This year, most of the world is preparing to celebrate the year 2000 and the coming of a However, many businesses, manufacturers, banks and hospitals arequietly hoping for an uneventful new years transition. At midnight on December 31,many businesses will be anticipating what effects the millennium rollover will have oncomputer software and other equipment that contain a time sensitive chip called anembedded chip. Early computer programmers, in an effort to conserve limited memoryspace, programmed computers to read the year in only two digits. So computers read 15as 1915, and 02 as 1902, and so on. Thus, when the year 2000 arrives, many computerprograms might go from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 1900. Some computers willcease to function, or crash. Needless to say, if these programs control functions such aselectricity, airline travel, or communications, the results could be disastrous. Manycompanies and governments have spent countless hours and untold dollars makingsoftware Y2K (year 2 thousand) compatible.The consequences of not preparing for the Y2K problem could spell disaster forthe company involved. For example, a small Midwestern manufacturer encountered asimilar date-related problem in 1996 (a leap year) when the company did not realize thattheir entire computer network would be affected by the extra day in the year. When theyear 1997 turned over, all systems shut down. This malfunction caused the liquidsolutions being produced to freeze, causing them to destroy the pipelines they ran through. This disaster cost the company over $1 million in new equipment. The catastrophe causedmassive delivery delays to their customers, and the company believes numerous customeraccounts were lost as a result. This is just a small example of what could happen whencomputer software and related equipment is not tested for Y2K compatibility. Now,imagine the confusion and disaster that could result from a similar incident occurr...
