The following article is taken from a presentation at the January statewide meeting of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers. Our hope is to give people information with which to make their own decisions regarding any Y2K risks they might face midnight, December 31, 1999. The millenium bug is a product of the computer age. In the early years of computing when computer memory was expensive, programmers used shortcuts to reduce usage of this precious computer component.
Computers are stupid that way, but every computer ever produced has some sort of clock in it.
There are two things that are helpful in this regard. The first is to develop a better understanding of our personal circumstances as they relate to computers both seen and unseen and determine if they have a date dependency that is either life threatening or simply a nuisance. The second thing that we should do is take one giant step back and ask ourselves what information can we obtain to help us figure out if we even have a Y2K problem at all. We come into contact with computers every day of the week even if we don't have a PC on our desks. Our microwave ovens, our cars, the elevators in our apartment building all have computers in them with clock chips.