Unix and 2038

From: McFadden, Mike <mmcfadden_at_cmh.edu>
Date: Mon Dec 11 10:51:32 2000

UNIX dates and 2038.
I'm willing to bet that there will be people looking at atmospheric,
rainfall, snow cover, and other long term datasets that were created long
ago :), 40 years, and some of there data formats are probably platform
dependent. There are people still running IBM emulators that run old
emulator code that runs old code that probably controls missiles and planes.
The problem is not going away, everybody is hoping not to spend money for
data their company will probably loose or discard before 2038.

It all comes down to a question of self interest. Most company managers
plan not to be in business in 20 years and their compensation is tied to
this quarter.
1. If I were an astute computer manager I would convince my company
that it was actually intelligent to outsource all my computing and problems
and then quit before the ramifications are known.
2. I would then go to work for somebody else and convince them to
insource the computing because of security risks associated by outsourcing.
3. I would then quit and go to work as a consultant and lecturer on the
perils and pitfalls of computing.
4. I would then write a book on the theoretically best system, which is
of course doesn't exist.
5. Finally I would write a book on my life in the golden age of
computing.

I know that I will have computers in 2038 that I have now.

Mike
mmcfadden_at_cmh.edu
Received on Mon Dec 11 2000 - 10:51:32 GMT