The Millennium Bug :: Essays Papers

The Millennium Bug The millennial fair weather will first rise over human civilization in the indep destinationent republic of Kirbati, a group of thirty low equivocation coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. Kirbati straddles the equator and the International Dateline halfway among Hawaii and Australia. For those who live in a world that relies on satellites, air, school and ground transportation, manufacturing plants, electricity, heat, telephone, or TV, when the calendar clicks 99 to 00, we will experience a true millennial shift (Peterson).As the sun moves westward on January 1, 2000 and the date shifts silently within millions of computerized systems, we will begin to experience our computer dependent world in a new way. At the nip of midnight, the new millennium heralds the greatest challenge to modern society that we scram yet to face as a planetary community. Whether we experience this as chaos or social transformation will be influenced by what we do immediate ly.What is theY2K (Year 2000) occupation? When computer systems were built in the 1960s and 1970s computer hardware was too expensive. To reduce costs, programmers looked for ways to reduce entropy storage requirements. It was common for year to be stored in databases in dickens digit fields rather than four digits. Why is this a problem now? The systems built during this period were not very user friendly, only the computers were most critical to business operations. Because these systems of the 1960s and 1970s were not knowing to run in multiple centuries, most will either arrive at incorrect information or simply fail at the end of the century. It may not sound like overmuch effort to altering these machines, but in fact, it involves a great deal of time and expense. The Gartner Group, a respected information technology researcher, estimates that it will cost as much as $600 billion worldwide. If the problem is not addressed in time, the consequences could be catas trophic.There is currently widespread awareness that Y2K involves more than the failure of an various(prenominal)s personal computer, or an incorrect date in a spreadsheet. It is now widely understood that Y2K could affect the lives of individuals, but exactly in what manner is unknown (Associated P 1). Today computers are used to execute most mechanical equipment that affects every aspect of our lives.