Why was anyone ever worried about Y2K?

Question

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the whole thing seems stupid.

Answer 1

There was a reason to worry. Here's why.

Most computer programs were coded with 2 digits for the year, not 4. When date logic or math was done with 2 dates, the result would've been incorrect if there was one date after 2000 and one date before 2000.

The best example is an age calculation - what would've been the age of someone on 01/01/00 that was born on 01/01/99?

Most people would say 1 year old, but look at it again. What do you get if you subract 99 from 00? That's a negative number.
The other thing is that the person could've been born in 1899 and actually be 101 years old. You can't tell by the date alone, which century it comes from.

Another thing to worry about was leap year. 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was.

Some computer programs are very dependent on the date to determine what happens in the program. Using the same dates, which is greater 01/01/99 or 01/01/00... 99 is greater than 00, but it should be the other way around - 2000 is greater than 1999.

Besides the more commonly known version of the date of month/day/year (mm/dd/yy), there is a version that's called a julian date which is year and day of year (yyddd). All of this logic had to be changed and tested too to make sure it worked the way it was supposed to.

The solution to the problem was to include the other 2 digits of the year in all date logic. It seems simple, but there's dates for everything. Just look at any bill. You have birth dates, payment due dates, billing dates, transaction dates, start dates, end dates, delivery dates, policy dates, fiscal dates, tax related dates, etc. The logic for each one had to be analyzed, changed and tested in all different combinations of business scenarios.

There would've been problems if nothing was done about it, but I don't know what they may have been. I'm not sure if we'd have the level of catastrophe they were talking about though.

Answer 2

Actually, it wasn't foolish. Many computers OS's were programed so the computer would only recognize dates until Dec. 31, 1999. After that date the computer would not run because it would not be able to recognize the year 2000.

This was first addressed in 1988 and wasn't taken very seriously. In 1992 this was again addressed an was taken more seriously and many of the OS's were updated to fix this problem.

In 1998 the news media became aware of this and, as is normal, had to sensationalize it for ratings. Although, by this time the Computer industry had pretty much resolved this issue the news media kept it alive. The closer it got to Jan 1, 2000 the more the media claimed that the world was going to come to a stop when the computer stopped running. They claimed that planes would fall out of the sky (I guess that made them "Chicken Little"), water and electricity would cease and all kinds of stuff.

This issue had been resolved in the early 90's, yet, the media had to do their best to scare the world with "Doom and Gloom".

Stupid? Yes it was STUPID of the news media, seeking ratings, to do what they did.

Remember, the original issue, if not resolved, could have created serious problems around the world. Would the world have ceased to function? No! In a way I wish it did happen. At least it would have shut up the news media for a period of time.

Answer 3

Looking back, we laugh at how freaked out people got. Realistically, the most that could have happend was power getting knocked out to many homes. The fear was that becasue computers ran on a two digit year system, the computers would run into problems and crash when the clocks hit 00. No such thing ever happend but many people thought that we were going to get thrown into nuclear war because all of the US nukes would launch etc. etc. It was really a whole lot about nothing.

Answer 4

There was actually a bug in early programming that casued certain processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after January 1, 2000. Any machine this was going to be an issue on (for the most part) was fixed causing no real issues and creating a panic over what was essentially a minor and easily fixable programming flaw in a small amount of old computers.

Answer 5

skyzophrenyk has it exactly. It honestly could have been a very big deal if they werent able to catch the problem and get the fixes out in time. Some of the computers in my mothers office were actually old ones that wouldnt take the fix, they had to spend a lot of money to get the information off of them transfered into newer computers. Just for the sh*t's and giggles of it afterwards, they kept running those computers, and any time they inputed data and put a date of 2000, it would read 9999.

Answer 6

YK2 is passed history so yes. that is stupid . i have had my computer from. 1998 .8 years old . my computer is still working fine
so . all this talk .About . so the computer would only recognize dates until Dec. 31, 1999. After that date the computer would not run because it would not be able to recognize the year 2000.is stupid

Answer 7

The y2k millennium bug is now beetles dung.

Answer 8

do not we've stressful, reckless, risky drivers causing crashes on the line because they are too busy yapping on their cellular telephone to comprehend their utilizing? do not we've pretend and deceptive political sound-bites flooding our airwaves each and every election 3 hundred and sixty 5 days? do not we've tens of millions of human beings ingesting billions of gallons of bottled water because Madison street ad human beings have confident them that it is fit than universal ingesting water (even in spite of the actuality that endless exams have shown that it is not)? do not we've tens of millions of human beings procuring over-priced fashionable dressmaker espresso because a similar human beings have confident them it is cool to attain this? What me to bypass on? Edit: My pal, it would not worry me because it is all area of the repeating cycle of mankind. through each and every era we've continually had the sheep, those honestly led and manipulated. If if weren't Muzak or canned laughter it will be 'Twitter' and movie star worship. The moneymaker count and count on the sheep.

Answer 9

I agree with you, but people were really upset, They would say that when the New Year came all the computers would crash. Some people thought it would be the end of the world. go figure.

Answer 10

Y2K is over man!!!!