The Software Bug Diplomacy: Fun Story

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