Is the Millenium Bug really a problem?
MARCH 16, 1998: As the year 2000 approaches, nowhere has Millennium Fever hit harder than in the computer industry. While mindless news anchors and talk-show hosts babble on about the consequences of owning a personal computer when Old Man 1999 turns over his mantle to Baby New Year 2000, it is important to remember that very few of them really know what they’re talking about. It’s known as the Year 2000 Bug, the Millennium Bug, Y2K, and by any number of other names. What it means is something up for debate. Here’s the theory: Computer engineers in the 1960s and 1970s solved problems as many do today, one issue at a time. When you’re working with experimental technology and ways to improve it, there’s rarely time or place to do any crystal-ball gazing and determine what future problems your current actions may cause. When developers produced much of the hardware and software in use by such long-standing institutions as banks, no one thought about storing the current year as anything bu
