Please if someone can explain about how computers read numbers.I want to renew my vowels Sept 11,1999 but someone was telling me that they would not advise me to plan any thing around that date. Something about computers reading the number 9 and closing down operations. So is this y2k thing going to show it's ugly head before Jan 1,2000. I have already secured a place for our wedding and have bought a lot of things to make that day special. Sign I hope Im not wasting time and money????

-- Lyn Truss (StormieLyn@webtv.com), October 20, 1998

Answers

Want to renew your vowels?

I'll sell you an "e" for a hundred bucks and for an extra fifty, throw in an "a". If the wedding leaves you a little short at the moment, I'll take an "I.O.U."!

On a more serious note, the big whammy will likely hit 01/01/2000 so I wouldn't worry too much about 9/9/1999. Certainly it's a concern however life has to go on. It seems that if you have someone special enough in your life to renew your vows with, then you are at least going into the new millennium in better shape than many people.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), October 20, 1998.

Use of near 2000 dates as special "flags" in old programs (e.g., 9/9/99) is another facet of the Y2K problem, apparently being one that applies only to old mainframe software. Actually, if you want to be really on the safe side re your wedding day, move it up before the GPS rollover occurs on 8/22/1999. Or, for that matter, before Japan, Canada and New York State go to fiscal year 2000 on 4/1/1999. Of course, there is the "Jo Anne effect" that will affect financial software systems as early as 1/1/999, when checks are made to determine the current fiscal year. Shoot, maybe you should get married this year. (And ask for wedding gifts that are very practical....)

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), October 20, 1998.

09/09/99 is unlikely to be a significant date. The problem arises because some programmers would use all 9's in a give data field to signify some special operation, usually end of file. A common date in a data field might have 6 positions(MMDDYY). SO filling it with all nines would yield 999999. Sept 9, 1999 would equal 090999 and not pose a problem. The caveat is that the programmer looks at the entire date and not just the YY part (bad programming but its undoubtedly out there in some small degree!)

-- R. D..Herring (drherr@erols.com), October 20, 1998.

Not such a small degree, dude. Why set up a full set of redefines when you just ask "Is YY=99"

I know a LOT of lazy COBOL programmers who did it that way

and a lot of them asked "Is @@@@@-$$$$$-DATE = 999999"

Hopefully, they got it right in the redefines for the date.

cr

-- Chuck a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 21, 1998.