Re: TECH: computer clocks in 2000

["Brig C. McCoy" <BRIGC@WORLD.STD.COM>]

At 09:43 AM 3/9/97 +0600, Nancy Cowal wrote:
>We've been getting dire messages from our district office about the
>approach of the millennium and problems with existing computers not
>being able to deal with dates after 1999, causing lost of data and other
>horrors. They say it will be very expensive to rectify the situation.
>Anybody have a handle on this? Is it true or is it hype?
For folks using personal computers, the Year 2000 (or Y2K) problem is very,
very overblown.

As a quick recap, the problem relates to the fact that with early computers
storage space was at a premium. Because of this, programmers used two
digits to record the year. This worked really well... for the most part.
There were stories every year or two about the notice sent to the parents
of Jane Doe advising them that she was supposed to start kindergarten this
year... despite the fact she's really 105!

Anyway, about six months ago the media finally discovered the Y2K problem
and have been firing off half-informed, alarmist messages ever since.

Big corporations and states are currently scrambling to modify their
software programs so the software will use four digits for the year instead
of two... setting us up for problems in the year 10,000 I guess, but that's
another story. In truth, the fixes for Y2K aren't very difficult, they just
take time to read through the existing software code and put them into the
right places.

Anyway, as a computer user at school, work, or home you probably have
nothing to worry about in respect to your personal computer. The only
concern would be if you use your personal computer to log into an older
machine which hasn't been fixed.

For more details on this, there are a couple pretty decent web sites:

For management types, check out <http://www.y2k.com>.

For folks interested from the technical side, with some general background
information, check out <http://www.year2000.com>.

...brig

--
Brig C. McCoy                    - Automation Consultant
Southeast Kansas Library System  - BRIGC@WORLD.STD.COM
218 East Madison Street          - 316 365-5136
Iola, KS  66749                  - 316 365-5137, Fax