As of 2016, the “Y2K problem” or “millennium bug” is little more than a memory for anyone who was around to see the turn of the millennium firsthand. However, back in 1999, there were concerns that it could wreak havoc on computers all over the world — and, as it turns out, Microsoft had a plan in place in case the worst fears were realized.
For the uninitiated, the “year 2000 problem” refers to the way that 20th century computers handled dates. Some early programmers had taken to representing the four-digit value of a year with only two digits, which meant that when the millennium came around, these systems would confuse the year 2000 for the year 1900
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