What's the significance of Oct 12 1999?

Question

In the SignOut method of System.Web.Security.FormsAuthentication, the ASP.NET team chose to expire the FormsAuth cookie by setting the expiration date to "Oct 12 1999".

HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie(FormsCookieName, str);
cookie.HttpOnly = true;
cookie.Path = _FormsCookiePath;
cookie.Expires = new DateTime(0x7cf, 10, 12);

What's the significance of October 12th, 1999? Is it an inside joke, or is there some valid reason to set your cookie expiration to that particular date?

Edit: The theories below are interesting, but they are just guesses. Since Phil, Scott, and other members of the ASP.NET team are on StackOverflow, I thought it would be fun to offer a bounty. Hopefully someone can track down the original developer and get an authoritative answer.

Awarded: To Scott Hanselman for escalating this one all the way to ScottGu. I was really hoping for some sort of super-secret, Illuminati-esque meaning, but looks like it was just the old "one year ago" trick.

Reference source: https://referencesource.microsoft.com/#System.Web/Security/FormsAuthentication.cs,416 — SandRock, Sep 21 '19 at 06:59

Toon Krijthe · Answer 1 · 2009-04-03T14:28:31.877

193

Elementary my dear Watson:

Oct 12 1999 is exactly 80 days before 1-1 2000.
For some people the year 2000 was the end of the world
As we know, it takes 80 days to go around the world.
So oct 12 1999 was the last possible day to go around the world.
As we know internet is wrapped around the world.
So packets (and also cookies) travel around the world.
The expiration date of Oct 12 1999 is the symbolic last day a packet could be send.
There is no need to send it later than this date.
So this is the symbolic date for do not expire.

edited Apr 03 '09 at 14:28

answered Apr 03 '09 at 14:10

Toon Krijthe

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Friday afternoon effects ;-). – Toon Krijthe Apr 03 '09 at 14:18
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You've missed your calling, sir. Perfect. – Portman Apr 03 '09 at 14:41
But but but 1 1 2000 is not the end of the millenium!!!1!! :) – 1800 INFORMATION Jun 05 '09 at 09:31
@1800 Information, correct, but as you know (also backed up by literature), if enough people say 2+2=5, then it will be correct ;-). – Toon Krijthe Jun 18 '09 at 06:32
9

This reply is genius – Kirschstein Jun 18 '09 at 09:32
9

-Sets new expiration date to Oct 12 2011- – Kenan Banks Oct 04 '09 at 03:26
haha +1.. I did this exact calculation before looking at your answer :D – Anurag Apr 19 '10 at 22:08
12

+1 - a truly delightful load of numerological BS. Just in passing, please note that there are nine bullet points, which is 3 squared, and 1999 has three nines. I leave it to the numerologically inclined to divine the significance of this observation. – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні Aug 14 '12 at 20:20

score 133 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 08 '09 at 20:39

133

Ok, folks, I talked to a dozen different people on the ASP.NET Team. The dev who wrote THAT line of code, we think, is gone. We asked The Gu, and he wasn't sure.

Stefan Schackow, from the team, said, after speaking with Manu Vasandani:

"The ASP.NET developers were being chased by a pack of feral ninjas on fire and thus were under intense pressure to complete the feature whilst fearing for their lives. As a result in the heat of the moment(ary passion) the snap decision was made to set the constant to the current point in time, less one year. Unfortunately the developer who made that decision wasn’t fast enough checking it in, and despite the shortcut ended up dying an agonizing death at the hands of the ninja leader 'Eviscerati Extremus Minus One'."

Translation? The date is one year before the date that line of code was written.

answered Apr 08 '09 at 20:39

Scott Hanselman

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You asked a dozen people about this? And then you wonder why you're busy... – Will Dean Apr 08 '09 at 21:39
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Accepted for asking The Gu. – Portman Apr 09 '09 at 04:22
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PS: Who would win in a fight between Jon Skeet and The Gu? – Portman Apr 09 '09 at 04:23
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The Gu. Clearly. – Kirschstein Jun 18 '09 at 09:31
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Neither. I think they'd fight side by side. – kbrimington Aug 24 '10 at 06:22
Why didn't they make it the minimum DateTime year? Doing it as they did may make developers working on a bug think the time was set by another developer. Using DateTime minimum will hint that it is set by the system. – Phil Apr 30 '14 at 17:59

score 24 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 31 '09 at 13:52

24

Maybe that line was written on Oct 13th 1999, and they picked "yesterday" as an arbitrary date that would always be in the past.

answered Mar 31 '09 at 13:52

finnw

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score 15 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 19 '10 at 21:58

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I'm not sure it's of any relevance to the development of ASP.NET, but it was my 26th Birthday!

edited Apr 19 '10 at 21:58

lubos hasko

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answered Apr 03 '09 at 14:49

Nick Haslam

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Happy belated birthday! :P – jcolebrand Jul 07 '17 at 23:20

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 31 '09 at 13:52

9

There is no benefit to any specific date when setting the expiration date of a cookie. Any date that is in the past will cause the browser to delete the cookie.

According to Wikipedia:

Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.
The Day of Six Billion: The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born.
Death of Robert Marsden Hope, Australian Justice and Royal Commissioner (b. 1919)
Death of Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (b. 1936)

Of those, the most likely to me seems Wilt the Stilt. Perhaps the author was a basketball fan.

answered Mar 31 '09 at 13:52

Ecton

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Right, so why not Jan 1 1900 or something? Also, why a date so close in the past, as opposed to something from before the PC was even invented? – Portman Mar 31 '09 at 14:25
Perhaps to avoid a negative epoch. Maybe an early browser didn't handle < 1970 (UNIX epoch) correctly. My guess would be that it probably is an easter egg, although I doubt any of the dates above really are the reason :) – Ecton Mar 31 '09 at 15:20
Just out of curiosity, it is coincidence that Hope died on the same day the 6 billionth living person was born? – Flynn1179 Feb 09 '15 at 13:17

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 03 '09 at 14:06

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October 12 1999: The World Population Hits 6 Billion

answered Apr 03 '09 at 14:06

Markus Lausberg

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score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 08 '09 at 17:34

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Ok, so no-one I've asked on the team seems to know. Guess is, it was a year to the day after Bill Gates 1998 PDC Keynote???

answered Apr 08 '09 at 17:34

ScottGal on Stackoverflow!? Thanks for asking around. – Portman Apr 08 '09 at 18:02

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 31 '09 at 13:50

2

I don't think it's significant. It could just be a meaningless random date in the past, or something like the developer's daughter's birthday - something that has a private meaning to whomever wrote the code.

answered Mar 31 '09 at 13:50

karim79

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 06 '09 at 19:11

1

If you convert 1999/10/12 as a hex, it's 7CF/A/C. Now you can do a ROT13 on it and you have 2PS/N/P
Probably the illuminati... ;)

I really don't know if there's any sense with this date. I don't think so.

(CW for fun purposes)

answered Apr 06 '09 at 19:11

guerda

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P=NP confirmed. – Gabriel Jun 28 '18 at 14:18

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 08 '09 at 19:19

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Obviously, the person who wrote it was a big fan of Bill Gates' speech at Telecom '99. Yeah, you remember the one: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/speeches/1999/10-12telecom.aspx

answered Apr 08 '09 at 19:19

Doozer Blake

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 03 '09 at 14:21

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It's 10/12/99 in America and 12/10/99 in Europe, making for a nice confusing date. No one knows if it is in December!

answered Apr 03 '09 at 14:21

Karl

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The DateTime constructor definitely takes year, then month, then day. – Portman Apr 03 '09 at 14:42

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 08 '09 at 17:41

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Just like "how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop", the world may never know.

answered Apr 08 '09 at 17:41

Greg

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What's the significance of Oct 12 1999?

12 Answers12