Y2K: Nearing Disaster or Minor Computer Flaw? By Pete Conti Imagine that, as
you do annually, you are counting the minutes until the New Year arrives. You
are watching Dick Clark announce that the countdown will begin soon, and you
feel anxious. Finally, as you hear the offbeat 5-4-3-2-1-0, and let out a sigh
of relief, something goes wrong. At precisely 12:00 A.M. on January 1 of the
year 2000, computers across the nation crash, leaving the country in panic.
Stores are looted, riots break out, 911 is dysfunctional, banks lose money, the
stock market crashes, planes drop from the sky, and we are all left in the
bitter darkness. Horror stories such as these are common among news broadcasts
and the Internet, but many are wondering how the “Y2K” problem will, if at all,
affect their lives. Some professionals say that the Y2K problem may only cause
glitches in older, obsolete computers and mainframes, while others are warning
the public, and urging proper preparedness for this imminent disaster. Although
both sides of this conflict have very arguable positions, the world is not
taking the Y2K problem seriously enough.
Before a valid position can be taken, one must first fully understand what
the Y2K problem is, and how it might affect computers. Computer coding has
always been constructed of zeros and ones, and the finished product is often
called the computer “language.” Over the last thirty years, namely the early
eighties, computer coding was much different than it is today. During this time,
a string of zeros usually meant the end of a particular program. For these
computers, which are very few, when the year 2000 arrives, the Central
Processing Unit, or CPU, will determine that the zeros in the year 2000’s date
as the end of the software, and the computer will crash. This only makes up a
very small percentage of the computers that will be affected by the Y2K problem,
the others being the more modern computers that still are not compliant with the
year 2000’s date. These computers, unlike the earlier, primitive ones, would not
recognize the year 2000 as the date in which the software stops functioning, but
instead as the year 1900. This is due to the fact that many date systems are set
up using only two numbers, so for example, 01 would be read as 1901, because
these computers are still set in the 20th century.
Some argue that, because the computer would not crash, and simply believe the
date was 1900, the Y2K problem is not a major dilemma; the vast majority of
computers would still be fully functional, so fixing the problem doesn’t require
so much urgency. The problem could be fixed after the year 2000, so panic is
unnecessary. This is obviously not the case, when you think about all of the
computers that run on dates. Almost all of the systems that run schedule-keeping
programs will be adversely affected if this problem is not fixed. What about the
telephone company? What would happen if you were on the telephone at the date
change? What about Travel agencies and package delivery systems? These questions
remain unanswered, and will stay that way until the year 2000 arrives. The Y2K
problem is very serious, but it is causing many more problems than simply
computers. There are radicals supporting every viewpoint. Some people who are
worried about the Y2K problem are withdrawing all of their money from banks, and
stockpiling their houses with months worth of food, while others simply fail to
acknowledge the Y2K problem.
