September 6, 2001

4:11 PM

Party Like It's 999,999,999"The UNIX epoch dates from January 1st, 1970. Every UNIX system in the world worth its salt keeps track of time by counting every single second since the midnight just before that auspicious date. And soon, they're all going to hit a billion"

How will you celebrate the Gigasecond, September 9 at 01:46:39 UTC ?
posted by otherchaz (13 comments total)

In a bomb shelter with the generator gassed up and plenty of canned food, bottled water, and batteries!!

Or maybe I'll just have a martini. Happy Gigasecond, everyone.
posted by ilsa at 4:20 PM on September 6, 2001

As someone with only 9 fingers, I deeply resent all this base-10-ism.
posted by marknau at 4:29 PM on September 6, 2001

Probably worrying about Jan 1 2038.
posted by skallas at 4:36 PM on September 6, 2001

My copy of Windows will probably crash in recognition.
posted by Su at 5:30 PM on September 6, 2001

If it's even half as much fun as odd day I'll be happy.

Good point on the 2038 thing, sure my friends laugh when I try to make my programs 2038 compliant, but I'll have the last laugh 37 years from now.
posted by bobo123 at 6:08 PM on September 6, 2001

Find the Gigaseconds in your life
posted by otherchaz at 6:23 PM on September 6, 2001

Argh! A few months ago I was playing with the time() command I was almost certain that no-one else would notice (other people having more to do with their time than me)..

So I was saving it up and saving it up, and would impress the world with my geekiness by annoucing the billionth second since the UNIX epoch.

Thanks for destroying the future fame and respect I could have earned from fellow nerds! I am but a wreck.

Of course, the hilarious thing, for me, is that I worked out the billionth section to be approximately October 27th.. must have my calculations wrong.. so I would have celebrated it on the wrong day anyway, mwahaha.
posted by wackybrit at 7:02 PM on September 6, 2001

September 9th? Why that's the same day my community site becomes one year old!

the url is: www.cra-

yikes!

/me runs from matt!
posted by jcterminal at 7:57 PM on September 6, 2001

Post in a hurry or I'd check it myself - isn't September 9th of some year in the next decade or so also supposed to be the end of this cosmic cycle in the Mayan calendar? Seems to ring a bell...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:01 PM on September 6, 2001

isn't September 9th of some year in the next decade or so also supposed to be the end of this cosmic cycle in the Mayan calendar?

Yes, December 21st, 2012 - the Winter Solstice Sun Conjuncts The Sacred Tree in 2012 A.D. Find more about the Mayan Calendar event in "The How and Why of the Mayan End Date In 2012 A.D."
posted by stevis at 8:23 PM on September 6, 2001

I'm still getting over the Year One Bug.
posted by rodii at 8:30 PM on September 6, 2001

I'm still getting over the Year One Bug.

That's hilarious. "Sorry time to upgrade."

Reminds me of my system to change A.D. and B.C. into more secular terms. A.D. could be "another day" because you're using addition and B.C. could be "Begin countdown" because of the subtraction. Simple, smart, and it works.

For some reason the real competitor seems to be the common era and before common era crap. B.C.E. A whole other letter. They're madmen.

Common era? What's that? It doesn't even make sense.
posted by skallas at 12:09 AM on September 7, 2001