Unique Moment In Unix Time Approaching

By Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2009-02-06

Ever stare at your digital watch at around 11:11 on November 11th? This story's for you. Fans of the hockey mask-wearing killer called Jason may get a kick out of it, too, as it seems a special moment in Unix time will fall on a date near and dear to their hearts.

A page at coolepochcountdown.com displays two sets of numbers that change every second. One counts up, one counts down, and right now, a line of text reads, "Only 1 week, 0 days, 7 hours, 55 minutes and 59 seconds until the Epoch Time is 1234567890! (Friday, February 13th 2009, 23:31:30 GMT)"

If that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to you, Dan Goodin explains, "POSIX is a widely used time-keeping method for Unix and is measured in the number of seconds that have passed since January 1, 1970 at midnight UTC (not counting leap seconds). It has since been adopted by many other computer systems."

So there it is, and depending on how much of a Unix fan you are, this occasion might be worth setting aside an instant to observe. Heck, you might even be able to arrange an entire party, since the Danish Unix-systems User Group apparently held one in Copenhagen when Unix time passed one billion seconds in 2001.

Just try not to jump up and shout in the middle of any "Friday the 13th" movies - the rest of the audience might not appreciate it, and they're liable to be a little more aggressive than the average mob.

About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.