Cascade failure: an inside look at the Y2K bug - tech podcast

On 31 December 1999, the unknowns of Y2K - or, the millennium bug - made for an uncertain New Years Eve. This week, we explore the plausibility of a mass technology failure with Martyn Thomas CBE., IT professor at Gresham College

During the final hours of the year 1999, as crowds of tens of thousands gathered in city centres to ring in the new year, Martyn Thomas filled his bathtub with cold water and stocked up on food and supplies. He was one of many who feared that the "millennium bug" would cause disaster - that there would be widespread computer failure because so many programmers had represented each year with just two digits.