Y2K...bear with me, please

Factual Questions
1

Considering the overwhelming hysteria the supposed Y2K bug caused in 1999, the fact that I’ve heard virtually nothing about it in 2000 puzzles me.

Several months ago, a news report stated that there might be some cause for concern later in the year…around November, IIRC. Nothing major, just some malfunctions in satellites, scientific equipment, what have you. Well, the year’s almost over, and there’s been no word of malfunctions, shutdowns, or any type of problem associated with Y2K.

Granted, the media is notoriously lousy in following up stories, but is it really true that this bug, which some believed would shut down the whole country, is completely whipped? Somehow, I doubt that anything with so much potential for chaos would just go away, especially since hardly anybody even recognized the problem before 1997. What am I missing, if anything?

2

Whatever Happened to the Y2K bug?

I haven’t heard anything about a potential problem late this year. There are some future problems for UNIX and a couple of other operating systems: they store the dates based on a fixed number in a register that will overflow (or reset to zero) in a few years. (One assumes that the various hardware/software manufacturers will address the issue by then.)

3

The potential problems for UNIX and clones (Linux etc.) won’t hit until 2038, so there’s plenty of time to deal with that problem. I believe I’ve heard of a fairly obscure OS that won’t be able to handle the rollover to 2003 as things currently stand, but I don’t remember any details.