By Betty 
What Is Y2K?
Y2K is that the shorthand term for “the year 2000.” Y2K was usually accustomed see a widespread programing crosscut that was expected to cause intensive disturbance because the year modified from 1999 to 2000. rather than permitting four digits for the year, several laptop programs only allowed 2 digits (e.g., ninety nine instead of 1999). As a result, there was huge panic that computers would be unable to control at the flip of the millennium once the date descended from “99” to “00”.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Y2K was commonly used to refer to a widespread programing crosscut that was expected to cause intensive disturbance because the year modified from 1999 to 2000.
• The modification was expected to bring down laptop systems infrastructures, appreciate those for banking and power plants.
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• whereas there was a widespread outcry concerning the potential implications of this change, not abundant happened.
Understanding twelvemonth
within the years and months leading up to the flip of the millennium, computer consultants and monetary analysts feared that the switch from the two-digit year ’99 to ’00 would create havoc on computer systems starting from airline reservations to monetary databases to government systems. scores of bucks were spent within the lead-up to twelvemonth in IT and code development to form patches and workarounds to squash the bug.
whereas there have been some minor problems once Jan. 1, 2000, arrived, there were no large malfunctions. Some individuals attribute the sleek transition to major efforts undertaken by businesses and government organizations to correct the Y2K bug in advance. Others say that the matter was immoderate and wouldn’t have caused vital issues regardless.
Special concerns
At the time, that was the first days of the internet, the twelvemonth scare—or the Millennium bug because it was conjointly called—had several plausible reasons for concern. For instance, for abundant of monetary history, financial establishments haven’t usually been thought-about leading edge technology-wise.
Knowing most huge banks ran on dated computers associate degreed technologies, it wasn’t irrational for depositors to fret the Y2K issue would seize the industry up, thereby preventing individuals from retreating cash or participating in necessary transactions. Extended to a world scale, these worries of an epidemic-like panic had international markets holding their breath heading into the flip of the century.
The analysis firm Gartner estimated that the world prices to repair the bug were expected to be between $300 billion to $600 billion. Individual firms conjointly offered their estimates of the bug’ economic impact on their top-line figures. For example, General Motors explicit that it’d price $565 million to fix issues arising from the bug. Citicorp calculable that it would cost $600 million, whereas MCI stated that it would take $400 million.1
In response, the u. s. government passed the Year 2000 data and Readiness revealing Act to arrange for the event and shaped a President’ Council that consisted of senior officers from the administration and officers from agencies just like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The council monitored efforts created by non-public firms to arrange their systems for the event.23
In actuality, the episode came and went with very little fanfare.
What light-emitting diode to twelvemonth?
Y2K took place for the most part thanks to economics. At the dawn of the pc age, the programs being written needed the sort of information storage that was very costly. Since not several anticipated the success of this new technology or the speed with that it’d take over, companies were considered in their budgets. This lack of foresight, particularly provided that the millennium was with reference to forty years away, light-emitting diode to programmers being forced to employing a 2-digit code rather than a 4-digit code to designate the year.
Why Was twelvemonth Scary?
consultants feared that the switch from the two-digit year ’99 to ’00 would create a disturbance in laptop systems starting from airline reservations to monetary databases to government systems. For instance, the industry relied on dated computers and technologies and it wasn’t irrational for depositors to fret about having the ability to withdraw funds or have interaction in necessary transactions. Bankers were distressed that interest could be calculated for cardinal years (1000 to 1999) rather than one day.
however, Was twelvemonth Avoided?
The U.S. government passed the Year 2000 data and Readiness revealing Act to arrange for the event and shaped a President’ Council, that consisted of senior officers from the administration and officials from agencies just like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to watch efforts of personal firms to prepare their systems for the event.32 The analysis firm Gartner calculable that the world prices to avoid Y2K may are the maximum amount as $600 billion.