The millennium bug: an easy mistake to make.(Editorial)

From: The Economist (US) | Date: August 3, 1996 | Copyright information

Computers, since they anticipate each year year starting with a '19,' will recognize the year 2000 as 1900. Indeed there will be many similarities, ranging from trouble in the Balkans to an unstable government in Russia. Perhaps it would be best if we just went back and tried to get the century right.

THEY call it the millennium bug, and they hope it will make them rich. Back in the 1960s software engineers saw a useful way to save what was then precious digital memory by programming computers to expect every year to begin with "19". As a result, when the millennium dawns, a lot of ...

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