Year 2000 Bug

[Bill Dixon <bdixon@NDE4.NDE.STATE.NE.US>]

Greetings:
     A question to the group as this seems strange enough to be
true and something that could be of interest to all.
     Is the following a bonafide article and if so are the
consequences as bad as so stated?


BUG THREAT NO JOKE
(Denver Post article reprinted from The Detroit News-Jan 1.95)
     At midnight on the last day of 1999, the clocks on computers
will roll over from "99" to "00."  That simple step, computer
scientists say, will activate a significate number of the world's
45,000 corporate mainframes.
     Experts say the vulnerable computers serve Fortune 500
giants and huge government departments, universities, hospitals,
foundations, charity organizations, labor unions and auto
suppliers.
     "The potential is devastating," said Ron Rudman, of
Electronic Data systems, a subsidiary that manages all of General
Motors' computer systems.  But, he said, "the effects are quite
manageable - if you decide to confront the problem squarely and
give yourself enough time to deal with it.
     Each system must be inspected to determine its
vulnerability, he said.  That could cost a Fortune 500 company
$100 million.
     The year 2000 bug is a short-cut programmers wrote when
computers debuted.  To save memory space, they coded the year
using the last two digits - say "64" for 1964.
     Experts say, computers will think "00" means 1900 and will
go into digital paralysis or spew nonsense.
     High on the bug's hit list are programs that calculate
elapsed time between dates.
     Say you charge $15 on your Visa Dec. 15, 1999, and the bill
is calculated on Jan. 3, 2000, said Paul Robinson, a Maryland
software developer.  The computer could bill you for 99 years of
compound interest.

Sorry if the above is redundant.  It sounds interesting and will
surely cause a lot of head scratching if true.

Bill Dixon                 Chadron High School Media
Chadron, Ne. 69337       bdixon@nde4.nde.state.ne.us