in the future will have to be fixed no later than in 2018.
Because most 32-bit Unix-like systems store and manipulate time in this format, it is usually called Unix time, and so the year 2038 problem is often referred to as the Unix Millennium Bug. However, any other non-Unix operating systems and software that store and manipulate time this way will be just as vulnerable.
"The South is America. The South is what we started out with in this bizarre, slightly troubling, basically wonderful country--fun, danger, friendliness, energy, enthusiasm, and brave, crazy, tough people." - P.J.O'Rourke -
"A hero of war is that what the see just medals and scars so damn proud of me"
I don't think it'll end in 2012, but if it does, then so be it, I'm happy with the past 17 years of my life, I can die a happy man. So if it ends in 2012 (very unlikely) then that's fair enough.
2012 (MMXII) will be a leap year starting on Sunday. In the Gregorian calendar, it will be the 2012th year of the Common Era, or of Anno Domini; the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 3rd of the 2010s decade.
It has been designated Alan Turing Year, commemorating the mathematician, computer pioneer, and code-breaker on the centennial of Turing's birth.
There are a variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012. These beliefs range from the spiritually transformative to the apocalyptic, and center upon various interpretations of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Contemporary scientists have disputed the apocalyptic versions
Predicted and scheduled events
January
January 13–22 – The first Winter Youth Olympics will be held in Innsbruck, Austria.
January 31 – 433 Eros, the second-largest Near Earth Object on record (size 13×13×33 km) will pass Earth at 0.1790 astronomical units (26,778,019 km; 16,639,090 mi). NASA studied Eros with the NEAR Shoemaker probe launched on February 17, 1996.
February
February 6 – Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marking the 60th anniversary of her accession to the Thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia & New Zealand (as well as the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth).
March
March 22 – Unless the European Council votes to extend current copyright law, The Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me, will fall out of copyright.
April
April 17 – The United States will cede wartime control of the military of the Republic of Korea after 50 years and dissolve the Combined Forces Command. Two distinct military commands (South Korea and the United States) will operate in Korea during wartime, rather than one unified command under the Combined Forces Command.[citation needed]
May
May 20 - Annular solar eclipse. Path of annularity runs through the Pacific Ocean from northern China to California.
June
June 6 – The second and last solar transit of Venus of the century. The next pair is predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.
June 18 – June 23 – Turing Centenary Conference at the University of Cambridge, in honor of the mathematician, computer scientist, and cryptographer Alan Turing, the last day of the conference being the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
July
July 18–21 – The 2012 World Rowing Championships will be held at Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
July 27 – Opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics begins in London at 7:30 pm UTC, 8:30pm BST.
August
August 12 – Closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, a Sunday.
August 29 – Start of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
November
November 6 - United States presidential election, 2012
November 13 - Total solar eclipse (visible in northern Australia and the South Pacific).
December
December 21 – 11:11 UTC. Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.
December 21 – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization among others, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen b'ak'tuns (periods of 144,000 days each) since the mythical creation date of the calendar's current era.
December 31 – The Kyoto Protocol will expire.
Unknown dates
China will launch the Kuafu spacecraft.
Pleiades, a proposed super computer built by Intel and SGI for NASA's Ames Research Center, will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 10 Petaflops (10 quadrillion floating point operations per second).
Sequoia, a proposed super computer built by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 20 Petaflops.
On the sun, the solar maximum of Solar Cycle 24 in the 11-year sunspot cycle is forecast to occur. Solar Cycle 24 is regarded to have commenced January 2008, and on average will reach its peak of maximal sunspot activity around 2012. The period between successive solar maxima averages 11 years (the Schwabe cycle), and the previous solar maximum of Solar Cycle 23 occurred in 2000–2002.
During the solar maximum the sun's magnetic poles will reverse.
"The South is America. The South is what we started out with in this bizarre, slightly troubling, basically wonderful country--fun, danger, friendliness, energy, enthusiasm, and brave, crazy, tough people." - P.J.O'Rourke -
"A hero of war is that what the see just medals and scars so damn proud of me"
Today's Toppers
Re: December 21st, 2012
07 on Tuesday 19th January 2038 because all the clocks in the computers around the world store the time as signed 32-bit integar and at that time the integer will reach 01111111 11111111 11111111 11111111. When it steps over, the computers will interpret the time as 21:45:52 on 13th December 1901 and the internet will break, planes will fall from the skies and everyone will start killing each other.
07 UTC on Tuesday, 19 January 2038.[2] Times beyond this moment will "wrap around" and be stored internally as a negative number, which these systems will interpret as a date in 1901 rather than 2038. This will likely cause problems for users of these systems due to erroneous calculations.
