The Year 2000 Problem (Y2K):

Much hype has been generated about the Year 2000 Problem (Y2K). Most people do not actually know what the problem is. The problem was created in the mid-1960's that programmers decided to save what was then expensive memory by changing the date from 4-digit to 2-digit. That means that if the year was 1962 the computer would read it as 62. The problem comes when we approach the turn of the century, when the date changes from 1999 to 2000 the computer will read it as 00 and not 2000. It will think that it is 1900 instead of 2000 and then as Jan 1st 1900 was a Friday and Jan 1st 2000 is a Sunday the computer will not know what to do and will go haywire and perform date related calculations incorrectly.

The most affected part of the applications of computers is the financial sector. There are many date related operations in this sector like dues, statements, etc. The whole system will go haywire. Multinational companies will also be affected greatly. The other sector that is affected is the defence sector. If a defence system is totally automated it will be completely shutdown and will not function until the problem is fixed. The industrial powers have announced projects ranging from $ 200 million (UK) to $34.5 Billion (USA) to battle this problem.

The risk to us normal PC users is very low. At most our PC will hang at the turn of the date. Most of the systems shipped from 1980 onwards are Y2K compliant so we havenothing to worry about. Most of the projects in the finance sector have been completed and almost all of the banks are going to be fully equipped for Y2K by July 1999.

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