Y2K Bug
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------As the year 2000 quickly approaches computer programs all over the world are scrambling to alter current programs into ones that can handle the century change. While the problem may seem simple, change all two-digit years to four-digit years, it is actually a very complicated and tedious process (Millennium). However, if the problem is not fixed it can cause a dominos effect to other systems worldwide. Most computer operating systems and applications store data with two digits for the year rather than four. The century is assumed to be the nineteenth. Programs and systems alike rely on this assumption that will no longer be valid when the year rolls over to 2000. This will cause the programs or systems to incorrectly calculate the difference between dates. The reasons behind this problem are all due to the fact that early programmers never imagined there programs to live to the next decade, let alone the next century. What early programmers did not realize was that the programs they were creating would be the foundation for other updates and new releases. An ideal example of this is DOS and Windows. When Windows 3.1 was released it had t
If there system fails after the turn of the century much of this information will become lost or corrupt which could send a large cooperation spiraling to its demise. A prime example of this can be found in current news concerning Russia's Y2K compadablity. "Thanks to sheer inertia and lingering Tea Party logic (why store more than two digits when the century stays the same for such a long period of time?), the practice continued long after computer memory and cost constraints were legitimate concerns. Water and waste treatment plants are automated systems that rely on computers and flow by control devices that rely on computer chips. Due to this equation the leap year problem will not become evident until Febuary 29, 2000. These microchips use range from those that roll up and down your car windows, to those that helps a pilot land an airplane. By the time most businesses became aware of the problem, the opportunity to take effective action had long sense passed. Unless: (this is where the most common mistakes occur) If the year is evenly divisible by one hundred and four hundred, it is a leap year. The worst aspect to the year 2000 bug is that the deadline cannot be moved and the programs must work perfectly. After all why pay programmers to write new code every time, when the foundation is already exists? This attitude is what escalated the problem into what it is today. CIBC bank has one thousand people working on its project with a budget of one hundred and twenty million dollars. This problem would not be evident today if early programmers used four-digits rather than two. It is estimated that there are two billions lines of code that need to be analyzed and corrected. As the code is used and reused, the problem spreads to more and more applications. If people have learned anything about large software projects, it is that many of them miss their deadlines, and those who do make it on time seldom work perfectly.
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Acceptance Essays
