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To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (10938)	4/29/1998 2:32:00 PM
From: Wizzer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116764

I'm not saying the programmers did it. I think it was management. I could be absolutely wrong. The "bug" terminology is a misnomer as it is not a software bug. There is no "bug" as we commonly think of it, but the architecture of the computer will not be able to recognize the date and that means a failure of the system. I never quite understand what it means when they say they were trying to save space. How much more space would a 4 digit date have taken up? That's where I find the incongruency in the description of what happened back then. It was not short-sighted of them to feel that the programs would be obsolete, but mainframe computers hardware (where the major problem lies). In a PC, I could understand the space saving argument to some extent (although I feel it is still a poor excuse), but in mainframe computers the space saved by using 2 instead of a 4 digit date would be negligible. When major companies or governments were buying million dollar computer systems, the manufactures had to know that they would be used for a long time and not flipped over and obselete like the PC's. Visa just sent me a new visa card that an expiry date (1999) lasting less than a year. They explained it was the 2000 problem so they would have to issue another card at the time. It is the banks, big companies, governments etc.... that have the majority of the problem. It is the mainframe computers that are apparently going to crash in the year 2000. PC's will be an influence, but a minor one in the grand scheme of things. As far as PC's go, all I know, is that my PC will either be worth nothing and I will have to buy a new one, or else buy software to deal with the problem. But hey, our little computers will only personally cost us money, whereas the mainframe problem will be a heck of a lot more expensive, cost individual companies to lose revenue, affect the stock market, and the effect of that will be more costly than I can think of.