As the new millenium approaches the biggest fear everyone has is over the Y2K bug. Y2K stands for y=year 2K=two thousand. The fear is that on Dec. 31, 1999 at twelve o' clock all computers around the world will go crazy. Every mechanical device that is computer controlled could go on the 'fritz'. Social Security checks could be cancelled along with car payments, mortgages could read 100 years. Telephone conversations could be calculated mistakenly to have lasted for a 100 years.
             What is causing this big computer scare? The big problem is when computers were first designed the makers only put a two-digit dating system instead of four. This is because the programmers did not have the money for a four-digit system. The two-digit system only reads the last two numbers in the year. For example 1999 reads 99. The four digits would interpret this as 1999. When the New Year approaches the computers will read 1900 instead of 2000. "This is not computer industry hype, this problem affects everyone and it could have some dire consequences if it's ignored"(B. Hall Sun Sentinel pg.1).
             If this 'bug' is not corrected it could ruin the whole computer industry. The bug could effect everything from bank accounts to retirement funds. Air Travel could be shut down because the computer will think that the airplanes are a century old. Certain payments could be mis calculated for being a hundred years old.
             People knew this problem existed but were too lazy to fix it (Sun Sentinel pg.2). There is no clear-cut way to solve this problem yet. Although our own computers will be effected certain software such as Window's 95, and Window's NT can deal with it. It can handle dates from 1980 to 2099. It will cost about $1.10 million per line of programming code, or an estimated $30 million per company, for most Fortune 1,000 companies (sun sentinel pg.2). Who will be the people who...