This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Zubair Khan
Did you know, Australia once recalled its almost entire embassy staff back from Russia ✈️
Not because of any diplomatic issues, but because of a software issue 👇
...
The year was 1999
There was a lot of panic and fear because of the Y2K bug 🪲
It was being speculated that the world would come to a stand still 🌑
The computers will break, the systems will stop running and so on 🌏
The major fear was for the
banking system 🏦
nuclear plants ☢️
airlines industry ✈️ and
communication systems 📡
...
If you are not aware, the problem of the Y2K bug was:
During early development of computer systems, memory space was super costly 💾
The scientists wanted the most efficient use of the available memory 💽
One of the method they used was...
For the Date & Time system they used the last two digits of the year instead of total four digits 🗓️
So, they entered 70 instead of 1970
But when the year 1999 approached...
Many feared that after 11:59 PM on 31st December 1999 the computer will increment the year by 1 and...
That means 99 will become 00
And that 00 can be interpreted as 1900 instead of 2000
If that happened, then of course the fear was real 😨
Makes sense? Keep reading.
...
The entire world went crazy 💢
The US, the UK, Australia and others invested huge sums of money to fix the issue 💲
(The solution to the problem was fairly simple though, but more on that later)
But some countries like Italy, South Korea, Russia, didn't invest much to fix the issue
...
🪫 Due to the fear of transportation system collapse and the unavailability communication system...
🇦🇺 Australia called its almost entire 🇷🇺 Russian embassy staff back at home
But there was a twist
...
It came out that, the Y2K bug was not a major problem
All it needed was, memory space be increased to occupy four places instead of two 🤌
Apart for some minor issues worldwide, no major systems were affected
...
As a software developer, many a times a solution to a complex problem is fairly simple 🔑
Just take a break, and come back at it again 🔐
And approach it from a different perspective
...
If you happen to be working on a side idea, do check my previous post
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Zubair Khan
Zubair Khan | Sciencx (2023-04-07T18:30:00+00:00) The Software Bug Diplomacy: Fun Story. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2023/04/07/the-software-bug-diplomacy-fun-story/
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