From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,92471489ebbc99c6 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Marin David Condic Subject: Re: Y2K Issues Date: 1998/11/02 Message-ID: <363E5AAC.E2F0AB7D@flinet.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 407759839 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <362B53A3.64E266AB@res.raytheon.com> <362B8D2F.802F42E6@lmco.com> <710nnc$jop@felix.seas.gwu.edu> <713nvs$cv8$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <71acr3$do4$1@husk.cso.niu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: Florida Internet Corporation Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-11-02T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: 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 =========================================================== "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away." -- Barry Goldwater ===========================================================