Re: Y2K Issues

[Marin David Condic <diespammer@flinet.com>]

I remember being aware of the Y2K problem when I got my first job programming in
Cobol in 1980. Looking at the financial code and seeing all the dates coded as
two digits, it was pretty clear that come Y2K there would be a problem. I talked
to my supervisor about it, observing that the argument about saving space was
beginning to get less and less important and that maybe we ought to think about
conversions before it was a pressing matter. The answer was basically "You can't
really believe that these ancient decks were still going to be around in 2000
(some had been there since the 60s) and that anyway, we'd all be retired or in
different jobs by then, so it would be Someone Else's Problem. And besides,
there's too much historical data that would have to be corrected" (I have no
idea if those systems are still being used.)

There's actually some merit to this. In designing anything, you can't generally
assume it is going to be around forever, so you have to build it with some
thought to an expected life and trust that those who come after will build a
better one when this wears out. And the youth among us may not recall that back
in that time frame, two extra bytes over a million records started adding up to
non-trivial disk space. Lots of other record fields were condensed to very small
storage - not allowing for future expansion - specifically because of this. It
was a trade-off. Disk space now for life expectancy 20 years from now.

Just remember that the question of malicious intent would not be there for
anyone building systems a bunch of years ago, but may be negligence or
unprofessional malfeasance if it were being built into systems today. (Windows
95 comes to mind.)

Embedded systems? Lots of them don't really care. You start time from some
arbitrary epoch (like at the time of power-up) and start counting. I've never
worked a system where it used real calendar dates. The threat may be there in
some and not there in others. The question is, even if it is a minority of those
systems, are they the ones that cause disaster?

Government coverup? They've got too many other things to cover up - like Monica
Lewinski, etc. - to be worried about this!

MDC

system@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote:

> dewarr@my-dejanews.com writes:
>
> >Someone reminded me that I first mentioned the Y2K problem to them in 1975,
> >and certainly I was not the only one to forsee this problem.
>
> Show of hands please,
>
> Who was aware of the Y2K problem before 1995? 1990?  1985? 1980? 1975?
>
> Who was aware of the Y2K problem as it affects embedded programs before
> 1995? 1990?  1985? 1980? 1975?
>
> There is a group on campus making allegations of a gov't coverup....
>
> Robert
> (whose answers would be roughly 1992 and, rather embarassingly, 1998)
> Morphis@physics.niu.edu
> Real Women change tires                 abuse@uu.net postmaster@uu.net
> Real Men change diapers                 security@uu.net

--
Marin David Condic
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    "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big
    enough to take it all away."

        --  Barry Goldwater
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