commemorate Y2 K ? In the comparatively early long time of reckoner programming , many system were designed to categorise dates by the last two fingerbreadth of a year , ignoring the " 19 " at the beginning of the identification number to save remembering quad . That may have made computer function more efficiently , but it created a trouble : What would bump when that date rolled over from 1999 tothe year 2000 — or “ 00 ” ? Some care that electronic computer would n’t bang how to interpret an empty economic value for a year , and would study these day of the month as invalid , causing glitches around the world . estimator networks in use everywhere from the local McDonald ’s to atomic arsenals were potentially running with the same vulnerability .
That was the apocalyptical reasoning behind the Y2 K scare : The would - be computing machine cataclysm that was suppose to cripple banks and governments when the clock impress midnight on January 1 , 2000 . We acknowledge now that mankind came out of Y2 K comparatively unharmed , afterspending an estimated$300 billion to $ 600 billion to fasten potential problems in the age before the millennium . But still , a few event did pop up — some make a material headache , while others provide a bit of a joke . Here are a few examples of the problem the Y2 K hemipterous insect in reality did do .
1. After Y2K, U.S. spy satellites stopped working for days.
The United States was one of the most proactive countries when it came to manage with the impending Y2 K bug . The country as a wholespentat least $ 100 billion on fixes — with approximately $ 9 billion of that coming from the federal government activity . The intelligence and defense system in the Pentagon got much of that funding ( around $ 3.5 billion ) , but despite month of pricey computer patches and hardware overhauls , the government still had issues with important spy satellites for nearlythree daysafter the unexampled year . The feeds grow a current of indecipherable info before the satellites were up and running again .
Three days may not seem too catastrophic , but one Pentagon officialdescribed the situationas a important trouble . Once the base of the trouble was identify , officials realized it was n’t the hemipterous insect itself that make out off communicating ; it was cause by thesoftware patchthat was designed to fix the number in the first place . Oops !
2. On Y2K, some poor person got charged over $91,000 for rentingThe General’s Daughter.
RentingThe General ’s Daughter — the ho - hum 1999 military thriller star John Travolta that was border for the bargain bin — wouldn’t be anyone ’s majestic moment . But one upstate New Yorker rapidly found himself ( and his taste in movies ) making newspaper headline nationwide , after the Y2 K bug ostensibly concentrate its wrath on the electronic computer arrangement of his local VHS letting storehouse . The glitch mistakenly reported that the man ’s transcript of the tape recording was100 age overdueand demonstrate hima bill forover $ 91,250 on New Year ’s Day . The trouble was rapidly fixed , and the customer was given afree video rentalfor his troubles .
3. Japanese nuclear plants gave workers a scare during Y2K.
It ’s unfit enough to have to work on New Year ’s Eve , but doing so in a nuclear power plant on Y2 K , when apocalyptic magniloquence was coming to a head , must have been torment . And if that was n’t bad enough , just two minutes after midnight , alarms begangoing off . It happenedat the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant after computing gadget picked up a problem with a gadget that measured the temperature of the surrounding seawater . The trial by ordeal only last around 10 min before everything was corrected , and no serious payoff were chance upon .
Another standardised event took post at the Shika Nuclear Power Station , after a " Y2 K glitch " caused some of the plant ’s alarm systems to go offline . regretful of all , a calculator at a government office that monitors the plant at all times pop off dead along with the alarm system . There were other minor hiccups like this around Japan , but all were right away contained and corrected . Officials at the timewould not confirmif all these event were even direct linked to the Y2 K bug or were just stock , momentaneous bug .
4. The U.S. Naval Observatory was temporarily out of step during Y2K.
The U.S. Naval Observatory ’s whole problem is to be on meter ; the means was established in 1830 to care for the country ’s navigational pawn and develop into becoming the official horologe of the United States . So you’re able to realize how embarrassing it was for the agency’swebsite to declarethe date as January 1 , 19100 in the early hour of Y2K. Though the Navy would call it a “ opprobrious optic , ” the outcome was fixed less than an time of day after it was ab initio report .
5. Y2K caused a newborn to be registered as 100 years old.
One of the most common Y2 super C problems had to do with computers being unable to realize multitude ’s ages accurately . In Denmark , the country ’s first " millennium babe " got an auspicious start to life when the hospital ’s computers originally registered it as 100 long time former . Then the computing machine system for theGerman opera house company , Deutsche Oper , automatically revert its dates back to 1900 on January 1 , 2000 . This make all the ages of employee and their children to be necessitate from the last two figure of their birth year , intend someone hold in 1990 would be relegate as 90 years old . This temporarily keep employees from garner kid subsidies from the government unremarkably included on their payroll , since , consort to the opera house company ’s computers , mothers and fathers of young children were now the parents of bright - eyed and raucous nonagenarians .
6. A lot of people were stuck with Y2K survival kits.
Taking advantage of the revelatory fright wall Y2 K , slew of companies released all fashion of “ Y2 K survival kits ” in the months leading up to the supposed doomsday . This soon became a multi - million - dollar diligence , with one company , fittingly calledPreparedness Resources , raking in$16 million by selling supply loge made up of dried food , body of water purifier , battery - free torch , blankets , and rainproof catch . The real preparedness came from Scott Sperry , Preparedness Resources ’s President of the United States , who instituted a “ no reappearance ” insurance on all the kit he sell .
7. Y2K made one man in Germany a temporary millionaire.
In Germany , the Y2 K bug was the meridian suspect in the case of a man who suddenly found himself quitea scrap wealthierin January 2000 . Apparently his bank account had every which way been credit about $ 6 million , withthe dateon the transaction reading December 30 , 1899 . Officials at the prison term were n’t sure if the millennium glitch was responsible for the man ’s sudden cash stream , but his estimable fortunes belike did n’t last long .
raft of other upshot involve bank , hospital , transit authorities , and other agenciesoccurred , but most were just temporary nuisances that were just notable enough to make the local news . After all , Hotmail displaying the twelvemonth as " 3900 " for a few hours is n’t just enough to get people rioting in the streets .
While the Y2 K scare now is usually intend of as an overreaction , the lack of any real event might have been because of the hundreds of 1000000000000 of dollars rain buckets into the localisation in the years beforehand . In an consultation on CNN , Bill Gates saidthat Y2 K " terminate up being a fairly minor subject because citizenry really worked together . If people had ignored the thing then we would be seeing the real impact . "
