At 04:44 PM 9/11/98 -0500, Jim Hutchinson so eloquently stated:
>Hi All,
>
>In the midst of yet another conversation with my brother last night about
>Y2K, we decided to see if the rumors are really true. You know the ones,
>where if a computer is not at lest a Pentium 166 or higher it is not Y2K
>compatible and will shut down when the clock clicks over to 12:01AM
>01/01/2000.
>
>Check this out! I fired up my brother's 386SX16 in his basement, changed
>the date and watched it roll over to January 1, 2000. I then edited a file
>and checked the date written to that file. The result was 1/01/2000. I left
>it at the year 2000 and everything runs great even after shutting the power
>off and turning it back on! In Windows 3.11 there's a clock, which I
>enabled and watched as the date was 1/1/2000 and the time kept ticking away
>like it always has.
>
>So tell me what all the fuss is about with this Y2K thing - Please!!! Is it
>just another marketing ploy to get people to buy more computers? If not
>that, then what's the motives? Or is this just related to mainframes?
>
>
>Confused and unconvinced there's a "real" problem,
>
It's nice to see that some folks think computers are PC's <g>.
The problem is with the larger, older systems in use at most
governments, military and large institutions -- those with two
digit dates and older software, probably written in COBOL,
FORTRAN or similar languages (although the language has little to
do with the problem). Calculations using a date are easy
pre-2000, i.e., 98 - 62 = 36 (the actual number of years I've
been in the computer field). When we try 00 (for 2000) - 62, we get -62.
Let's assume I put $1,000 in the bank when I first started in the
computer field (1962), and let's assume I earned simple interest
of 6% a year, not compounded. My interest earned as of December
31, 1999 would be $2,280 (6% * $1000 * 38 years). On January 1,
2000 my interest earned would be -$3,720 -- minus $3,720 -- I
would owe the bank money! 6% * $1,000 * -62 years.
George
_______________________________________________________
George Matyjewicz, C.M.O. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.gapent.com/
Moderator of E-Tailer's Digest http://www.gapent.com/etailer/
Your Resource for Retail on the Net
Moderator E-Marketing Digest http://www.webbers.com/emark/
Marketing Your Web http://www.gapent.com/myweb/
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