§00
edge-case engineering

built for the worst case

t-minus to overflow
4220days
00:36:5203:14:07 utc · 19 jan 2038

A firm for the failure modes other shops treat as someone else's problem.

§01
the premise

most software is written for the day it ships.

the boundary is where systems fail. we work the boundary.

We write for the day it breaks. Edge-case engineering means treating the unlikely, the malformed, and the catastrophic as design inputs, not afterthoughts.

§02
what we do

four registers of the same discipline. the cases other shops file under someone else's problem.

01

overflow & boundary conditions

The values nobody expected the system to reach. Counters, timestamps, lengths, IDs. We test to the edge of the type.

02

resilience & failure modes

The dependency is down, the clock is wrong, the disk is full, the input is hostile. We map the failure surface before it maps you.

03

time, dates & the long horizon

Epoch rollovers, leap seconds, timezone math, certificates that outlive their authors. Correct in 2038 and after.

04

audits of the cases others skip

A cold read of the code paths your team has been meaning to get to. We document the worst case, then engineer past it.

§03
why 2038

a deadline deferred

03:14:07 UTC · 19 Jan 2038

The signed 32-bit counter that has tracked Unix time since 1970 reaches its maximum. A small, certain, well-documented catastrophe, waiting on a known date; the kind of problem the industry prefers not to think about. We named the firm after it.

signed int32 · unix time_tcounting
1782873434
seconds elapsed since 1 january 1970, approaching the signed 32-bit ceiling.
§04
approach

three passes over the same defect. find it, force it, fix the class behind it.

01 / 03

enumerate

We list the ways the system can be made to fail: inputs, clocks, limits, dependencies, adversaries. The boring list nobody wants to write.

02 / 03

reproduce

We make the worst case happen on purpose, in a controlled place, before it happens in production at 03:14 in the morning.

03 / 03

engineer

We fix the path and the class of bug behind it, then leave the test that keeps it fixed. Proof, not assurance.

§05
closing

someone has to be there when the numbers run out

If you already know which part of your system you do not want to think about, that is where we start.

2038.systems
worst-case // rev.2038