Unix weenies everywhere will be partying like it's 1234567890 this Friday.

That's because, at precisely 3:31:30 p.m. Pacific time on February 13, 2009, the 10-digit "epoch time" clock used by most Unix computers will display all ten decimal digits in sequence. (That's 6:31:30 Eastern, or 23:31:30 UTC.)

Unlike time systems intended for humans, Unix time simply counts the number of seconds since midnight UTC on January 1, 1970. It's a convenient way for computers to measure elapsed time, provided the start date wasn't before 1970. On Friday, the number of seconds will hit 1,234,567,890. Celebrations are planned in San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles and about 10 other locations worldwide, so don't be surprised if it takes the guys in IT a little longer to respond to your calls tomorrow afternoon, or if the Gadget Lab crew is hard to find.

We couldn't find any watches that display Unix time, but the above desk clock from ThinkGeek, will do the trick. It will also display the time in binary, octal, hexadecimal or Roman formats. Mark your calendars: It's only 11 and a half years until XX:XX:XX X/XX/XX day.

1234567890day.com [via Laughing Squid]