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Recent Postings by Category
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Announcer
Get in touch with technology with TechStuff from Howstuffworks.com.
Chris Pollette
Hello everybody and welcome to TechStuff. My name is Chris Pollette, and I’m the tech editor here at Howstuffworks.com; isn’t that convenient? Sitting across from me as usual is senior writer, Jonathan Strickland.
Jonathan Strickland
There’s a party going on right here.
Chris Pollette
Really?
Jonathan Strickland
A celebration.
Chris Pollette
Yeah, that song came out in 1980. I know that off the top of my head. That’s a long time ago.
Jonathan Strickland
Yeah, well, you know.
Chris Pollette
That was so 20th century.
Jonathan Strickland
Yeah, we’re talking about 21st century here. We actually have a topic that comes to us courtesy of a little listener mail. This listener mail comes from Todd, and Todd says, hi there TechStuff. My name is Todd and I live in Adelaide, Australia. At school, we were talking about what would have happened if Y2K did go ahead. Here’s the thing, Todd. Y2K did go ahead; otherwise, we wouldn’t be in 2009.
Chris Pollette
I think he’s talking about the computer problem.
Jonathan Strickland
Oh, my bad. Let me just finish the email then. Then, one of my friends brought up something about the year 2038. It happens to 32-bit systems, but that’s as far as I know. Actually Todd, 2038 is gonna happen to everybody because -
Chris Pollette
I think this goes back to the similar problem before. He’s talking about a computer thing.
Jonathan Strickland
Oh, right. I’m sorry; I’m being kind of picky. So I would like more information, or if possible, a podcast. Thanks, Todd. Todd, I’m really not making fun of you. I’m just being kind of a jerk face right now. That’s me being a jerk face, not you. But yes, the 2038 problem, as it is known, is somewhat similar to the Y2K problem. So let’s start by talking about the Y2K problem because that’s easy to grasp. It’s a pretty easy, simple problem. Okay, so here’s what the deal was with the Y2K problem. The deal was that in several lines of code for various applications, programmers got a little lazy when they were filling out the space for a year.
They only allowed two digits to express the year, thinking, well, that’s more than enough because by the time the year 2000 rolls around, which would be ’00 if you’re designating it in two digits, by the time that rolls around, we’ll be on totally different computer programs, totally different systems. Besides, this is just a line of code. I can change it later, nothing to worry about; let’s just plop it in there and it’ll save me time. I don’t have to worry about two extra digits.