DOES anyone remember the Millennium Bug?

It was the so-called computer glitch that meant the age of technology would end on January 1, 2000, and we would all be plunged into a 21st century dark age - a real-life version of the 1970s children's television series The Changes.

A lot of IT consultants made a lot of money advising businesses and individuals how to make their computer system Y2K- compliant.

And what happened when the clock struck twelve to usher in a new millennium?

Well, nothing actually.

Our computers still worked, the lights still came on, and those people who had fled to live in mountain caves with a supply of tinned food looked a bit daft.

But now, after 14 years of digital calm, it appears there is another potential computer armageddon on the horizon.

This time it is what is known as the Year 2038 Problem.

This, it seems, is an issue that could affect any bit of software that uses a 32-bit integer system.

You'll have to bear with me for a few paragraphs.

The problems stems from 32-bit systems using four bytes of memory, and the standard four-byte format assumes that time started on January 1, 1970. The upper limit of numbers a 32-bit system can store is 2,147,483,647.

And at a little after 3am on January 19, 2038, (03.14.07, to be precise) exactly 2,147,483,647 seconds will have passed since January 1, 1970, and for software using a 32-bit system it will be the end of time.

Or something like that.

Now there have been plenty of advances in software over the years, and most computers since 2012 do not run off 32-bit systems.

But there will probably be plenty of 32-bit systems floating around in 2038.

Will the world collapse in the early hours of January 19, 2038? Of course it won't - just as it didn't in 2000. But, again, there will be plenty of experts who will make a packet from fixing the problem.

But just imagine if computers did pack in 24 years from now.

How would we send our friends pictures of the meals we are eating? How would we invite them to 'like' videos of skateboarding dogs?

What would MPs do when they got bored in committee meetings?

There'd be no Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram. There'd be no messages from someone in Nigeria offering you £25 million. And there would be no computers that crash just after you've finished writing a 500-word opinion column (this sentence may contain a clue to the inspiration behind this week's column).

It doesn't sound too bad, does it? Roll on 2038, I say.

(blob) There will be no Editor's Chair next week as the Argus will not be publishing on Christmas Day. So I'll take this opportunity to wish all of our readers a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.