Is there a y2k12 issue analogous to y2k?

Question

This is a bit of a whimsical question inspired in part by the publicity for the movie 2012 but it is one that could have real implications for software systems. (If not in 2012, then definitely in 2038.)

There are all sorts of doomsday predictions for the year 2012 and i was wondering if there's a date time/timestamp system out there that is due to expire in 2012? (i thought i ran across one years ago but i don't recall the specifics. i could also be remembering 2038.)

For example, a commonly-used date time system starts at 1970/1/1 and counts by seconds from that time. If you add the max value of unsigned int as seconds to that value, you get a date that falls in 2038. 1/19/2038 3:14:07 AM to be exact.

So, is there a date time system where:

epoch start + max of common int type = date in 2012 ?

btw, i am not trying to fan any flames of paranoia. This is whimsy aligned with real systems design considerations.

UPDATE Donut found this page which contains the following reference but no further info: 2012-07-13 Fri - UNIX time_t $50000000 at 11:01:20 UTC

Any ideas?

Answer 1

No.

Raymond Chen gives a pretty good list of special dates in different date systems, none of them involve 2012. (See also his explanation of those date systems.) The only special date I know of that he leaves out is 9999-12-31, the largest datetime in many database systems (at least in MySQL and I think SQL Server).

While I'm sure someone somewhere at some point has decided to write some computer system based on Mayan calendars, there is no widely used system that works that way.

Answer 2

Wikipedia has a section in article on the Year 2000 Problem on date bugs similar to Y2K. Also, there is an article on problems that arise from using epochs to measure time in computing systems. Neither of these refer to a Y2K12 problem.

Answer 3

Well, if you take 12/23/2012, which is when some people think the Mayan doomsday thing will happen, and subtract the max value of a 4 byte integer, you get December 4th, 1944. And according to wikipedia, nothing whatsoever happened on that day.

BUT, that is the date that Led Zeppelin officially broke up in 1980, so I'd say that's a bad omen and we're in for some serious s*%#!

Answer 4

The List of Critical and Significant Dates looks pretty clear for 2012, at least in regards to computer-related issues (but is still worth taking a look at).

Answer 5

No.

unless you are planning for doomsday power outages or EMP fields.