I've heard bits and pieces about another "Y2038" problem, effectively far more serious than the past Y2K insect. As they exist currently, 32-bit operating systems will crash in February 2038 (or thereabouts) due to the limitations of 32-bit encoding: the time field will RUN OUT of number of seconds elapsed from a fixed starting point (I don't know if that start-point is Jan 1, 1970 or 1980). Both Windows (but not NT?) and UNIX ops have this limitation, as far as I know:

UNIX starting epoch 1970AD: 32-bit *signed* seconds unit field, plus a 32-bit nanoseconds field for finer granularity: i.e. time range from 1902 to 2038 AD

By Y2038 of course, we'll have upgraded to 64-bit systems well before then, which should give a date field range in the billions of years. So you folks can look forward to a truly MAJOR hardware/software upgrade sometime during your lifetimes :-)

My only worry is that the gross complexity of 64-bit coding may prove entirely too stressful for even "good" engineering programmers in the future...

Wolfspirit