Did You Prepare for Y2K?
A couple of times in our chat room, I brought up the subject of the Y2K bug and got the impression that most people thought I was talking about some cosmic, metaphysical event with religious connotations!That's not what Y2K is about, although there have been many who have mis-used the term to promote their own agendas -- usually to make money off of the fears of others.
The Y2K bug is a simple computer programming glitch.
Our Web Search Guide, Chris Sherman, in his article Y2K For The Perplexed says, it's very simple: Beginning with the first second of January 1, 2000, some computers will fail to correctly interpret dates. Why? For years, computer memory was scarce and very expensive, so computer designers and programmers cut corners wherever possible to conserve space.
A Huge Problem
"That, in a nutshell, is the problem," Sherman says. "And it's a huge problem, affecting millions of computer systems worldwide. Systems that aren't "Y2K compliant" by the end of this year will fail, in many cases causing unforseen consequences."No, this is not a problem for most personal computers sitting on the desk in your home or even in most small businesses. It's a big problem for all those large mainframe computers that run the systems of the world.
And there's one other problem, Sherman writes. Unfortunately, there's little that can be done for the millions—if not billions—of "embedded systems," computer chips "hardwired" with unchangeable two-digit date codes. These chips are used in everything from traffic lights to microwave ovens. How embedded systems will behave at the turn of the century is the biggest wildcard of the entire Y2K problem.
The Effect?
How will this all effect you? That's the problem, no one really know for sure. What we do know is there just wasn't enough time to get all the codes changed on all the computers that are effected. What we don't know is which ones!There have been predictions of a total system breakdown because of the Y2K bug, to it having no effect whatsoever. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.
Sherman's article contains suggestions on how to prepare for Y2K "just in case." And there are several other articles by About.com guides that provide more information and tips.
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