Volume 46, Number 14 · September 23, 1999
Hurry Up Please It's Time
By James Fallows
BOOKS AND REPORTS DISCUSSED IN THIS ARTICLE
Investigating the Impact of the Year 2000 Problem
by 105th Congress Special Committee on the Y2K Technology Problem
The Simple Living Journal's Y2K Preparation Guide: 110 Ways to Create a Sustainable Life—Crisis or Not
by Janet Luhrs, by Cris Evatt
Simple Living Press, 87 pp., $12.00 (paper)
Y2K: The Millennium Bug
by Tiggre Don L.
Xlibris Press, 360 pp., $18.00 (paper)
Y2K: The Millennium Crisis
by Bradford Morgan
Seattle: Hara Publishing, 631 pp., $12.95 (paper)
Get Rich with Y2K: How to Cash in on the Financial Crisis in the Year 2000
by Porter Steven L.
Piccadilly Books, 158 pp., $24.00 (paper)
Time Bomb 2000: What the Year 2000 Computer CrisisMeans to You!
by Yourdon Edward, by Yourdon Jennifer
Prentice Hall PTR, 627 pp., $19.99 (paper)
The Year 2000 computer problem originated in the 1950s and 1960s, when programmers decided to use two rather than four digits to represent a year. The date of Apollo 11's launch to the moon, for instance, was registered in NASA programs as 07/16/69, rather than 07/16/1969. It was obvious to programmers that they needed to reserve two digits each for the day and month of a date—07 rather than just 7 for July. But there seemed every reason to economize on the year.
Review, 5869 words
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