The Year 2038 Bug

[FLaKes 0]

I wonder were this computer in which im typing will be by that year. I seriously have no clue, but I bet computers are going to be a whole lot more different by that time, maybe they may even be 256 bit by then or something like that. Who knows?

[Voidless_Shadows 0]

Mine will be divided up among various other machines, such as pop cans or newer computers, or plastic calculator cases as I like to recycle

[Spyda 0]

2038 BUG? Come'on. Didn't anybody learn their lesson in 2000 when they assumed the 2k bug was going to swipe through America? I thought that people finally realized that all of that is false! Turns out they didn't. I fell sorry for those people who will believe this and do exactly what others did in 2000, and that is spend money on supplies! Seriously, nobody should belive this, and if they do then they're completely gulliable!

[Voidless_Shadows 0]

Well, I think your post successfully beat a dead horse and showed a lack of reading anything (or maybe I'm just being harsh).But yeah, Y2K was more of a theory that couldn't be tested on the really dangerous things. This is not the same situation as omg 00 bombs go off at 00!!! It has to do with the way networking programs are structured and the way we tell time, it has been fixed on some programs but not others...But at least read the rest of the thread before you go all crazy...

[adamb53 0]

well i dont think anything big will happen since by 2038, im sure people will have newer computers and computers within the next 10 years should start to be 64-bit.i doubt it will cause a lot of probs

[gameratheart 0]

I can see why this may cause some inconvinience to people, and cause a few problems, but in all honesty, the Y2K only caused incorrect dates and maybe a few faults, so why would this be a major problem?

[kawasu 0]

does this only affect 32-bit systems? i dont think we'll still be using them by then and its many years ahead so we have plenty of time to rectify the problem. in any case, i still think the world will be doomed by that date lol.

[special 0]

Lol silly people, there has hapend a lot. Corperations took days before it hapend and did everything to change it. Ive seen my frends dad computer that was on there busniss network die.Dont think that it yust was nothing it was.Lol silly people, there has hapend a lot. Corperations took days before it hapend and did everything to change it. Ive seen my frends dad computer that was on there busniss network die.Dont think that it yust was nothing it was.

[Florisjuh 0]

Nice, first the Y2k Bug and now the Y2.038 bug.. This will get overhyped by the media as well ofcourse, but by the time we reach that date everything will be allright again. 32 years to fix a bug seems easy to do even for the worst company's like Microsoft ;p

[rahul_rules22 0]

Personally I dont think that the 2038 bug should be of any real threat to anyone. My speculation is based on common sense and simple logic and also when we look at the 'uneventful events' lol that happened during the y2k bug, it appears that the deal should be of no major concern to anyone

[idle 0]

Well, the issue here isn't just about how these 2k or 2038 bugs actually affect our msn or yahoo messengers lol. On a different aspect, these seemingly small bugs are troublesome in its nature and its not exactly easy to collaborate on programmers to just solve these problems together (Although the Microsoft Monopoly makes things so much easier). Lets say a stock company crosses the millenium without the adequate fixes to its systems, their programs which rely on real-time updates and a integrity date check with different time zones etc. And thus if crossing the millenium causes a buffer error onto its date integrity checks (which will definitely fail due to a hundred year difference, unless the algorithms have been made to deal with this situation). Not to mention that of all the problems it caused it actually helped with technology due to its 'forced' upgrade of computers in a widespread. Alot of systems were actually upgraded and legacy systems phased out, the y2k bug isnt as mild as you put it, we have come a long way and it helped with awareness and growth in the technological advancements back then.Regarding the 2038 bug, its not an issue in my opinion, the foresight of 2038 was probably seen from the aspect of programming limits (not 2000 due to its nature being not anticipated). And I agree that most systems will be 64-bit by then, not to mention all 32-bits can upgrade and fix this problem easily with a different date algorithms. Vista is coming out next year, and its x64 counterpart has hit the mainstream on beta. Given the trends, i'd give another 10 years max for mainstream Pc's to be 64 bits.

[me_boxer_dude 0]

I dont think the so called year 2038 bug should really be a threat to either standalone pcs or network workstations as the event we are discusiing about is expected to happen more than 30 years from now and hopefully by that time the technology would get so advanced(I am sure of it) to tackle the bug. Moreover there was a similar hype by the media over the y2k bug which turned out to be not a big deal.Sure enough media people would try to hype up the issue with speculations as to what all can go wrong and potentially catastrophic aftermaths of the spread of the bug but as we know that people around the world are becoming more and more comp savvy these days so there doesnt seem much of a possibility that most people would take it seriously.

[LostLittleRobot 0]

I was watching the news the other day and they where talking about a similliar crisis to the year 2000 Y2K bug, but this time it's the Y2.038 bug! New and improved.I didn't catch all of it, but it has something to do with 32-bit systems...No network-oriented programs will work...
Test, it out, change your date to January 2038 and try to run something...like something running of a network...lol
Yeah... didn't catch it all, but I googled it and am about to read this site:
http://www.2038bug.com/

wow i'm more interested by your global warming pics, i knew it was serious but i never realised how fast everything is melting... if i see one big tidal wave off the in the distance the first thing i'm doing is grabbing my surf board! rofl, i wish it was funny matter, makes me kinda scared. not really too worked about 2038 thing, because if it's as big as an issue as 2000 was well, then i'll be talking in the forum posting something here the day after it hits 2038 and seeing everyone say what a croc it was . i dunno i don't expect anything to happen, if i hear more about it i might look into it though! keep it us updated if it does look real!

eh i have to add on to what i said a minute ago. i never understood why programs and all that wouldn't work if the date got screwed up..it's not like it's a time warp. i don't understand how anything else can happen besides there being a wrong date, i don't see how that would affect anything. i guess maybe if i understood why it could cause problems i might be worried, but really, i guess i don't know enough. i know there's more to it, but in my brain in 2038 from what i read all that could happen is the date change. i don't understand what else could go wrong from that. aaaahhhh maybe i should do some more research, er, i would if had the patience or understood half that computer/math/time calculations your link you had. it's all another language to me! har har
Edited October 11, 2006 by jlhaslip (see edit history)

[Voidless_Shadows 0]

wow i'm more interested by your global warming pics, i knew it was serious but i never realised how fast everything is melting... if i see one big tidal wave off the in the distance the first thing i'm doing is grabbing my surf board! rofl, i wish it was funny matter, makes me kinda scared. not really too worked about 2038 thing, because if it's as big as an issue as 2000 was well, then i'll be talking in the forum posting something here the day after it hits 2038 and seeing everyone say what a croc it was . i dunno i don't expect anything to happen, if i hear more about it i might look into it though! keep it us updated if it does look real!
eh i have to add on to what i said a minute ago. i never understood why programs and all that wouldn't work if the date got screwed up..it's not like it's a time warp. i don't understand how anything else can happen besides there being a wrong date, i don't see how that would affect anything. i guess maybe if i understood why it could cause problems i might be worried, but really, i guess i don't know enough. i know there's more to it, but in my brain in 2038 from what i read all that could happen is the date change. i don't understand what else could go wrong from that. aaaahhhh maybe i should do some more research, er, i would if had the patience or understood half that computer/math/time calculations your link you had. it's all another language to me! har har

It' probably because there are still people who think global warming is "just a theory" or something like that (not understanding a true theory is the best explanation the most qualified and inelligent people on the planet can come up with for something (until it gets to the point where it's a law)) Anywho, there's almost no legitimate question in the majority of anyone in the climatology field's minds if it is happening...
[/offtopic]

I don't really understand 100% what Y2K was about (I think alot of people don't) I didn't pay alot of attention to it, but from what I understand, it was more of a matter of human's being lazy to update before that point that would have caused any issues (which is how it would be if 2038 bug was about to hit in a few weeks/days a couple years back...) technology to totally fix this through-and-through is definately there, just difficult/not fun to change the way things have been done for so long...

[heini 0]

This is exactly the same as the Y2K bug, everyone makes a massive fuss about it. And all the companies make alot of money out of it, but nothing big is really going to happen. At worst we will all have to download a patch for our operating systems and all will be forgotten. But just before 2038 all the companies are going to start telling us how important it is to backup now and that we should go and buy there products!!!Well thats just my opinion...