Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

WARNING - Do NOT adjust computer date - it screwed up my Mac

applemax

applemax

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 22, 2005
1,032
3
For a bit of fun, I wanted to see how far forward I could make my mac go - turns out it was 2038. Anyway, I opened up Mail and every single past/present/future iCal alert/to do/note was resent/popped up, thus crashing my computer and giving me a kernel panic/forced shutdown. Everything's fine now but I had to delete the iCal files to remove the alerts. I've now fully recovered from a slow/crashed mac and my email is very, very full now. I'm just warning everyone not to fiddle around with the dates for fun. I hope Apple fixes this dangerous bug in 10.6. It's like the Millennium Bug all over again. God knows what happens when you try and go back!
 
That's not a bug, per se, it's just the current limit of the UNIX EPOCH - counting seconds from January 1, 1970.
From what I've read, the last possible time it can reach is 03:14:07 Tuesday, January 19, 2038. At that point, its just out of bits to store the time. Eventually it'll switch to 64-bit and we won't have to worry about that.
 
alaceo said:
That's not a bug, per se, it's just the current limit of the UNIX EPOCH - counting seconds from January 1, 1970.
From what I've read, the last possible time it can reach is 03:14:07 Tuesday, January 19, 2038. At that point, its just out of bits to store the time. Eventually it'll switch to 64-bit and we won't have to worry about that.
Click to expand...

I know that, I'm talking about the reaction that iCal made to the change - that's the bug. Sending out all my previous calendar items (and future ones) as emails and popups thus crashing my computer and clogging up my email inbox
 
applemax said:
I know that, I'm talking about the reaction that iCal made to the change - that's the bug. Sending out all my previous calendar items (and future ones) as emails and popups thus crashing my computer and clogging up my email inbox
Click to expand...

But as far as iCal knew they weren't "future" items. Remember you changed the date? How is the system or iCal to know that you are just having fun and that it wasn't really 2038?

Your advice is very good though. I once opened Quicken after my internal battery died and my clock reset and it hosed my Quicken data.
 
I think it shouldn't let you change the time for fun lol, then there wouldn't be an issue. It should let you set it one time on system setup, then only allow time zone changes and automatic server time syncing. Any problems with this?
 
applemax said:
How is it reasonable? It sent all the reminders before 2008 to me!?!?!
Click to expand...

Aren't you somehow assuming that the computer knew it was *really* 2008 and should not have sent any reminders?

But really, how could the computer know that? As far as it knew, it was suddenly 2038 and all the reminders in iCal were due to be sent.

I think you're assuming that the computer knew that you were just fooling around and that it was supposed to remember that the real year was 2008 and that reminders for events prior to the *real* current date had already been sent.

So I think sending the reminders is reasonable behaviour. Your machine crashing is not reasonable however.

Cheers.
 
applemax said:
How is it reasonable? It sent all the reminders before 2008 to me!?!?!
Click to expand...

How is it not reasonable? You played with the clock, causing programs to assume it was a different date. The programs behaved accordingly.
 
I think the lesson here is to not set your clock to an arbitrary future date and then launch apps that use the date for operation like iCal, Mail, Quicken, etc.

I don't think it should have caused a kernel panic and crash, unless you actually hit the epoch time and the system went a bit wonky not knowing what to do when the count rolled over. If it's the apps that caused the computer to crash then there is a bug in the apps that probably had more to do with the number of events occurring than the date itself.
 
applemax said:
For a bit of fun, I wanted to see how far forward I could make my mac go - turns out it was 2038. Anyway, I opened up Mail and every single past/present/future iCal alert/to do/note was resent/popped up, thus crashing my computer and giving me a kernel panic/forced shutdown. Everything's fine now but I had to delete the iCal files to remove the alerts. I've now fully recovered from a slow/crashed mac and my email is very, very full now. I'm just warning everyone not to fiddle around with the dates for fun. I hope Apple fixes this dangerous bug in 10.6. It's like the Millennium Bug all over again. God knows what happens when you try and go back!
Click to expand...

That is not a bug, iCal is functioning as it should.
 
alaceo said:
That's not a bug, per se, it's just the current limit of the UNIX EPOCH - counting seconds from January 1, 1970.
From what I've read, the last possible time it can reach is 03:14:07 Tuesday, January 19, 2038. At that point, its just out of bits to store the time. Eventually it'll switch to 64-bit and we won't have to worry about that.
Click to expand...

Current Macs are already 64-bit. We're good :D
 
vanmacguy said:
Aren't you somehow assuming that the computer knew it was *really* 2008 and should not have sent any reminders?

But really, how could the computer know that? As far as it knew, it was suddenly 2038 and all the reminders in iCal were due to be sent.

I think you're assuming that the computer knew that you were just fooling around and that it was supposed to remember that the real year was 2008 and that reminders for events prior to the *real* current date had already been sent.

So I think sending the reminders is reasonable behaviour. Your machine crashing is not reasonable however.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
I'm going to have to agree with vanmacguy on this one. What did you expect the computer to do?
 
Eraserhead said:
It shouldn't have sent reminders for events that it has already sent though.
Click to expand...

It didn't send reminders that it had already sent. As far as the computer knew it went to sleep/got shut down, and was rebooted in 2038. Every event that occurred between now and 2038 that had not been sent was then sent. This is exactly what the software is supposed to do. It shouldn't cause a crash but then again software shouldn't ever cause crashes, but when you do something that the programmer didn't anticipate (like maxing out the clock and then opening iCal) there may be some erratic behavior.
 
atszyman said:
It didn't send reminders that it had already sent. As far as the computer knew it went to sleep/got shut down, and was rebooted in 2038. Every event that occurred between now and 2038 that had not been sent was then sent. This is exactly what the software is supposed to do. It shouldn't cause a crash but then again software shouldn't ever cause crashes, but when you do something that the programmer didn't anticipate (like maxing out the clock and then opening iCal) there may be some erratic behavior.
Click to expand...

It did sent reminders that it had already sent - I know this for a fact, thank you
 
alaceo said:
That's not a bug, per se, it's just the current limit of the UNIX EPOCH - counting seconds from January 1, 1970.
From what I've read, the last possible time it can reach is 03:14:07 Tuesday, January 19, 2038. At that point, its just out of bits to store the time. Eventually it'll switch to 64-bit and we won't have to worry about that.
Click to expand...

What happened to the year 29,940 that the Classic era Macs could go to before reaching their end date? What am I supposed to do if I keep my Mac stored in good working condition and try to use it after January 19, 2038 with correct date and time:D, assuming that the machines haven't wiped us out or some other doomsday whoops has not yet occurred by some scientists. Obviously it would not be very useful but I could still run 10.4, Office 2004 and Photoshop CS and print.

I mean unless there is some unbelievable medical breakthrough non of us would make 29,940 AD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back