You have 2,147,483,645 unread messages

[khaosworks]

I don't know what caused this glitch that displays in the Mail application on my iPod Touch, but it's amusing nonetheless. I know spam kind of builds up, but this...



(and yes, my mailbox is empty)

Comments

[mdlbear]

Looks like 2³¹-1

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

What does that mean?

[mdlbear]

Largest number representable in 32 bits (the most common word size for a computer).

Something got confused.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. Learn something new every day!

(more like 2^31-3, actually, I think)

[mdlbear]

OK, that's just plain weird.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

To me it suggests the counter got mis-set to zero while there were still some messages there, and then three emails got deleted. (And the arithmetic used has no range-checking. Idiots. =:o\ )

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

You're right, but it's two e-mails, since the full number is 2^31-1. Which I had just deleted prior to seeing this glitch.

You've Got (a billion) Mails

[susanscookietin.livejournal.com]

Does that mean it's best to leave at least one mail in the inbox?

Re: You've Got (a billion) Mails

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

No, this has no effect on the way the mailbox works. It's just an interesting glitch.

[hrrunka]

I suspect signed/un-signed confusion as well...

[mdlbear]

Probably a race condition between threads; they forgot to lock the counter.

[kampongchicken.livejournal.com]

Moiré! *falls down*

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

When two patterns entwine in a way serpentine
That's a moire...

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

2,147,483,645 is the new zero. That's how they plan on reducing the budget deficit.

[nighthellcat.livejournal.com]

LOL, nice.