The coming millenium is significant in more ways than one. People regard the year 2000 as the time when great things will occur. Our country;s leaders, for instance, hope for the unlikely progress of the Philippines. Millenarins consider it to be the end of the owlrd. Although these have raised concerns among many people, neither of them have attracted more concern than the dreaded Millenium bug.
We have been hearing about the Millenium Bug for a long time now. What really is the Millenium Bug? What causes it? Why does it happen? And what steps can be taken to prevent this from happening? These are just some of the grequently asked questions (FAQs) that have been raised about the so-called Millenium Bug (a.k.a The Year 2000 problem, a.k.a. Y2K).
When the clock strikes midnight on January 01,2000, the Y2K problem will begine affecting most computers around the world. In fact, the problem has already started. People whose credit cards are due to expire n 2000+ have had their credit cards rejected. Some prisoners have been given early parole because of computer malfunction. These are only some of the problems realized. More problems will occur at January 1, 2000.
The Millennium Bug is a major concern for most businesses and organizations that rely on date-dependent computer systems. Experts have expressed concern that date-sensitive calculations based on erroneous data will cause widespread system failure -- affecting financial transactions, investments, legal commitments and record-keeping
What really causes this problem?
Until recently, the date fields of most computers and software were programmed to operate using a six-digit date field (such as, YY/MM/DD), using only two digits to represent a year. This kind of notation for the date would be adequate only up to the year 2000. 010100 would be interpreted by the computer as January 1,1900( instead of Jan. 1,2000 )
thus any date-sensitive calculations would causes computers to crash. Those programming mainframes 20 to 30 years ago probably gave little thought to the problems that would arise at the end of the century. Two-digit date fields occupied less storage space and were faster to program and process. As a result, these two-digit date codes exist in most programming languages. Moreover, programming practices are not standardized, so there is no single method to locate and correct date fields in different programs and systems. Such inconsistencies may require line-by-line data correction, to address the Year 2000 Problem
To what extent will it affect us? Here are just a few effects of the Y2K bug
- Communications: Telephone bills might reach a hundred fold due to error in duration of use.
- Automated jobs: ATM machines would stack up. If it resets to a date before you applied for an account it may not "know" you. Medicines could "expire" right after it was made or vice versa, same might occur to canned foods.
- Travel: Aircraft that is sent on year 2000 might be mixed up with recorded flights in the passed years.
Traffic lights would display erratic timing.
- The effect of the Y2K bug on home systems is minimal compared to it's effect on large scale companies. The bug on the date would mostly affect those home users relying heavily date-dependent programs.
Is there any solution for this BUG?
Several technical solutions have been proposed to correct the problem. Some have expanding two-digit codes to four digits. Others have proposed implementing that can logically determine whether a two-digit date represents a late 20th century or 21st century date. Software applications to correct the problem are already on the market, more are being developed. The appropriate technical solution must be tailored to an organization's particular systems and software.
Eliminating the Millennium Bug will be time-consuming and expensive. According to the Gartner Group, a research firm, it will cost $300 billion to $600 billion worldwide to correct the problem. The cost in the United States alone is estimated to be $50 billion to $75 billion. Under the Gartner Group's projections, it will cost about $1 per line of code to fix the problem. A medium-size company running 8,000 programs with 1,500 lines of code per program would need to spend about $4 million to upgrade its systems. Large corporations may need to expend $50 million to $100 million and thousands of working days per corporation to make their systems millennium-compliant.
What if you are just a common PC user, should you consider upgrading to a newer "Millenium Bug-Immune computer?" The answer is no, first it would cause too much, and if you are not relying on software that uses dates extensively, you would find this bug at most annoying( not lethal ).
