2 Digit Years On The Date example essay topic

Y 2 K 4/19/99 Y 2 K According to some individuals, the end of the world is coming. The Y 2 K bug has been exaggerated so much that people are moving to Montana with 5 years of food supply. Most people don t even know why to panic, but the media is hyping this as Armageddon. The year 2000 problem (Y 2 K, Millennium Bug, Millennium Virus) came about due to programming practices involving the use of 6 digit dates (dd / mm /yy) vs. 8 digit dates (dd / mm / ). Thus, any computer program which deals with 6 dates is susceptible to theY 2 K problem. The Y 2 K problem involves two key date issues: Date mathematics, and systems that check the date.

For years businesses have used date math to compute things such as aging schedules, due dates, past due accounts, etc. Many computer application snow support the use of date mathematics (Lotus 1-2-3, MS-Excel, MS-Access, etc.) These applications all work by using a base year (often Jan 01, 1900) as a starting point and then tracking the date and time numerically from that point (how much time has elapsed since Jan 01.1900). Thus, a time might be stated as a fractional component of the day integer (35927.63 + May 12, 1998, 3: 08 p.m. based ones-Excel). This means that to computer the difference in today and when a bill was incurred would indicate how old a debt was (e.g. 45 days = past due). So, whenthe year 2000 comes into play using a 6 digit date we would end up with situations like Jan 01, 00 - May 12, 1998. If this is misinterpreted by a computer system as 1900 then the calculation will result in a large negative number (in this case -35,926).

This number may or may not be a problem the computer application can deal with. It is possible that this number will be made intothe absolute value (the negative sign is dropped if no space is reserved to hold it) which will cause even more confusion. Imagine if your debt went from 22 days old to 35,926 says old. The past due notice would give your surprise. In old COBOL (a programming language that is still in widespread use) dealing with date math is even more complicated. Dates in COBOL are typically stored in three different locations (a month, a day, and a year).

The year is often stored as 2 digits to save space and simplify output problems with pre-printed forms. Income cases, COBOL programs were written with 4 digit dates and 1900 is subtracted from the date to generate the form (1981-1900 = 81) so that the form can look like 1981 when it is generated. This will cause problem since 2001-1900 = 101 instead of 01. In other cases where a 6 digit date was used, the problem i seven worse since there is no clear indication of which date we are talking with. Imagine a COBOL program that deals with county record to record births and deaths. If all the dates are stored as 6 digits soon you will have records which say something like 09/03/63.

Now suppose I live to be a hundred years old, my birth is recorded as 09/03/63 and if I die on my birthday 100 years later my death would be 09/03/63. A casual observer might interpret this as me dying at birth or who knows what. Thus, the main problem of Y 2 K is the problem of incorrect results when date mathematics are conducted. Most companies are working to correct these problems in their COBOL programs and most current micro computer applications already have builtin fixes. The second type of problem involves systems t hatcheck the date for some purpose to determine if a validdate is being used. An example might be a credit card expiration date.

If the program that checks this whenthe card is scanned is very simple it might just say, Is today greater than the expiration date. Thus, 01/01/99 is greater than 01/01/00 which would result in your credit card being rejected. Another example is security system which checks to see if today is a validdate before recording an entry or exit from a building. If the 00 date is determined to be out of range or the computation is at fault the system may simply shutdown and lock all the doors. Why did programmers do this Essentially several reasons exist for this problem: saving space in memory, preprinted forms, and unexpected longevity.

Originally, computers had very small amounts of memory available and the repeated use of two extra numbers could make a significant difference on the amount of memory available so in the interests of efficiency, the seemingly redundant thousands and hundreds were dropped. Designing computer output for old systems was quite tedious and required that every variable be specifically defined. In order to make it easy to print two digit year after a preprinted 19 it was simpler tous e two digit years in the program. Since the year 2000 was a very distant date most people didn t really think about this problem until recently. Thus, a lot of programs were written in the traditional manner of using 2 digit years on the date. So now that we know what the Y 2 K bug is, we need to know how it is going to affect our lives.

No one knows for sure what will happen, but we can makes ome educated guesses. Most companies are taking steps to deal with this problem. There will likely be isolated incidences of problems (like a credit card rejected) that will quickly be identified and corrected by the institution. At home, if you make sure all of your applications and programs utilize 8 digit dates then you should experience no problems with your personal applications. Many people believe that a large number of devices that utilize PLDS (Logic Devices) will fail whenthe year 2000 rolls around since PLDS contain datesensitive code. In particular programmable devices like VCRs, Coffee Makers, Security Systems, etc. are susceptible to this type of problem.

If the PLD is datesensitive and was not set up to deal with 8 digit dates, then a number of different things may happen, 1) the device may simply fail to operate; 2) the device may report the incorrect day of the week (if it thinks it is 1900); 3) the device may fail to operate as expected (coffee maker doesn t come on in the morning). Thus, there is the potential for a lot of problems with this typeof thing but I don t think any of it is earth shattering (although if my coffee maker stops working there is going to be a serious problem). The other side of the coin is that PLD devices a reused in large production systems that manage thing slike power plants and food processing machinery (literally everything these days has a PLD in it somewhere). Many speculate that electricity will fail and all sorts of problems will ensue. My thought is that if the power company is not producing electricity then itis not making any money. While I have not worked inthe power industry, my feeling is that they are testing these systems and making corrections so again, there may be some isolated power outages, but as soon ast he power fails they can start repairing that system.

The easiest thing to do is to set the dates on the various devices in your house that are programmable (security system, coffee maker, etc.) to dates after they ear 2000 and see what happens. If any problems ensue then you can figure out what to do next (contact the manufacturer or replace the device). Mostly Would check out your most critical systems. I checked out the coffee maker and the VCR and both worked fine. So, it appears the greatest danger from the Year 2000 computer problem may be panic among Americans convinced there will be major disruptions. The International Association of Emergency Managers said that communities should prepare as if for a storm, including the aftereffects, lasting about seven days.

Soon t worry about Y 2 K, just make sure you can still make coffee. Dunn, Ashley - Los Angeles Times, 3/21/99 Y 2 K FEARS EXAGGERATED, MOST EXPERTS AGREE Greenleaf, Arie T. - University Wire, 3/4/99, Y 2 K: Meltdown of minor problem Staff Writer - Chicago Tribune, 3/23/99 SKY IS NOT FALLING Gephardt, John - web 4/6/99, I got your Y 2 K compliance right here, Sparky! web - 4/5/99, Y 2 K Bug FAQ.