Some of the computer systems in use today customarily process the year portion of any date as two digits (thus 1998 becomes 98). It is suspected that systems that employ this form of notation will ...

In the late 1990s, computer nerds (myself included) were up in arms about the Y2K problem. In brief, the issue was that many computer systems used six-digit dates (two digits each for day, month, and ...

Remember the last weeks of 1999? The air was thick with anticipation and, for many, panic. Here in Central Texas, some people were stocking up on bottled water and canned goods like the end of the ...

Imagine a world where a simple two-digit date format could potentially bring global systems to a halt. Welcome to the late 1990s, when the "Y2K bug" had everyone from techies to world leaders on edge.

ON CALL Y2K Welcome to another edition of On Call, The Register’s Friday column that shares your tech support stories. Over the holiday season we’re telling tales of the Y2K bug, and readers who spent ...

Will we party like it's 1999 again?

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

Remember the last weeks of 1999? The air was thick with anticipation and, for many, panic. Here in Central Texas, some people were stocking up on bottled water and canned goods like the end of the ...