Subject: "Millennium time bomb"
From: Emanuella Giavarra (ecup.secr@dial.pipex.com)
Date: to 06 maalis 1997 - 01:01:06 EET
Dear list members,
In the Financial Times of 26 February 1997, I came accross the following
interesting announcement.
Companies are threatened by a "millenium bomb" because most old computers
record the date as only two numbers and will not be able to distinguish
between 2000 and 1900.
Unless the computers are reprogrammed in the next three years, many older
computers will on 1 January 2000 be fooled into thinking time has gone
back to 1900. This could mean, for example, that credit cards,
subscriptions or pass words will be rejected after this date.
Computing companies have estimated the global costs of reprogramming at
$500bn. Personal computers will not be effected. But systems running on
mainfraim computers from the 1970s may not be able to cope. They were not
millenium-proofed because disk space was then too scarce to accomodate
the extra two digits needed to record dates in full.
Although most large companies believe they can modify their systems in
time, they are increasingly aware of the danger posed by links to other
companies computers.
Leading industrialist are pressing in the UK for legislation to require
companies/organisations to fix the so-called "millenium bug".
Kind regards,
Emanuella Giavarra
ecup.secr@dial.pipex.com
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