1 Billion Seconds of the Epoch

Time goes on. When Unix(tm) time was being created, a line was drawn in the sand from which all time was to be measured from. This is called the Epoch. Unix(tm) time is measured in seconds since this point in time; the 1st of January, 1970.

You can see the Epoch time now on any Unix(tm) like (Linux, IRIX, etc) system using "date +%s". As I type this, it says 992196286. This will reach one billion at Sun Sep 9 09:46:40 WST 2001, or 01:46:39 UTC. Epoch is centred around +0000, GMT, and hence this click over will be at the same point in time for everyone, unlike New Year's eve which follows the sun around the planet.

And remember, it's an American billion (10⁹), not a British one (10¹²).

You can get a current Epoch time here.

More information can been gleened from this Slashdot article or this document on critical unix times.

Events

Well, its worth a party. Furthermore, its time to think about the January 19 2038 rollover of the Epoch, and avoid the hysteria of Y2K. Organise your party, and mail me the location and details.

• Perth, Australia: Breakfast at Blue Duck Cafe, 151 Marine Parade, Cottesloe, from 8:30am, RSVP to james-epoch@james.rcpt.to (a PLUG/UCC event + anyone else who wants to turn up, please come along!).

After the event, put your pictures up on your site, and email me the URL.

 <artist-formally-known-as-prince-now-know-as-prince>
   We're gonna party like is 99-99-99-99-9.
 </artist-formaly-known-as-prince-now-known-as-prince>