X-Message-Number: 7345
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 23:32:58 -0500
From: BOB FORD <>
Subject: Year 2000 problem
>Date: Sun, 22 Dec 96 18:10:15 UT
>From: "Robert Ettinger" <>
>Subject: A wild idea
>MONEY FOR CRYONICS--a wild idea:
>
>There are quite a few computer people on Cryonet, and
there is a (barely
>conceivable) chance for one or more of them to make a
lot of money.
>
>We have all heard of the "Year 2000 crisis" in many
older, specialized
>computer programs. It is said that billions of lines
of code must be reviewed,
>revised, and tested in context, at a cost of HUNDREDS
OF BILLIONS of dollars
>(because of the previous practice of saving space by
using only two digits for
>year dates).
>To begin with, I question the premise--that this
enormous price would still be
>cheaper than jettisoning the old programs and
installing new ones, or
>installing new hardware AND software. But let's assume
the premise is correct.
>Once again I am questioning my betters. There are many
thousands of computer
>people, all smarter and much more experienced than I
am, who apparently
>concur that there is no "silver bullet" that will
solve such problems in a neat and
>cheap way. Nevertheless, I simply find that hard to
swallow.
>
>After all, a date is a date. There must be some way to
identify dates in
>memory, and (perhaps with more difficulty) in program
instructions, as
>distinguished from other data. Once you have done
that, many ways
>to make the conversions suggest themselves.
>SNIP
>
>Robert Ettinger
Yes there is a Year 2000 Problem. It may or may not be
a "Crisis". This is a very
complicated problem. I will try to explain it as
simple as possible. Please let me
know if I fail to explain the problem. The extent of
the year 2000 problem is
unknown. The reason it is unknown is because there is
no automated way to tell
if a program has the problem. It takes a highly
skilled programmer to examine each and every program to
see if the year is a 2 or 4 digit number. The reason 2 digit
years can not be used after year 1999 is because the
year is often used in
computations. For example, if I need to know how long
a part has been in the
inventory and the year I am using is 2 digits, I would
subtract the year I purchased
the item, say year 93, from the current year 96 and
come up with the correct result
3 years. However if this program is run in the year
2000, it would subtract the
year I purchased the item, year 93, from the current
year 00 and the program will
tell me I have had the item MINUS 93 years in
inventory. This is a major
problem for the program. The program will probably
terminate abnormally when
it gets a negative number for years for the time the
item has been in the inventory.
However finding and fixing a program that uses 2 digit
years is only a SMALL
part of the year 2000 problem. The much LARGER problem
is fixing the data
that has 2 digit years. Changing the length of a data
item can be a VERY
COMPLICATED TASK. In most organizations, this is done
by a very highly
skilled person called a Data Base Administrator. Many
programs (sometimes
100+) use the same data so if the length of the data
is changed (from 2 to 4 for
example), every program that uses that data must be
changed AT THE SAME
TIME. To make it even more complicated, the amount of
data that is sent from
one company to another is VERY LARGE. If the length
of a data item is
changed by Company A and that data is sent to Company
B, they both must
change their programs at the same time. The problems
do not stop there. If the
data is online, such as data available on the INTERNET,
each user of the data
must change their programs. Also dates can be JULIAN or
GREGORIAN dates
which just adds to the problems.
If anyone needs more information on this subject, send
me private e-mail. My
email address is
The above explanation of the problem is not nearly
complete. There are many
more problems with using 2 digits for a year that I
did not get into. I could go on
for hours about this problem but you would get very
bored in a short time.
Can someone tell me how I can make money for CRYONICS,
which I would like
to do, by knowing how to fix the year 2000 problem.
BOB FORD
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