Detroit Free Press Article...SAY WHAT?

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http://www.freep.com/news/nw/qsoc29.htm

This is the site of a Y2K article by the Detroit Free Press dated today.

Now read the following excerpt carefully. Don't gloss over it like you have a hundred times before when the problem has been explained by the media.

"Trouble begins when computers try to add or subtract dates using that two-digit format as the world approaches the year 2000, or 00. Retirees could have been particularly vulnerable. A Social Security recipient born in 1930 would have been recognized as born in 1830 and might have been presumed dead and removed from the rolls. The new computer programs will prevent that from happening, Social Security officials said."

SAY WHAT! ROFLMAO!

"The millennium bug will not delay the payment of Social Security checks by a single day," Clinton said during a White House ceremony. "The system works. It is secure."

Boy, I feel much better now that the pesky Y2K problem has been fixed.

Nation/World Editor Nancy M. Laughlin, who edited this report, can be reached at 1-313-223-4743.

MoVe Immediate

-- MVI (vtoc@aol.com), December 29, 1998

Answers

LOL! So the reporter moved the century the wrong way. Could happen to anyone. Perhaps she is a Russian programmer who couldn't get a job.

-- RD. ->H (drherr@erols.com), December 29, 1998.

MVI:

Thanks for the bit of levity .. it was much needed today.

Now then .. given that there's an average of X errors per Y lines of code .. I wonder if there's a corollary between code and editorial context? N errors per ___ lines of typing?

MVI .. thanks again for the chuckle.

Dan

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), December 29, 1998.


RD, further analysis might indicate that SSA has fixed their problem by the continued use of a 'windowing' technique. SSA and Medicare have been using windowing on birthdate for quite some time.

MoVe Immediate

-- MVI (vtoc@aol.com), December 29, 1998.


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