Y2k Bug facts
While investigating facts about Y2k Bug, I found out little known, but curios details like:
The Y2K Bug only seemed like hype because it actually got fixed ahead of time: "Worldwide, $308 billion ($422 billion [today]) was estimated to have been spent on Y2K remediation." Yikes!
NASA spacecraft 'Deep Impact' is lost in space, as NASA lost communication with it due to a similar problem to the Y2K bug. It was lost exactly 2^32 seconds after January 1st, 2000 - the most likely reason being that the time tracker onboard had overflowed.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 17 of the best facts about Y2k Bug I managed to collect.
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Y2K computer bug turned teen criminals into senior citizens. Reports of sexual assault on an 83 year old woman by an 80 year old man, and two missing 'youths' of ages 83 and 84 were among the flawed reports given by the faulty system, which caused the system to read year 2000 as year 1900.
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In 2013 we lost contact with the Deep Impact spacecraft due to a Y2k bug, even though it wasn't launched until 2005.
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Preparations for Y2K computer bug costed world US$300 billion ($417 billion today)
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The 2038 bug (Year of 2038), the next Y2K bug that will reset any 32-bit systems dates back to 1901
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64-bit systems will encounter their Y2K-like bug on Sunday, 4 December 292,277,026,596.
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In Sheffield, United Kingdom, incorrect Down syndrome test results were sent to 153 pregnant women and two abortions were carried out as a direct result of a Y2K bug. Four babies with Down syndrome were also born to mothers who had been told they were in the low risk group.
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At 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038 we will face the 'Y2K bug' again
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How the modernisation of IT infrastructures, and resilience testing with system redundancies developed in anticipation of the Millenium bug / Y2K (that never came), resulted in near full restoration of online services within 24 hours of the 9/11 attacks.
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The American government kept working on the Y2K Bug 17 years after it had happened.
What is true about y2k bug?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
Like the Y2K bug, a Unix bug called the "Year 2038 Problem" exists where computers cannot encode times after 19 January 2038, 3:14 UTC - suggesting that half the world's computers/devices will crash on or before that date. There is currently no universal solution for the Year 2038 Problem.
Air travel was practically unaffected on January 1, 2000, even though mass panic about the Y2K bug was at its height. - source
Due to the Y2K bug, a New York video rental store computer charged a customer $91,250 for their movie being returned 100 years late. Instead of having to pay the fine, customer was offered a free rental.
Due to the Y2K bug, two babies were unfortunately aborted because the mothers received incorrect test results that their babies had down syndrome. - source
