This millennial anxiety has its genesis in the early computer age, when programmers preserved once-precious memory by using only two digits to signify the year in a date. In the year 2000, those computer clocks will roll over to 00 and read the new year as 1900. That could confound computers and many services that rely on computers. Fixing the flaw involves scanning billions of lines of software code, a colossal undertaking in both the private and public sectors. And the quandary extends beyond software to microchips embedded with two-digit date codes.
Many experts believe it is too late to get the job done by the end of next year.
He said he is worried about medical machines in hospitals and also raised the specter of riots in counties that fail to deliver welfare checks. The community approach is the one Wells and his neighbors are trying to take in Lowell, which has a population of nearly 100,000. Nobody knows exactly what's going to happen in the year 2000. But we're not the only ones. This article is a feature of The American News Service.