Bits: Why the Y2K Conversion Still Matters

View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Wednesday, July 19, 2017 [For the latest updates, go to nytimes.com/bits »]( [Testing the grid at the Niagara Mohawk Power Company plant in Buffalo on Dec. 28, 1999, as part of Y2K preparations.]( Testing the grid at the Niagara Mohawk Power Company plant in Buffalo on Dec. 28, 1999, as part of Y2K preparations. Joe Traver/Reuters [Why the Y2K Conversion Still Matters]( If you’ve seen the movie [“Office Space,”]( you probably know at least a little bit about the computer industry’s Y2K conversion. Peter, the main character in the movie, had a soul-sucking job: Every day, he would sit in an office cubicle combing through old computer code, looking for a flaw that could make computers malfunction when the year turned 2000. Because older computers (pre-1990s mostly) could not store very much information, programmers at the time used two digits to represent a year. They must have figured — wrongly — that at some point all those computers would be replaced. Certainly, long before the end of the century, when the machines would have a hard time telling the difference between 1900 and 2000. To those of us allergic to repetitive tasks, it makes sense that Peter spends the movie trying not to work anymore. But in the late 1990s, companies around the world probably had tens of thousands of workers doing what Peter did — although it’s hard to say if the job was as boring as he claimed. Hundreds of billions of dollars were spent addressing the problem. And guess what? As Farhad Manjoo [writes]( it worked. Major computer problems were avoided, and even though skeptics still think the whole thing was overblown, the biggest reason for that success is most likely the urgency paid to Y2K. Farhad has an intriguing thought: The fight against climate change has a thing or two to learn from the Y2K effort. Both were nebulous threats, somewhere off in the distance. Both faced plenty of skeptics. But people got serious about Y2K and headed off a tech disaster — even if you still think it was all a bunch of baloney. — Jim Kerstetter Read More State of the Art [How Y2K Offers a Lesson for Fighting Climate Change]( By FARHAD MANJOO Some remember the computing scare as a bad joke. But the collective, worldwide effort to prevent calamity could be a model for handling global warming. ADVERTISEMENT More From The Times [A Gamer Channel’s Mission: Send the Trolls Packing]( By LAURA PARKER Misscliks, a channel on the video game streaming platform Twitch, aims to be a safe space for underrepresented gamers, with no tolerance for sexism or bullying. [Hansa Market, a Dark Web Marketplace, Bans the Sale of Fentanyl]( By NATHANIEL POPPER The synthetic opioid has been at the center of a nationwide overdose epidemic. Its ban on a popular vending site has spurred a debate on free market ideology. [Apple Names New China Head as Its Sales Fall]( By PAUL MOZUR Apple has established a position overseeing operations in China in a bid to restore sales momentum and navigate new regulations in the country. Tech We’re Using [Going Low-Tech to Solve Everyday High-Tech Problems]( By BRIAN X. CHEN What technology does our personal tech columnist use to solve readers’ everyday frustrations with gadgets, gear and apps? [Security Company Is Replacing a Mall Robot That Fell Into a Fountain to the Internet’s Delight]( By CHRISTOPHER MELE The K5 has a passing resemblance to R2-D2 — and a dash of Paul Blart, mall cop. Its creators took the online mockery in stride. Tech Tip [Shopping for New Software]( By J. D. BIERSDORFER Online app stores can be a safer and more convenient way to add programs to your computer and devices, but you may not find everything you want. HOW ARE WE DOING? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [bits_newsletter@nytimes.com](mailto:bits_newsletter@nytimes.com?subject=Bits%20Newsletter%20Feedback%20223). ADVERTISEMENT LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. WANT MORE NEWS ABOUT CALIFORNIA? Subscribe to our California Today newsletter and get the news and stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state), delivered weekday mornings. Sign up [here](. FOLLOW BITS [Twitter] [@nytimesbits]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Bits newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2017 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018