Instead of a date reading , it read Engineers shortened the date because data storage in computers was costly and took up a lot of space. As the year approached, computer programmers realized that computers might not interpret 00 as , but as Activities that were programmed on a daily or yearly basis would be damaged or flawed. As December 31, , turned into January 1, , computers might interpret December 31, , turning into January 1, Banks, which calculate interest rate s on a daily basis, faced real problems.
Interest rates are the amount of money a lender, such as a bank, charges a customer, such as an individual or business, for a loan.
Instead of the rate of interest for one day, the computer would calculate a rate of interest for minus almost years! Centers of technology, such as power plant s, were also threatened by the Y2K bug. Power plants depend on routine computer maintenance for safety checks, such as water pressure or radiation levels.
Not having the correct date would throw off these calculations and possibly put nearby residents at risk. Transportation also depends on the correct time and date. Airlines in particular were put at risk, as computers with records of all scheduled flights would be threatenedafter all, there were very few airline flights in Y2K was both a software and hardware problem. Software refers to the electronic programs used to tell the computer what to do.
Hardware is the machinery of the computer itself. Software and hardware companies raced to fix the bug and provided "Y2K compliant " programs to help. The simplest solution was the best: The date was simply expanded to a four-digit number.
Governments, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, worked to address the problem. In the end, there were very few problems. A nuclear energy facility in Ishikawa, Japan, had some of its radiation equipment fail, but backup facilities ensured there was no threat to the public.
The U. But what if no one had taken steps address the matter? For the most part, we fixed it. The innumerable programmers who devoted months and years to implementing fixes received scant recognition.
One programmer recalls the reward for a five-year project at his company: lunch and a pen. The inherent conundrum of the Y2K debate is that those on both ends of the spectrum — from naysayers to doomsayers — can claim that the outcome proved their predictions correct. Koskinen and others in the know felt a high degree of confidence 20 years ago, but only because they were aware of the steps that had been taken — an awareness that, decades later, can still lend a bit more gravity to the idea of Y2K.
Contact us at letters time. The company planned for more than staff to be on duty system-wide on New Year's Eve to be ready for any problems. By Francine Uenuma. The first two digits were left out. For example, instead of coding "", they just used "60". The main reason for leaving out the first two digits was to save on storage space which was too costly. Additionally, the programmers did not expect the programs to last up to the turn of the century. When the new Millennium neared, computer experts realized that the software would recognize "00" as instead of the year This realization posed a risk to many institutions such as banks, insurance companies, hospitals, and government departments that relied on computers to provide accurate time and date.
As the calendar approached the year , anxiety spread across the world as people feared that computer systems would shut down. Banking institutions which relied on software programs to calculate daily interest were at risk of system failure.
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