Tonight's photo: An old photo focusing on the Centrelink building (social security) in the nearby suburb of Chatswood. New photos will appear when I decide which camera will replace my old one!Having survived the Millennium Bug, it seems we are now faced with another danger - the "2038 bug". I am not too concerned because by that time I will be 82 and still sitting around waiting for my apartment building managers to clear the guttering.
From what I can make out, it is all to do with the way computers handle dates. A few years ago I would have been able to understand and explain it, but these days it is all double Dutch to me. For example, this is an extract from a website dedicated to the 2038 bug.
"Modern computers use a standard 4 byte integer for this second count. This is 31 bits, storing a value of 2/31. The remaining bit is the sign. This means that when the second count reaches 2147483647, it will wrap to -2147483648.
The precise date of this occurrence is Tue Jan 19 03:14:07 2038. At this time, a machine prone to this bug will show the time Fri Dec 13 20:45:52 1901, hence it is possible that the media will call this The Friday 13th Bug."
If you are worried about something that is 32 years away, you can get more information from:
http://www.2038bug.com/ or
Batten down for the 2038 bug (Louisa Hearn - Sydney Morning Herald)
Wherever you may be - be safe!
