# Unix timestamps made practical for everyday debugging

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/unix-timestamps-made-practical-for-everyday-debugging/680262>\
**Category:** talk\
**Created:** [April 9, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/unix-timestamps-made-practical-for-everyday-debugging/680262 "2026-04-09T20:00:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WaffleFries](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/wafflefries/32/31185_2.png) [@WaffleFries](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/WaffleFries)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/unix-timestamps-made-practical-for-everyday-debugging/680262/1 "2026-04-09T20:00:19Z")

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A clear walkthrough of Unix timestamps, the seconds-vs-milliseconds trap, the 2038 issue, and a few quick ways to convert epoch time in JavaScript without guessing.

> **[Unix Timestamps Explained: What Every Developer Should Know](https://dev.to/sven_schuchardt_0aa51663a/unix-timestamps-explained-what-every-developer-should-know-890)**
>
> What epoch time is, why Stripe, GitHub, and Slack use Unix timestamps in every API, and how to convert seconds vs milliseconds — free browser tool included.

WaffleFries

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**Author:** ![Ellen1979](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/ellen1979/32/31260_2.png) [@Ellen1979](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Ellen1979)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/unix-timestamps-made-practical-for-everyday-debugging/680262/2 "2026-04-09T20:07:12Z")

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@WaffleFries that seconds-vs-milliseconds mixup is how you end up staring at “1970” timestamps mid-incident, so I always normalize anything under `1e12` as seconds before converting to ISO.

Ellen