--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
             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 to support the original operating system DOS. As newer versions of Windows surfaced they had to support all previous operating systems. This means that Windows 98 must not only support DOS but Windows 3.1 and 95 as well. As the original version gets built on top of it barriers the simply and easily fixed problem became a possible catastrophe. 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. Sense many of today's applications incorporate code from previous versions they may have a hidden date problem. As the code is used and reused, the problem spreads to more and more applications. This is why not even...