What was the Y2K Bug?

1. What was the Y2K Bug? Parker Schroeder and Andrew Melville

2. Background • Referred to many names such as Year 2000 Problem, Y2K Problem, the Millennium Bug, the Y2K Bug, or Y2K • The problem arose for digital and non-digital documents because of the two number year abbreviation at the end of every date

3. Background • It was thought that there would be a logical error with computers when it rolled over from the year x99 to x00 • Computer programmers thought that once the date turned to x00, current files would become invalid and previous data would be lost and unrecoverable

4. Background • The theory caused many leading technology businesses to panic and spend billions dollars to backup the files and to purchase new equipment in order to prevent the failure • In the end, many of the supposed problems never occurred and computer applications continued to run smoothly while the rest of the world went on with its normal life

5. Programming Solutions • The major problems were able to solved, but at a costly price. For example, Microsoft spent 300 billion dollars on the issue • The two methods used to solve the problem were date expansion and windowing

6. Programming Solutions • Date expansion- Almost self-explanatory, the two year dates were made into four years dates so that they included the century. The downside to this solution was it was very costly • Windowing- The two year number system was retained, however, programs were installed that counted the century value for certain programs

7. Documented Errors • 150 slot machines at race tracks in Delaware stopped working • The U.S. Naval Observatory, which runs the country's official clock, had a glitch on its web site • In Onagawa, Japan, an alarm sounded at a nuclear power plant two minutes after midnight

8. End results • Most of the money spent was precautionary, however, if the bug did have an effect, these companies would have lost everything • In the end, the Y2K Millennium bug turned out to be a hoax because machines that were untreated by Y2K prevention software operated successfully