The Dreaded Year 2000 Problem

Let me explain...

Back when computer systems were just being created and the world was a gentler place, the programmers made a little mistake. They expressed year fields in their programs as only the last two digits. I don't know if they assumed we would always be in the 1900s or if they just hoped they would be dead by the time the year 2000 came around.

So what is the Year 2000 Problem?

Well, what it basically comes down to is that when it becomes the year 2000, many computer systems will roll over. In other words, "99" will become "00". But the computer will still think it is the 1900s, so it will think it is 1900, when it is really a century later!

I love my internship at EDS, even though it is just for the summer, because I am working on something that will not happen again in our lifetimes and, if we do a good job, will hopefully never happen again at all!

Year 2000 links :

• Y2k (y2k means "year 2000") Times - a year 2000 newspaper
• EDS CIO Services 2000 - has a countdown to the year 2000 to the minute
• Sorry, Our Computers are Down! The Year 2000 Crisis
• The Year 2000 Problem - the millennium bug
• Year 2000 Problem
• The Year 2000 Problem - how it will affect a normal person

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