What is Y2K? The year 2000 trouble, also referred to as the Y2K crisis, the millennium bug, or the Y2K glitch; refers to worldwide events related to the storage and formatting of computer data for dates within and before the year 2000. Although some people call it the Y2K Problem, others believe it to be a term for something completely different, possibly the Y2K Bug.
Some computer programmers have labeled this worldwide problem as the Y2K Bug. According to these speculations, there are at least two reasons behind the widespread computer programming shortcut reduction. One reason for the shortening of the typing shortcuts is that the computer operating systems are programmed to recognize the millennium date of 1st January, as the worldwide normal date, and to use this date in all aspects of the computer programs. This date is recognized by most other computer programs as well. The second reason is that computer programs are being designed with the knowledge that the user may not survive the computer crash or other disastrous consequences that may result from an accidental loss of power, because the date is supposed to be within their memory at least, and will not be a factor thereafter.
There are many theories on the causes and consequences of the Y2K bug. Some people say it is the fault of computer hardware. Some say it is the fault of software. Still others say it is all the fault of the UNIX date system. Regardless of what the Y2K Bug is called, there is one certainty about its existence, and that is a computer with the installed Windows operating system.
The Y2K Bug is an acronym for the date, which happens to be in the far future. It also happens to have two digits after it. The date, which is believed to be a mistake made by an outside source, has caused a panic to those computer systems which are using the now obsolete millennium date as the date stamp for all the computer programs they require to run. Many computer users believe that their systems will no longer be able to operate unless the Y2K Date is corrected.
Most of the computer systems that have the y2k bug have been built before the millennium, and therefore are not compatible with the new millennium computer systems. But they are also not compatible with the older versions of Windows, which happen to be the operating systems upon which the newer computer systems are based. In other words, the older computers are not Y2K compatible with the newer ones. All the computer systems and programs must work smoothly together if anyone is going to make their systems run correctly. Because of the Y2K date, however, some users who have their systems set up for the new millennium have discovered that the computer programs do not run correctly, although everything else seems to be working fine. Users of these older systems wonder why this bug has happened.
There is no real answer to what the Y2K is, but experts on the matter have come up with a list of potential causes. One possibility is that the date which caused the Y2K bug was introduced so that Microsoft could introduce a more widespread computer programming shortcut that would make it easier for the company to make its software programs more user friendly. This new widespread computer programming shortcut would have allowed Microsoft to put out a new version of its operating system every two years. If this was the reason for the Y2K bug then it would be possible for a person to get the new program for free, or for very little money.
Another possibility is that the reason the date came about was to confuse people who were using spreadsheets to make their tax return calculations. The date change might also have been caused by someone who wanted to test whether a widely distributed computer programming shortcut existed. By testing this new shortcut, they hoped to find if it were possible to gain an edge over other people by coding in a specific date, and then use this code to multiply the gains in stock market investments made during the day. The testing went well and this spread into the world of spreadsheets and made it possible for the future date change to come about.
One of the most common theories as to what the cause of the “y2k” is has to do with shiny materials which are being used in modern times more than they have in any other time in history. Materials such as plastic and metal can crack under certain conditions, which would let the air escape and cause the plastic to melt and appear like a crack. Shiny materials such as rice paper and plastic can also appear to break down so they are not used as much in modern times, but if you look back at the time before this fashion became popular, they were still used for everything from paper cups to clothing.