Topics > Science, Technology, & Medicine
Latest "Tech Scare" 4-6-19 GPS rollover date
Libertas:
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/gps-mini-y2k-rsa2019,news-29583.html
::ohno::
Weesa all gonna die!!!
Well, probably not...
The U.S. Naval Observatory, which manages the Universal Time Code (UTC) for the U.S. government, has a brief PowerPoint presentation online warning that "UTC timing displayed and/or time tags of receiver data containing PNT [positioning, navigation and timing] information could jump by 19.7 years."
"Any month/year conversion could also fail," the Naval Observatory presentation added. "Navigation solution should be OK, but associated time tags could be incorrect thus still corrupting navigation data at the system level."
There's a bit more to worry about. Over the past 20 years, many individual GPS device and receiving-system manufacturers have restarted the clock on their own, usually to compensate for a device-specific error, and they could encounter time-rollover problems at any given in the next 20 years.
"The failure is not limited to April 6/7 2019," the U.S. Naval Observatory presentation says. "A common fix for week-number ambiguity [in some GPS devices and receivers] was to hard-code [a] new pivot date, which shifts [the April 6 rollover] event to [an] unknown date/time in future."
So that this doesn't happen again any time soon, GPS devices made in the past decade use 13 bits for the week counter, yielding a total of 8,192 weeks or 157 years. Those devices will not have to restart time until 2137, by which time our descendants will have created a whole new set of technological problems.
AlanS:
--- Quote from: Libertas on March 08, 2019, 07:22:13 AM ---Weesa all gonna die!!!
Well, probably not...
--- End quote ---
Only ones dying will be the ones who can't read a map. Which seems to be 3/4 of the population.
Libertas:
--- Quote from: AlanS on March 11, 2019, 11:05:16 AM ---
--- Quote from: Libertas on March 08, 2019, 07:22:13 AM ---Weesa all gonna die!!!
Well, probably not...
--- End quote ---
Only ones dying will be the ones who can't read a map. Which seems to be 3/4 of the population.
--- End quote ---
Because of the RAYCISS white slave-owning language no doubt...
::smallestviolin::
John Florida:
--- Quote from: AlanS on March 11, 2019, 11:05:16 AM ---
--- Quote from: Libertas on March 08, 2019, 07:22:13 AM ---Weesa all gonna die!!!
Well, probably not...
--- End quote ---
Only ones dying will be the ones who can't read a map. Which seems to be 3/4 of the population.
--- End quote ---
I still have several copies of my Rand McNally books(larger print as of late.
Alphabet Soup:
I love maps. I have always found them fascinating. My map pockets in my cars were always full - just like pop had in his rigs.
My employer bought Thomas Guide spiral-bound book for their fleet and I scored one - great maps! Then they went electronic. Fortunately I saved me Thomas Guide, which only occasionally lets me down on new construction (they're not building much around here but car pool lanes anyway)
Bring on the dark ages!
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