Just tried to run Portal.

[NeatNit 4,964]

I just tried to run Portal, and it started updating for some reason, so I clicked on Update News... And saw this:

???

[Ethan795 109]

Ok, basically it was on 19th Jan 08, it's the 30 year run up to Y2K38. In 2038 the way time is calculated on computers (i.e. it counts the number of seconds since 1st Jan 1970 and adds them up) will fail, and any programs that pull the date and time out for anything (e.g. timestamps) could fail.

It's hard to really prove if anything is going to happen, anyway, that update was just a joke reference to that.

30 year loan calculators are supposedly going to have trouble from here on, wonder if there's any money to be made

http://www.2038bug.com/

[NeatNit 4,964]

Wait, why instead of 2147483648 does it go to -2147483648?

Also, why do programs use that way to calculate time??

Edit: It wasn't a joke, some bug I don't even care about stopped Steam from detecting any updates in the Update News, and it showed the earliest date it could.

Hold on, if I set my watch to that time... Maybe...?

[Ethan795 109]

Because that's the max integer value. I don't really know.

I have no idea why computers calculate time like that, either.

Setting a watch won't work, because it's not a computer...

[darko 9]

That is really weird. I thought they'd fixed the Y2K bug. so it wouldn't happen till like 3024.

[NeatNit 4,964]

Let's see then. I'll set my watch.

And now we wait.

No, didn't work.

A watch is a computer, read some of that site, it's not a big one.

I just noticed I can't set my watch to a year higher than 2038, it goes back down to 1995, does this mean something? Maybe I didn't set it right?

Edit: Didn't work on my computer either, but my anti-virus might be out of date.