[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Amos Shapira) wrote on 05.01.98 in <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> you write: > |> a 64 bit variable, it's good for another 4000 years. > | > |Uhhh -- no. If it went from 32 bits to *33* bits, that would get us > > Actually, the current limit of 68 years (1970 + 68 = 2038) is posed by > the used of SIGNED int (31 bits) instead of unsigned bits: True, but please don't change that. You'd break the doc-rfc package - there are RFCs from 1969 in it :-) > |4000 years. This gets us more like 16 billion billion years (american > |billions - 16 x 10^18 is what I mean, but it's off the top of my head...) > > Where did you get this 4000 years figure anyway? 33 bits would just > double the duration from 136 years to 272 (bringing us to year 2242). True. And 64 bits gives us +/- 68*4*10^9 years, or over 250*10^9 years. 10^9 = 1 milliard (where applicable) or 1 billion (elsewhere). Nothing like billions of billions there. Hmm. I think that goes farther back than the beginning of the universe, so it's probably barely enough :-) MfG Kai -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
