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all 79 comments

[–]Xtremee 160 points161 points ago

It might be half life 3. Go for it.

[–]goofandaspoof 68 points69 points ago

It's released so far into the future that it loops back around.

[–]OMPSDE 46 points47 points ago

The release date is stored in a 32-bit unix code that's so far in the future that steam interprets it as a few hours before 1970. That moment is a few hours before 03:14:08 UTC on 19 January 2038. We finally have our release date!

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points ago*

That's whats in the borealis! I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT!

edit: Time Machine!

[–]demon_ix 8 points9 points ago

I just nerdgasm'd at the thought of Gordon meeting Cave Johnson.

[–]davaca 8 points9 points ago

I'd love to hear the conversations they'd have.

wait...

[–]Hyper1on 1 point2 points ago

Gordon: ....

Cave, while gesticulating like a true orator: "Astronauts, War Heroes, Olympians..."

[–]goofandaspoof 1 point2 points ago

Quite the paradox!

[–]Draber-Bien 2 points3 points ago

the year 19690

[–]drfeelgood246 1 point2 points ago

What if in the future, time machines double as game systems, and that's the only reason it's not out yet!?!?

[–]hurdygurdy_sc2 95 points96 points ago

THE UNIX EPOCH STRIKES AGAIN

[–]Draxton 25 points26 points ago

At 12:53:20 UTC on May 14 2012, the Unix time number will reach 1337000000. Leet

Thanks, Wikipedia.

[–]Ad_Hominid 9 points10 points ago

Heh, I have a screenshot of my Linux server's terminal window running the "date" command when the current date/time in was '1234567890'. Yes, I'm a huge nerd. ;)

[–]bananabm 0 points1 point ago*

Huh that's like forty minutes away*

[–]mahacctissoawsum 10 points11 points ago

Does anyone store timestamps using the actual datetime data type?!

[–]taibhse 15 points16 points ago

why bother with that..when you can just store a number?

[–]mrbooze 14 points15 points ago

Exactly, numbers can be stored as INTs which simplifies and speeds up a LOT of time operations, and you don't have to worry about variations in timezones or locales. You only have to convert an epoch to a localized date string or vice versa when needed.

[–]mahacctissoawsum 1 point2 points ago

Makes some queries easier. Particularly when you only need the day and not the time.

[–]keiyakins 5 points6 points ago

What do you think datetime is underneath?

[–]shibblywibbly 2 points3 points ago

Tiny clocks.

[–]mahacctissoawsum 0 points1 point ago

Datetime is 8 bytes....so probably a long. It still handles differently, regardless of what the underlying type is.

[–]i_am_tetsuo 3 points4 points ago

Only in my MySQL databases ...

[–]AppliedFapping 34 points35 points ago

"Cave Johnson here. Some of our science flyboys seemed to have dropped some files into a portal that we've been keeping in the storage closet. Now, they might be for some kind of computer simulation, they might be the visual equivalent of the brown note. Not entirely sure. Just send them back if you find them."

[–]zoidberg1339 3 points4 points ago

Not sure if obscure Cave Johnson quote or clever ad libbing.

[–]DocJawbone 4 points5 points ago

Can anyone clarify this?? If ad libbing, very impressed.

[–]pmofmalasia 1 point2 points ago

I'm pretty sure it's ad libbed.

[–]WatsonHolmes 0 points1 point ago

Still read it in his voice

[–]AppliedFapping 0 points1 point ago

I really wouldn't call it "ad libbing" since he speaks in a very specific, formulaic way but there's not a quote like this either AFAIK. So /shrug.

[–]Sk0_756 55 points56 points ago

Dec 31, 1969 is when time began. For programmers, at least.

[–]Sc4Freak 34 points35 points ago

No, January 1 1970 is when time began (i.e. time 0). Dec 31 1969 is what happens when you intepret -1 as a date/time. -1 is typically used as a marker for "invalid value", so I'm guessing that's what happened here.

[–]dave_casa 19 points20 points ago*

Partially correct. The unix epoch is Jan. 1 1970 at midnight UTC, but it's generally stored as an unsigned int, which means -1 would be some time in 2038. December 31 1969 means that you're in a timezone which is behind UTC, such as all of the US.

Edit: Sorry, the 2038 date is for a 32 bit signed int, and negative times are useful as pointed out by groovy2shoes.

[–]groovy2shoes 3 points4 points ago

No, it's normally stored as a signed integer so that you can represent dates in the past. That thing about the timezone, though, that's right.

[–]Kovukono 2 points3 points ago

Thank you--this has puzzled me for quite some time, yet I never had the interest to actually look it up. You're the lazy man's savior.

[–]PoL0 0 points1 point ago

Footnote:

-1 as signed integer translates to the maximum achievable unsigned integer (given the same bit width). That's because of how negative integers are usually represented in hardware (x86 architectures have two's complement native support)

[–]LNMagic 6 points7 points ago

I think it's because of the time zone difference, but I'm with you on 1 Jan 1970.

[–]aprofessional 21 points22 points ago

[–]IAlwaysForgetMyUsern 6 points7 points ago

Holy shit, this is one of my favorite xkcd comics and I didn't even fully appreciate it until just now. Thank you for making me one of today's lucky 10,000.

[–]KamiKagutsuchi 7 points8 points ago

Ohh! Ohh! I saw this on reddit once, now I am supposed to say: "When is there NOT a relevant xkcd?" right?

[–]Relevant_XKCD 1 point2 points ago

Correct.

[–]ArmoredCavalry 0 points1 point ago

Yeah, once you learn about "unix time", you start to notice it everywhere. It is an edge case to have no time set, so many programmers don't catch it.

Most recently, I noticed that the Google Drive App shows many of my newly added documents being last opened Dec 31, 1969.

[–]Ellio_M 25 points26 points ago

I believe that December 31st 1969 = unix timestamp of 0

So something went wrong and the timestamp that was saved for your last recording is "0" :)

[–]Twisky 9 points10 points ago

I always wondered why corrupted files said that. TIL. Thanks !

[–]VonAether 23 points24 points ago

It's actually midnight on January 1st, 1970, but since that's GMT, that shows up as sometime on December 31st for most of North America.

[–]dave_casa 6 points7 points ago

In an effort to be technically correct (the best kind of correct), it's actually UTC, not GMT. GMT is no longer used.

[–]moefh 5 points6 points ago*

Actually, 0 corresponds to January 1st 1970. You get (the last second of) December 31st 1969 if you try to convert the get the date for timestamp -1, which is how a lot of functions report an error (for example: http://linux.die.net/man/2/time ).

Edit: clarification

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

It's January 1st, 1970, UTC. It's probably showing up a day before just due to UTC adjustment.

[–]AdmiralUpboat 0 points1 point ago

TIL

[–]racerx52 0 points1 point ago

Thank you for that.

My phone has emails from 1969, It blew my mind for a second.

[–]Cemo9999 14 points15 points ago

TF2 is set at end of 60s, it may give you every single hat in Skyrim.

[–]Ootachiful 2 points3 points ago

Of which there are two.

[–]PatHeist 0 points1 point ago

Actually, there are 6 items named something with 'hat' in the file name. There are two 'Hat's though.

[–]cheesesaurous 2 points3 points ago

For anyone wondering why this date specifically, computers usually meassure time in the form of seconds passed since January 1st 1970, otherwise known as unix time or posix time. Since the timestamp is a day before I can only guess the variable was initialized to negative one or something in order to make error checking easier, which they clearly did not take advantage of.

[–]ZapActions-dower 3 points4 points ago

Actually, because of timezones, some places register as December 31st 1969 for 0 isntead of January 1, 1970.

[–]Howzitgoin 2 points3 points ago

My phone said I had a voicemail from 12/31/1969 a week or so ago... I guess I know why now.

[–]foiz5000 1 point2 points ago

Wait, they finally added some for of management of steam cloud files? How do you access it?

I've had steam cloud piss me off with numerous games by replacing edited config files and the like with old copies.

[–]olafurw 1 point2 points ago

I'm guessing the date modified is -1. Since the unix epoch is 0:00:00 1 Jan 1970

[–]boblahblah101 2 points3 points ago

Unix epoch is in GMT, due to differences in time zones it's December 31 1969 for most of North America.

[–]olafurw 1 point2 points ago

oh timezones, you so silly!

[–]Skeezypal 1 point2 points ago

Do it, you might get Spacewar!

[–]keiyakins 2 points3 points ago

steam://install/480

Yes, it's actually on Steam. Yes, that link works. It's an example game that presumably comes with the steamworks api documentation.

[–]exnor 0 points1 point ago

Legit. There's no one to play with, though. :(

[–]Dr_Zandi 1 point2 points ago

Damn time-travelling teenagers....

[–]scottfarrar 1 point2 points ago

-1 value in the unix epoch

[–]ZXLucian 1 point2 points ago

Oh, there's my X-COM save file! Could you send it back to me? Thanks.

And how did I play X-COM that early? Magic.

[–]epsil0n 1 point2 points ago

What? That's the day before the start of (internet) time! MAGIC! SHENANIGANS!

[–]ambushka 1 point2 points ago

I would download the summer of '69.

[–]malenkylizards 1 point2 points ago

My guess is they initialized a variable to be -1 and due to some bug, the variable never got updated, Since time is typically stored as seconds since 00:00:00 (or 00:00:01 or whatever it is) January 1, 1970, there you go.

[–]lemcott 2 points3 points ago

It's because OP is using windows 8 consumer preview. I did the steam hardware survey for the DOTA 2 beta, and my OS came up as "unknown" and it was installed "Dec, 31st 1969".

Still haven't gotten my dota 2 invite, and probably because that happened.

[–]my_name_is_stupid 0 points1 point ago

I have some files on my computer that are from 1762, apparently. Not sure what to make of that.

[–]zoidberg1339 3 points4 points ago

Secret British government records from the Seven Years War, probably.

[–]thelordofcheese 0 points1 point ago

pussy

go for it

[–]snowlin 0 points1 point ago

i tried to close the picture by clicking the "x" in the screenshot.. gotta lay off the hash

[–]BoobDetective 0 points1 point ago

Ahh, unix time!

[–]Faptasmagoria 0 points1 point ago

Modifying that file really killed the sixties.

[–]Lechies 0 points1 point ago

What do you mean bro? Kazaa is heaps safe for downloading

[–]skeletonhat 0 points1 point ago

Unix Epoch: 0

[–]chew2 0 points1 point ago

IT'S TF2!

[–]jrod701 0 points1 point ago

Definitely not Y2K compatible...