Twenty years on, apparently the Y2K bug has gotten a reputation in some circles as much ado about nothing. At least to the point that articles have been commissioned to explain that, no, really, actual problems existed that needed to be solved. For those who didn’t live through it, the year 2000 represented a challenge for computer systems programmed to use only two digits to store the year to save space; turns out that knowing whether it is 1900 or 2000 can be pretty important. Billions of dollars were spent hunting for potential problems and fixing them; it was a big enough effort that at least one Hollywood movie had a plot which hinged on the fact that banks would have to test their new Y2K-compliant software.
[Read more…] about Science Corner: What If We Could Experience Counterfactuals?