The end of Computers is Nigh!

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jamesrt

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#159928 17-Dec-2014 15:11

The NZ Herald says "The end of Computer is Nigh".

I'm not sure if I'm pleased that the media are starting to talk about issues like this, or frustrated with the inaccuracies in the article, or just plain annoyed at the fear mongering.

Probably a mixture of all three, I think...

roobarb

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#1199232 17-Dec-2014 15:15

By then everything will be >=64bit, so a time_t as a 32-bit long will not be an issue.

Heck, they even withstood Gangnam Style overflowing INT_MAX.

timbosan

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#1199257 17-Dec-2014 15:33

roobarb: By then everything will be >=64bit, so a time_t as a 32-bit long will not be an issue.

Heck, they even withstood Gangnam Style overflowing INT_MAX.

I think you mean INT32, which is a 32 integer, and as it is signed by default, the maximum is 2,147,483,647, which is what YouTube found out. However I have NO idea why they wouldn't have made it a UNSIGNED INT, which means the value would could have been over 4 billion, after all, why would they want to track a negative number of visitors (unless they come from the anti-Universe to see what humanity has been up to, and found Gangnam Style to be the pinnacle of human evolution, causing the counter to go backwards.....)

hio77

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#1199260 17-Dec-2014 15:37

timbosan:
roobarb: By then everything will be >=64bit, so a time_t as a 32-bit long will not be an issue.

Heck, they even withstood Gangnam Style overflowing INT_MAX.

I think you mean INT32, which is a 32 integer, and as it is signed by default, the maximum is 2,147,483,647, which is what YouTube found out. However I have NO idea why they wouldn't have made it a UNSIGNED INT, which means the value would could have been over 4 billion, after all, why would they want to track a negative number of visitors (unless they come from the anti-Universe to see what humanity has been up to, and found Gangnam Style to be the pinnacle of human evolution, causing the counter to go backwards.....)

Few projects i have reversed engineered, Often asked the same question...

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

TLD

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#1199263 17-Dec-2014 15:41

I'd be a million years old by 2038, so I guess I'll miss all the fun. I wonder if they'll be able to thaw out Walt Disney by then?

Trevor Dennis
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timbosan

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#1199270 17-Dec-2014 15:49

Just read the article, well, actually I gave up after the line "32-bit systems use four bytes, which mean they can use 4GB of memory in one go. ". ALL modern operating systems utilise some form of paging, and just because a system (CPU architecture is actually what the author of the article is struggling to say) is 32bit, does NOT mean it cannot access more RAM. Read here for more.

Now where is that abacus I put away on Dec 31 1999......

roobarb

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#1199276 17-Dec-2014 16:00

Also, there is a difference between a length of an integer and a length of a pointer. Even a humble i386 with 32-bit pointers can use 64-bit integers.

So addressable memory has nothing to do with length of a time_t value.

itxtme

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#1199344 17-Dec-2014 16:53

The IRD better hurry up with their new system :P

Articles like this are around all the time. Not sure why 2014 is any more remarkable than 2013 or 2015.

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gzt

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#1199349 17-Dec-2014 17:00

Silly article. Did not look at one single operating system or application in practice.

DarthKermit

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#1199456 17-Dec-2014 19:33

"The standard four-byte format assumes the beginning of time is 1 January, 1970, at 12:00:00 a.m."

That a fact, huh?

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?