The Linux penguin costume gets an airing

The arrangements for the party have yet to be finalised, but Mr Schou thinks it will probably involve a trip to the zoo on 8 September to see the penguins. The Linux mascot is a penguin called Tux. A penguin costume is being borrowed from a Danish Unix User Group to help the festivities along.

"We have Humbolt penguins at our local zoo." said Mr Schou, "but it will do although Tux looks more like an Emperor penguin."

After eating marinated herrings when the penguins are fed with raw the herrings, the group are planning to restart the party in the evening and will eat and drink all night until 0346 Danish time when they will watch the Unix clock tick past the one billion mark.

"The evening party is more a Unix party so I don't think we will eat herrings then," said Mr Schou.

Fireworks will be let off by a Linux computer, and the whole party will be webcast so others can join in the fun.

Counting clocks

A more important date for Unix happens in 2038 when Unix clocks Unix pass 2 billion seconds. This will exhaust the range of numbers it is possible to represent with 32 bits so any Unix computer that has not been updated could roll over to 1970 again.

Many people running Unix systems are gradually changing to 64-bit systems which can run for more than 290 billion years before they run out of numbers. As the Universe is thought to be only 15 billion or so years old then this should be enough.

Unix, and its offspring Linux, are used by the majority of the computers running the websites that make up the net. Having the right time on the net is becoming more important as it becomes more of a tool for business than a playground for the electronically literate.

As more deals are done via the net rather than face-to-face, knowing when they happened (and when ownership of goods changed hands) becomes crucial. In the UK an organisation called Greenwich Electronic Time has been formed to make it easier for web firms to get and use the right time.

Atomic clocks lose less than a second in a million years, and are dotted around the web and computers use these as reference points to co-ordinate their time-keeping. And, by the by, ensure that some people can celebrate at the right time.

It is good to know that someone is counting.