Pete's QBASIC Site

For those of you that remember the Y2K (Year 2000) problems found in program code just before the year 2000, please give me your opinion as to the state of these bugs today and for the near future.

Did we kill the monster, or did it leave some eggs hatching, like in monster movies.

Thanks.
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There are probably some Y2K bugs still lurking... but they're nothing compared to what's going to happen in the year 10,000. The Y10K virus will put Y2K to shame!

Pete wrote:There are probably some Y2K bugs still lurking... but they're nothing compared to what's going to happen in the year 10,000. The Y10K virus will put Y2K to shame!

That's funny, Pete. But in a little less than 8000 years, it will truly be a humdinger of a problem. Let's leave this to the guys programming come the year 9990.

Closer than the year 10,000 is when we approach the year 4000. The leap year calculation already includes an exception for years that are a multiple of 4000, similar to the multiple of 400 already commonly used. Again, we can also leave this to posterity.
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OOOPs. Forgot to log-in before above post.
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I thought Y2K was a fake? I mean I set the clock on a Tandy MS dos ages ago to year 3000, and it ran fine....

And what was going to hang it up? it think it was in the stone age or something:

Computer wrote:Year 00?? Oh s***, I'm not suppose to be running,. I'm way before my time...

Yeah I'm joking half way, what was it really all about anyway?

Rattrapmax6 wrote:I thought Y2K was a fake? I mean I set the clock on a Tandy MS dos ages ago to year 3000, and it ran fine....

And what was going to hang it up? it think it was in the stone age or something:

Computer wrote:Year 00?? Oh s***, I'm not suppose to be running,. I'm way before my time...

Yeah I'm joking half way, what was it really all about anyway?

You were too young to remember. The Y2K problem was no fake. Some of us programmers started to see the problem coming 20 years in advance. Most companies didn't start to do anything about it until the mid 1990's.

The fundamental problem was that most systems developed before the 1990's processed and stored the year portion of a date as 2 digits. When dates after 1/1/2000 were to be handled, the year, expressed as 2 digits, would become 00. This would screw up any date arithmetic or date $$$ performed which included both dates up to 12/31/1999 and after 1/1/2000. Some of us programmers began using 4 digit years 20 years before the year 2000, so for us there was no Y2K problem.

Most of the companies did not fix and convert their dates to have 4 digit years. Instead, they invented "date algori?thms" that would allow them to continue using 2 digits and be able to operate for another 10 years or so. "Hey, let the next manager inherit the problem. I'm not spending the time and money on my budget."

In the mid 1990's there was a tremendous amount of hype about the Y2K problem generated by software companies that were offering "solutions" to the problem. Over 100 billion dollars was spent on Y2K. These solution companies were more interested in the money to be made selling their services than in the actual solving of the problem, i.e., fixing the code. I can tell you this from the firsthand experience of having worked on a $60 million dollar Y2K project for a major bank.

A by-product of Y2K projects was the fixing of other date-related bugs that were encountered in the software.
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my laptop has[had] fully flegded Y2k. I downloaded a patch for it, but I thought it was funnier to leave it on, so I could show the people who no nothing about their computers that it wasn't fake.

For the record, my laptop dated new files 1905.

Thats all.

That's what the bug was. The people who said it was more are the same people who say it was a hoax now, people who don't bother to try and understand what they're talking about, and when you try to explain it to them they refuse to listen.

matt

and I've never seen it screw up anything in DOS the whole time I used it like that. All I can think of it doing is if you copy a file into a folder with a same name file in it, and the dates modified of the two files are displayed, at first glance you may erase the more recent one.

Everyone screaming about Y2k wouldn't have understood that problem if you sent them to college to make a carrier out of it... or words to that effect.

The problem was with banks, and the like..

Where new bills could be labeled as being expired since 100 years, adding LOTS of interesst etc to them.. meaning lots of job to clean it up for the companies it would happen to..

I havent heard of any company having problems though..


Maybe some small companies, but no big things..


I remember I got ~$120/h for making computers y2k compatible.. basically, it was just installing win98 or later (Only personal computers, so no old software used).. so..


It was a problem, but it was hyped way out of proportion:
PLANES WILL CRASH
NUCLEAR PLANTS WILL BLOW UP
APPOCALYPSE IS UPON US!

The major problem were PC's that had BIOS older than 1990...they had to upgrade their system or BIOS ROM chips depending on the model.

Main issue was that business transactions recorded on a non Y2L compliant system, in the year 2000, would be sorted as being made before 1901 and would be treated as such on those older systems. One can imagine the problem that could have potentially caused....but if you set your VCR to 1979 the days and months were the same as the year 2000 lol

@ Moneo: That's what I was figuring, sorta like when the computer hits midnight when your using a standard TIMER delay, it gets all wacky ect....

BTW, I do remember it, I have a "The worlds going to end!" sticker here somewhere from it, if I didn't lose it.... .... I guess that's where I got the fakish rumors,. I'm mean, how does a computer not running end the world with a big wave (What was on the sticker, a big wave crashing into a city, and a billboard with a smiley that said "Have a nice day!")?

Thanks for your participation.

It looks like most of you (Ratt, Matt, Mystik) seem to equate the Y2K problem to date handling by the operating system on PC's. This was a problem, but easily solved by upgrading to a Y2K-compliant version of the operating system. Expensive perhaps for companies that had hundreds of PC's, but not a bigger deal than any regular upgrade that they performed periodically.

Z!re mentions that the problem was with banks and others. Yes, companies that have date related applications, like, loans, mortgages, insurance policies, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payrol, etc. had serious Y2K problems if they didn't handle dates using 4 digits. It was not only a problem of fixing the programs, but also thousands of files had to be converted to contain 4 digit years.

Ok, the PC operating system problem has been solved for the most part, except for a few diehards still using their favorite OS from the 1980's.

I still would like some opinions on what you think the status is today of the programming and file conversion Y2K problems that are still lurking in the dark out there. If you have any specific examples, that would be great --- let's discuss them.
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Yeah, unless if you have a old computer (and didn't upgrade your BIOs), and you don't need to be precise (unlike banks) on your dates, then the Y2K bug isn't all that bad for you...

Y2K wasn't a serious problem...Your clock reset big deal...No harm done...

This isn't why my comp sucks is it? Cause I doubt my dad or sister put any Y2K repairs on here.... ...

e.i. Things don't run like they used to,. the longer the computer runs, the slowwer it runs, like it's getting tiered after hours of work,. and many other things.... But I can't remember when the computer started having problems,. before or after 2000....

Steps to make your computer run like brand new:
1. Backup your drive to CDs or Floppys
2. Format your drive
3. Install Linux
4. Install Windows

Your computer should work like brand new: That's what I did. I thought linux would be better - so I installed it...I didn't realize that you needed the second disc to get KDE and GNOME...I got pissed and killed my computer(cleared linux an LILO), then reinstalled windows ME, it behaved like brand new...

The real Y2K issue isn't quite solved no...there is a definite problem with the year 2034.

Big deal...your clock will reset...how will that dramatically change your life?

MystikShadows wrote:The real Y2K issue isn't quite solved no...there is a definite problem with the year 2034.

please elaborate.

Bill Gates wrote:Steps to make your computer run like brand new:
1. Backup your drive to CDs or Floppys
2. Format your drive
3. Install Linux
4. Install Windows

Your computer should work like brand new: That's what I did. I thought linux would be better - so I installed it...I didn't realize that you needed the second disc to get KDE and GNOME...I got pissed and killed my computer(cleared linux an LILO), then reinstalled windows ME, it behaved like brand new...

We are talking about a 9gb harddrive, of which only 1.5gb remain, and there is no CD Burner on it.

I'm getting a new comp, this one isn't totaly mine so, any money I put in it will be useless.... Tho, after I get a new one, I'll be sure to run these by my dad....

I think he means to install Windows over linux, so you only have windows...