A Lazy Fix 20 Years Ago Means the Y2K Bug Is Taking Down Computers Now

[Fansome]

A Lazy Fix 20 Years Ago Means the Y2K Bug Is Taking Down Computers Now
New Scientist
Chris Stokel-Walker
January 7, 2020

A glitch connected to the Y2K bug addressed two decades ago is currently crashing payment systems and computers, due to a poor fix. Coders had to fix the Y2K bug either by completely rewriting their code or using a windowing technique, which would treat all dates from 00 to 20 as from the 2000s, rather than the 1900s. Programmers opted for 1920 to 2020 as their standard window because many coding languages and systems manage dates and times as seconds from 1970/01/01, with the expectation that the windowed systems would be obsolete by 2020. The windowed systems have now rolled back to 1920, giving rise to the Y2020 bug. Problems attributed to Y2020 include cash registers from manufacturer Novitus that cannot print receipts, and a professional wrestling video game that stopped working on Jan. 1, 2020.

[Pigmeat]

Sorry about your rasslin' game, Al. Could you take up pickle ball to occupy your spare time?

[Josh]

And if that wasn't enough;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

[a417]

Yeah, but the 2038 problem was brought to mainstream light around the time that the y2k bug started getting notoriety, and the people who are actively maintaining systems that can be affected by the 2038 problem are well aware that they are down to under 20 years to fix the problem. :-)

[Pigmeat]

It depends on whether they're lucid. I'll be wearing Depends by then and yelling at kids to get off my lawn. I can't be expected stop the planes from falling from the skies again.

The beauty of the singularity in diapers, just like I always imagined.

[JimIO]

I'm OK with kids playing on the lawn...   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_2D8Eo15wE

~

[Josh]

something about "yer stinkin mama" seems fitting here