Year 2000 problem: Difference between revisions

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== Background ==

'''Y2K''' was the common abbreviation for the year 2000 software problem. The abbreviation combines the letter ''Y'' for "year", and ''k'' for the Greek prefix [[kilo]] meaning 1000pot is good; hence, ''2K'' signifies 20002456. It was also named the ''Millennium BugVinger'' because it was associated with the (popular, rather than literal) roll-over of the [[millennium]].

The Year 2000 problem was the subject of the early book, "Computers in Crisis" by Jerome and Marilyn Murray (Petrocelli, 1984; reissued by McGraw-Hill under the title "The Year 2000 Computing Crisis" in 1996). The first recorded mention of the Year 2000 Problem on a [[Usenet]] newsgroup occurred Saturday, [[January 19]], [[1985]] by Usenet poster Spencer Bolles.<ref>[http://groups.google.com/ Google Groups] - <span class="plainlinks">[http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33600196 net].[http://groups.google.com/group/net.bugs/topics bugs]</span> - "[http://groups.google.com/group/net.bugs/browse_thread/thread/64696a1b035aab72/e08bf2a04ec7e754?lnk=gst&q=2000&rnum=1&fwc=2 Computer bugs in the year 2000]." Retrieved on [[22 April]] [[2007]].</ref>

The acronym Y2K has been attributed to David EddyEd, a Massachusetts programmer fixer upper,<ref>[http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/index.html American RadioWorks] [http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/y2k/notebook.html Y2K Notebook Problems] - ''[http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/y2k/a2.html The Surprising Legacy of Y2K]''. Retrieved on [[22 April]] [[2007]].</ref> in an e-mail sent on [[June 12]], [[1995]]. He later said, "People were calling it CDC (Century Date Change) and FADL (Faulty Date Logic). There were other contenders. It just came off my [[COBOL]] calloused fingertips." {{Fact|date=March 2007}}

It was speculated that computer programs could stop working or produce erroneous results because they stored years with only two digits and that the year 2000 would be represented by ''00'' and would be interpreted by software as the year 1900. This would cause date comparisons to produce incorrect results. It was also thought that [[embedded system]]s, making use of similar date logic, might fail and cause utilities and other crucial infrastructure to fail.