
With a New Year looming, an NPR Y2K review. (Alas, no mention of T2G in 2038.) @dashdashado https://www.npr.org/2024/12/28/nx-s1-5116271/y2k-year-2000-preparations

Arthur Olson wrote:
With a New Year looming, an NPR Y2K review. https://www.npr.org/2024/12/28/nx-s1-5116271/y2k-year-2000-preparations
The myth that the Y2K problem was overblown or a fantasy, or somehow just “resolved itself,” has only gained traction in the past quarter century. It really did take significant developer effort to prevent major problems in a wide variety of systems. CNN had an excellent article about this some years ago, but the lesson is quickly being forgotten. The only aspect of Y2K that was overblown (other than scare stories, like airplanes falling out of the sky) was the surge in Y2K certifications and liability statements, even for software that had nothing to do with dates—a novel opportunity for attorneys to get rich. Brian Inglis wrote:
Could we please all make a New Year's resolution to stop people from reviving two digit year formats that are starting to reappear, making it impossible to figure out some intended dates
Yes. This. Unfortunately, because humans can usually figure out most dates with two-digit years, and because many of those humans no longer believe Y2K was a real problem, persuading the public to give up two-digit years in computer usage will be a challenge. Since the actual Y2K software problem, being related to two-digit years, was really about the change in century and not the millennium, we (or our progeny) are well on our way to repeating it 75 years from now. -- Doug Ewell, CC, ALB | Lakewood, CO, US | ewellic.org

On 2024-12-31 13:17, Doug Ewell via tz wrote:
Arthur Olson wrote:
With a New Year looming, an NPR Y2K review. https://www.npr.org/2024/12/28/nx-s1-5116271/y2k-year-2000-preparations
The myth that the Y2K problem was overblown or a fantasy, or somehow just “resolved itself,” has only gained traction in the past quarter century. It really did take significant developer effort to prevent major problems in a wide variety of systems. CNN had an excellent article about this some years ago, but the lesson is quickly being forgotten.
The only aspect of Y2K that was overblown (other than scare stories, like airplanes falling out of the sky) was the surge in Y2K certifications and liability statements, even for software that had nothing to do with dates—a novel opportunity for attorneys to get rich.
Brian Inglis wrote:
Could we please all make a New Year's resolution to stop people from reviving two digit year formats that are starting to reappear, making it impossible to figure out some intended dates
Yes. This.
Unfortunately, because humans can usually figure out most dates with two-digit years, and because many of those humans no longer believe Y2K was a real problem, persuading the public to give up two-digit years in computer usage will be a challenge.
Here in Canada, CA(UK)/FR/US/MX(ES) date usage appears to be random, depending on wherever they picked up their software, whether it *can* be localized, and whether it *was* localized. [In the best BOFH tradition, I customize %c/%x/%X and remove the %P/%p strings as well as those above from my en-CA localizations, to check software.] Many US multinationals, their application programmers, and software providers appear to be clueless about such matters, and the expectations of the majority of the world, the other ~7.7B. [Dealing with such considerations often appears to be given to some subsidiary in CA/UK/Nordic where English is common.]
Since the actual Y2K software problem, being related to two-digit years, was really about the change in century and not the millennium, we (or our progeny) are well on our way to repeating it 75 years from now.
Or possibly in 13 years and 18 days, or sooner if they deal with multi-year durations, if they have not updated functions, libraries, or applications to handle later times or longer periods. *They* can always save some space and time by doing it better and faster *themselves*! Look around for GPS receiver issues - week rollover bug reports - about every 256 weeks, or firmware updates just prior to those dates, to delay the next failure - about 4 years 4 weeks from now in GPS week 2560 cycle 2 week%1K 512 DoY 28 MJD 62164 ;^> -- Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada La perfection est atteinte Perfection is achieved non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter not when there is no more to add mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer but when there is no more to cut -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
participants (3)
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Arthur Olson
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Brian Inglis
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Doug Ewell