Theos-Talk Archives (June 1998 Message tt00236)

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> From: "Visanu Sirish" <megabeet@aol.com>
>
> How would the 2000 snafu, sometimes called the Millenium Bug, affect our
> individual hard drives? Web browers, perhaps, but a hard drive on
someone's
> PC? I thought it would just affect big main frames in banks, government
> agencies ( Social Security Administration, the IRS, etc), traffic
controllers,
> large corporations, etc. I'm not a computer nerd so this will have to be
> explained to me.
>

Here's how it can affect you.  Any software product that you run, has the
potential of not handling the 1999-to-2000 transition properly.  This means
any piece of software on your PC, the software that lets you buy a movie on
Primestar, the software that controls the microcircuitry in your car, the
software that on the airplane that logs the most recent service date and
monitors sensors, etc. etc.   Now software engineers and programmers have
known the year 2000, but for various reasons (admittedly short-sighted)
data and programs use the convient 2-digit year representation rather than
a 4-digit year.  My division is currently restructuring all its data and
will rewrite most of our software because none of the existing pieces are
Y2000 compliant.
I've heard that Luftansa and other major airlines plan to cancel flights
from on 12/31/99 and 01/01/00 simply because the risk for on-board
computers are worse those days.



Pam
pgiese@snd.softfarm.com

"Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light..."