Dennis made a Small mistake, it appears. This would make Dennis the forefather of those scientific folks who brought us the Y2K problem. If so, the good news is that we have already passed the mark and entered 2004 with no more devastation than is wrought by global warming and Jerry Springer. But right or wrong, it's the number itself that seems to loom as large in the culture as three black holes following a two. It's the zeros that people are zeroing in on.
Round numbers have power over our imaginations.
It's now clear that the only way out of the turn of the millennium problem is to change the calendar. We could return to Roman numerals which, after all, were good enough for the first millennium. But more to the multicultural point, I would like to suggest we save ourselves and our computers by looking abroad for alternatives. In Jerusalem, to which so many will flock, midnight will be the Jewish year 5761. In Islamic countries it will be 1421.