February 2009 Archives

Not only is today a Friday the 13th, but it represents a historic occasion in UNIX/POSIX time  that will be celebrated by geeks like me around the world.  UNIX/POSIX time is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC, otherwise known as the time since the epoch. At 23:31:30 UTC today (6:31:30 PM EST), the time since the UNIX epoch will be 1234567890.  This serves to remind us that time is ever marching forward, and that someday soon we will have to deal with the POSIX time Y2.038k problem.

Tossing our troubles aside for now... Happy 1234567890!  It only happens once an epoch.

P.S.  Check out http://coolepochcountdown.com/ for a Web form with the countdown.

Folks who know I'm from Western NY (where is this Upstate NY place anyway?) have asked me if the Continental Connection/Colgan Air Dash-8 crash happened anywhere near my family.  Thanks for your concern.  It happened a few miles from where my sister lives. My thoughts go out to the families of those involved.  I continue to admire the first responders and I appreciate their bravery in the face of such a horrific fire.