In 19 Jan 2038 expect many computers, especially online servers databases to have issues.

This might get more complex but I will try to cover only one problem that I noticed.

Most of the online activities have dates associated with them, user registrations, comments, bank records, emails, etc. When a date is saved on a server (or even usage in local computer programs) , it is saved as a “timestamp”, a timestamp looks like this: “2147483647″ that number means “19 Jan 2038″ , the thing is that many system administrators assume this field is an INT (integer number) when it is actually a BIGINT (big integer number) which can have a much larger maximum value, an INT number can only have a maximum value of 2147483647 meaning that when timestamp 2147483647 is reached it will not be able to move forward, so all databases, programs, etc that have wrongly assumed timestamps as integer numbers will have issues starting that 19 Jan 2038 (timestamp 2147483647).

More on timestamps 

UNIX timestamps are seconds that passed since Unix Epoch (January 1 1970) If you would like to see the live current timestamp you can visit www.currenttimestamp.com .

Tags: 19, 2038, 2147483647, bug, computer, jan, january, problem, timestamp, unix, y2k

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 3:53 am and is filed under Miscellaneous, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.