Y2KWhat was the y2k bug?What caused it?No one saw this coming?Government ResponseThe Fears:The ball drops and…CostsLets compare strategies…Were the costs justified?Real Life Horror Stories.Y2k: Lessons learnedA Unique ProblemOther time “bugs”The end!ReferencesHomeworkY2KY2KJustin KovacichWhat was the y2k bug?What was the y2k bug?Dates expressed as 2 digits instead of 4.Made date comparisons between the 1900s and 2000s incorrect99 > 00, 1999 < 2000http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/Y2K/class.htmlWhat caused it?What caused it?In the early days of programming, space was a precious commodityNo need to waste 2 digits, just append a “19” to the front, or add 1900 when displaying to the screen.No one saw this coming?No one saw this coming?Use of 2 digit years was a common practice in art, but it is typically easy in paintings to distinguish centuries.Bob Berner first reported the issue in computing in 1958The problems with 2 digit years were reported in journals from the 1970s on, who worries 30 years ahead of time about such things?Government ResponseGovernment ResponseSenate hearings about y2k began in 1996Senate estimates for the cost of U.S. spending on fixing y2k issues: $300 billionEstimated cost for the Federal Government: $30 billionThe Fears:The Fears:Power grids shut downOur electronics ceaseto functionSpreadsheets showincorrect dateshttp://img.zdnet.comThe ball drops and…The ball drops and…Power stayed on as millions across America watched Peter Jennings and Dick Clark celebrate the transition and survive the apocalypsehttp://www.smbc-comics.comCostsCostsGlobal y2k costs estimated at $600,000,000,000AT&T spent ~ $500 million, Citigroup ~ $650 million.Lets compare strategies…Lets compare strategies…Nations like Italy and Korea spent relatively little on prevention, with the “fix on failure” mentality.Were the costs justified?Were the costs justified?Ask any of the COBOL consultants (who in some cases wrote the bug and then decades later the solution), and the answer is yes. The software and hardware didn’t fail because the corrective job was done well.Backup systems in place due to the possible y2k glitches kept NYC running after 9/11 in NY.Real Life Horror Stories.Real Life Horror Stories.A Japanese nuclear power plant’s alarm sounded 2 minutes after midnightJapanese cell phone text messages began erasing “older” messages.150 slot machines stopped working in Delaware.103 year old woman invited to join a local preschool.Y2k: Lessons learnedY2k: Lessons learnedHardware and software should be, within reason, written to be flexible and extendable.Proper documentation likely could’ve saved some of the billions spent on last minute preventionA Unique ProblemA Unique ProblemA globally finite and definite deadline for software compliance.Worldwide effort to ensure software and hardware was set up correctly.Other time “bugs”Other time “bugs”9/9/99 was sometimes assigned as an end date marker, which potentially led to problems on September 19th, 1999.Y10k, if we can make it that long.Year 32768 – signed 16 bit intsYear 292,277,026,596 – When unix time will reset to 0.The end!The end!www.pbase.com/richo/fireworksReferencesReferencesY2K Lessons Learned – 2000 – Braithwaite, TimothyYear 2000: Best Practices for Y2K Millennium Computing – 1998 - Lefkon, Dick.http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/y2k/index.html - Chris Farrell, accessed 2/19/2008HomeworkHomeworkWhy was only having 2 digits for year comparisons suddenly a big deal in the late
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