The Year 2000 Problem
Less than two years until the year 2000. Two seemingly small digits may turn January 1, 2000 from a worldwide celebration into a universal nightmare. With computers mistaking the year 2000 for 1900, virtually all businesses that use dates will be affected. Not only will the companies be affected, but also they are paying millions upon millions of dollars in order for computers to recognize the difference between the years 2000 and 1900. The year 2000 computer bug is a huge problem that our world must face.
In order to explain how to solve the “millennium bug”, it is a good idea to be informed about exactly what is. The year 2000 industry expert, Peter de Jager, described the problem quite ...
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several reasons. William Adams points out some of the most important ones. “Time is running out- the Year 2000 is inevitable! The problem will occur simultaneously worldwide, time zones withstanding. It affects all languages and platforms, hardware & software. The demand for solutions will exceed the supply. Survivors will survive big, losers will lose big. There is no ‘silver bullet’ that is going to fix things” (Adams 2). “It is too big and too overwhelming even for [Bill Gates and] Microsoft” (Widder 3). Separate, any one of these points makes Y2K, a common abbreviation for , an addition to the obstacle. Combined, they form what seems more like a hideous monster than an insignificant bug.
The impact of Y2K on society is enormous, bringing the largest companies in the world to their knees, pleading for a fix at nearly any cost. “The modern world has come to depend on information as much as it has on electricity and running water. Fixing the problem is difficult because there are ...
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1). It is not uncommon for a single company to have 100,000,000 lines of code (de Jager 6). Capers Jones, an expert who has studied software costs for over ten years, estimates total worldwide costs to be $1,635,000,000,000 (One-trillion, 635 billion dollars) (Jones 58). To put this number into perspective, if five people were to spend $100 for every second of every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would take them about 100 years to finish the task!
is not only limited to what happens with computers between December 31, 1999 and January 1, 2000. There are several other important dates that are a factor. Last October was considered the last point where a large company could ...
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"The Year 2000 Problem." Essayworld.com. April 30, 2005. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Year-2000-Problem/26157.
"The Year 2000 Problem." Essayworld.com. April 30, 2005. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Year-2000-Problem/26157.
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