Perhaps It's Y2K All Over Again...

This Sunday the UNIX clock, which counts the number of seconds elapsed since 1 January, 1970, will reach 999999999 and roll over to 1000000000. This will happen at approximately 1:45 pm on Sunday 9 September.

An Internet page displays the current UNIX clock reading, as well as providing a current read out of the time remaining before the clock rolls over.

Creator of the page, Edwin Hermann, says the page was set up so that others could see the clock roll over. "It's a milestone in the history of computer time-keeping, so now we call all witness the clock roll over to ten digits from this page," says Mr Hermann. "While I won't be popping open a bottle of bubbly, I'm sure there will be some die-hard computer enthusiasts who will be doing just that."

The address of the Internet page is http://www.co.nz/clock/

While it is believed there are a few obscure pieces of software which rely on the clock having nine digits, it is not expected that any problems similar to the Y2K bug will occur.

The next time the clock will roll over to a round figure will be in November 2286, some 285 years away.

The UNIX clock is present in all computers running UNIX or Linux. While most of these computers are Internet servers, many computer users choose to run UNIX as an alternative to the Microsoft's popular Windows operating system.

ENDS

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