The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday

Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by shantara on Saturday September 12, 2020 @12:32PM (#24453612)

In "Deepness in the Sky" a spaceship's computer is still running on Unix time many thousands years into the future. It is generally believed that the calendar starts with the first Moon landing, and only the main character as a "programmer-archeologist" discovers a small difference between it and true Unix time 0.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by divbzero on Saturday September 12, 2020 @01:00PM (#24453779)

Little is known about “Unix” but it is believed he or she was a charismatic spiritual leader who brought hope, healing, and comfort to countless humans on Earth and inspired numerous disciples including “BSD”, “Linux”, and “System V”.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by throw0101a on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:24PM (#24454331)

> Little is known about “Unix” but […]

As opposed to eunuchs.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by ithkuil on Sunday September 13, 2020 @03:31AM (#24459109)

Well, isn't Unix a castrated Multics?

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by thinkmassive on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:35PM (#24454402)

Vernor Vinge sounds like an intriguing author!

“Most years, since its inception in 1999, Vinge has been on the Free Software Foundation's selection committee for their Award for the Advancement of Free Software.”[0]

Since “A Deepness in the Sky” was written in 1999 as a prequel to “A Fire Upon the Deep” (from 1992), which do you recommend to read first?

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernor_Vinge

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by moonbug on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:55PM (#24454557)

Fire, then Deepness, then stop.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by ncmncm on Saturday September 12, 2020 @03:53PM (#24455049)

Or Fire, then The Peace War. Maybe dip into True Names, followed by Shockwave Rider by John Brunner.

Many people didn't like Deepness much. But the sequel to Fire, Children of the Sky, was interesting.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by mkl on Sunday September 13, 2020 @05:16AM (#24459549)

For me A Deepness in the Sky is his best, and one of the most memorable novels I've read.

The Peace War is a fascinating exploration of "what if this one thing was possible?" and all its terrible consequences, but Deepness grabbed me much more as a story.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by mindcrime on Saturday September 12, 2020 @04:05PM (#24455155)

In either case, definitely read The Shockwave Rider by Brunner.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by ak217 on Saturday September 12, 2020 @06:53PM (#24456591)

Personally I found Fire and Deepness to be equally, profoundly, good. Haven’t found any other Vinge books to be nearly as good.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by aftbit on Saturday September 12, 2020 @05:51PM (#24456168)

I quite enjoyed Rainbow's End as well.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by jessaustin on Saturday September 12, 2020 @06:31PM (#24456442)

There's an extra apostrophe there... this is addressed toward the end of the novel.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by hrnnnnnn on Sunday September 13, 2020 @01:30AM (#24458620)

Yes, it's not "The end of this particular rainbow", it's "rainbows have an end". It bugged me until I got to that part of the book.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by jessaustin on Sunday September 13, 2020 @08:30AM (#24460412)

That comment is a bit of a spoiler, isn't it?

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by gerikson on Saturday September 12, 2020 @01:13PM (#24453863)

"A Deepness..." also used SI multiples of seconds to denote something approximating 24 hours, a week, a month etc.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by fanf2 on Saturday September 12, 2020 @04:24PM (#24455306)

A megasecond is a useful quantity: it's a bit less than 12 days. I mentally approximate it to a fortnight, partly because of the VMS bootloader which used microfortnights as an approximation for seconds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measu...

Another handy time_t approximation is that a year is about 2^25 seconds, or 32 megaseconds.

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Re:The Unix timestamp will begin with 16 this Sunday by ncmncm on Saturday September 12, 2020 @04:24PM (#24455307)

He should have said what that difference is.

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