Unflushed Buffers

OK apparently we have an issue on a lot of *nix systems like Linux and BSD that use the time_t structure which is like 32 bits to count time since 1970. Similar to Y2K, except when 2038 comes around it’s going to be cool 1970 again rather than a crappy 1901 desparation we faced back in 2000.

However, time will run out before 2038. Apparently there’s this bloody huge rock called Apophis that’s due to do a very close flyby of the earth in 2029. Probably won’t hit us, but the gravitational shift of flying that close will slingshot it back around and NASA estimated a 1 in 45000 chance it will hit in 2036. Woop di do you say, we’ll still have to fix this Y2K38 unix problem.

Nuh uh! Some 13 year old German kid doing a school project took a look at NASA’s numbers, and decided that if one of the satellites orbiting earth struck Apophis during it’s 2029 flyby, even though a smaller object, but travelling at 3km/s would cause the big rock to change trajectory. He concluded the brains at NASA got it wrong and there’s really a 1 in 450 chance we need a new planet. Woah!

So forget about the time_t issue, we need to put Bruce Willis on ice now so we can blow this space pebble up in time to then fix a possible time warp to the ’70s.