The Y2K Bug

On January 1st, 2000, at approximately 12:00 midnight, I walked into my dad's office at the church building and looked at the clock on the system tray of his computer. "12:00 AM," it said. I was not surprised. I figured that the Y2K bug wasn't real, and even if it was, who cares? Let's just all go out and be farmers and raise our own food! Who needs computers anyway?

Many people in the United States thought that all computers would crash on the strike of twelve that night. Who would've thought the computers could figure out on their own what came after 1999? Oh ye of little faith. Even if the PC's did goof up on the time, why would that kill the computers?

There was one program on our computer that got confused, showing the year as something like "19100." However, the game still worked perfectly!

Although for many, the "Y2K Bug" was a computer disease, for me, it is something different. Sadly, at the stroke of twelve, when 1999 changed to 2000, many people truly believed that they were entering a new millennium. What a lack of knowledge! Don't you know the new millennium began in 2001? But when were the "millennium celebrations" held? In 2000. At least the argument did come up at one point—but did anyone believe? Not many. In case you are one of those poor souls who thought the new millennium started in 2000, please consider the following evidence:

When did we start counting the years with AD (anno domini)? Year 1, of course. A thousand years later, it was year 1000. When did the second millennium start? Well, 1000 was the last year of the first millennium, so 1001 was the first year of the second millennium. Now let's go forward 1,000 years. 1001 was the first year, so bring it 999 years more to make it a thousand. Now what do you get? 2000! Year 2000 was the last year of the second millennium. Thus, the third millennium started with year 2001!

Do you believe me yet? If you didn't get that the first time, please feel free to read it again. I hope you realize now that so many people were mistaken when they thought the new millennium and the 21st century came on New Year's Day 2000.

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