year 2000 myths?

Question

what were people thinking was going to happen on the new year 2000? Ive heard things like every computer in the world will explode but y2k happed at different times around the world so that wouldnt be possible.

why did people think this

Answer 1

The problem was because of the way computers were created. Originally the amount of space that a computer could store stuff in its memory was extremely limited. So programmers made short cuts to maximize the space there. In 1970, everyone new that the first two characters of a year were 19, so they omitted them. Other applications employed logic to "guess" what year it was such as <50 then its 20??, > 50 its 19??.

Some applications such as those written in Cobol had the problem inherited from the complier that created the application, while others which ran from the OS were ok by default. Mostly the bug became a problem due to display issues, you wouldn't know what decade the display was referring to.

The ugly part wouldn't have actually been seen until Feb 29th of 2000 because 2000 had a leap year.

Leap year is every 4 years, but not ever 100 years, but ever 400 years. So, 1900 would not be a leap year because it met the 100 year requirement, but 2000 would be a leap year because it met the 400 year requirement.

There were also other concerns, especially in the banking sector, because of time based calculations. Consider interest due on a credit card. You've had the balance for 35 days at 25%. What if it rolled over to 1900, now you're balance due would reflect -36,490 days. That would mean the credit card company would owe you a crap load of money. (very bad for business)

But in the end, a majority of the issues were fixed because of the massive employment in the IT sector (the investment bubble). All of us worked some really wicked hours in the years from 1997 - 2000 because of that issue.

Answer 2

To save space, orginial programmers listed the date in a two digit year format. So 99 instead of 1999. On the rollover to 2000 computers, in theory, would have thought it was 1900 not 2000. No one could predict what the consequences would be other than the fact that they would malfunction. In most cases, iimportant stuff like nuclear warheads and air traffic control have systems in place that will prevent disaster if a computer malfunctions. It's all a moot point anyway since computers that would have been affected by Y2K were either severely outdated, and not protecting our most valuable systems, or they were corrected to read 00 as the year following 1999 and the the year 99 years before.

Answer 3

I think it had to do with the fact that when it became 2000, the last two numbers in the date would be 00 - 1/1/00 - and the computers would register it as 1900.

Answer 4

the computers in the 80s wher not desgined with the year 2000 in mind, the fear was that the internal clocks would hit a dead end and crash the computers. now when a cash register or a home computer locks up its no big deal, but when your talking about air traffic control, or department of corrections or worse the pentagon the consequences could be planes crashing criminals sent free or weapon systems that wont fire

Answer 5

because the clocks on the computer used two digits instead of four so in 1999 the year that the cp saw was 99 so someone said that in 2000 the cp would see the year on hte clock as 00 and freak out.... all i thought was... "so our clock is wrong ..so what?" Thats about it.

Answer 6

people, not me, thought that the nuclear missiles were going to launch, and basically kill everyone. also that some how we would run out of water and have to drink out of the left over water battles. Some also believed that 2000 was judgment day. God would come down and save us. hope this helps.

Answer 7

because of the fact delusion has potential. evaluate that the people of two thousand years in the past, even with the shown fact that we'd evaluate them extra superstitious and much less technologically stepped forward, have been actual the comparable as you and that i. They lived, died, enjoyed, hated, ate, slept, et cetera et cetera. for that reason, the impact that delusion had on them is the comparable impact that it has on guy immediately. thoughts of ressurection, of disaster, of violence, of love all resonate with something it fairly is substantial to us. delusion components us with some obscure solutions to what we've been asking ourselves perpetually; what does it propose to be human? Why? delusion isn't something that has no actuality. even with the shown fact that myths won't be factually actual (ie, there probable became no earth-huge flood, there probable became no conflict between angels and demons), they're actual interior the subject concerns that they carry. all of us have battles with "demons" in our own lives. it is the reason faith, because of the fact it holds certainly one of those super variety of of the super subject concerns of mythology alive for us immediately, maintains to exert such capability over people all over the area. no remember in case you think that is all superstitious nonsense, an imaginary shepherd/chippie/magician faith, is purely a manufactured from the previous few hundred years of psychological theory. We are in a position to stay with out delusion, yet why might we'd prefer to forsake certainly one of those wealthy source of collective subconscious information and modes of understanding?

Answer 8

The computers would reset to 1900 and nothing would work

Answer 9

the computer thing was becuase of code.
they only go as high as 99999999 and so on, they weren't sure the computers were going to be able to calculate things.
at least that was the explanation given to me anyway.

Answer 10

same reason ppl thot 6/6/06 was a big deal