The Millennium Bug
Less than two years until the year 2000. Two seemingly small digits may turn January 1, 2000 from a worldwide celebration into a universal nightmare. With computers mistaking the year 2000 for 1900, virtually all businesses that use dates will be affected. Not only will the companies be affected, but they are paying millions upon millions of dollars in order for computers to recognize the difference between the years 2000 and 1900. The year 2000 computer bug is a huge problem that our world must face.
In order to explain how to solve the "millennium bug", it is a good idea to be informed about exactly what the year 2000 problem is. The year 2000 industry expert, Peter de Jager, ...
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is unlike any other problem in modern history for several reasons. William Adams points out some of the most important ones. "Time is running out- the Year 2000 is inevitable! The problem will occur simultaneously worldwide, time zones withstanding. It affects all languages and platforms, hardware & software. The demand for solutions will exceed the supply. Survivors will survive big, losers will lose big. There is no 'silver bullet' that is going to fix things" (Adams 2). "It is too big and too overwhelming even for [Bill Gates and] Microsoft" (Widder 3). Separate, any one of these points makes Y2K, a common abbreviation for the year 2000 problem, an addition to the obstacle. Combined, they form what seems more like a hideous monster than an insignificant bug.
The impact of Y2K on society is enormous, bringing the largest companies in the world to their knees, pleading for a fix at nearly any cost. "The modern world has come to depend on information as much as it ...
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costs of fixing Y2K are staggering. The Gartner Group estimates that costs per line of code to be between $1.50 and $2.00 (Conner 1). It is not uncommon for a single company to have 100,000,000 lines of code (de Jager 6). Capers Jones, an expert who has studied software costs for over ten years, estimates total worldwide costs to be $1,635,000,000,000 (One-trillion, 635 billion dollars) (Jones 58). To put this number into perspective, if five people were to spend $100 for every second of every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would take them about 100 years to finish the task!
The year 2000 problem is not only limited to what happens with computers between December ...
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The Millennium Bug. (2004, July 5). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Millennium-Bug/10542
"The Millennium Bug." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 5 Jul. 2004. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Millennium-Bug/10542>
"The Millennium Bug." Essayworld.com. July 5, 2004. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Millennium-Bug/10542.
"The Millennium Bug." Essayworld.com. July 5, 2004. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Millennium-Bug/10542.
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