y a billion lines of code must be repaired. Furthermore, there are computing languages still in use today that only a handful of people are even aware of, let alone proficient enough to be called experts. Skills for some older, more obscure languages and systems will, more than likely, make the Y2K a more serious problem. Some uses of two digit dates may not be obvious. For example, the UK Driving Licence number encodes the holder's date of birth using a two digit year code. Dates used in this nature will create Year 2000 problems without the obvious use of dates in the program. Some systems use dates fields for non-standard uses, such as special indicators and how your systems have abused the date field is something you can only find out by looking at every line of code, which is a huge costs in time and resources. With the variety of programming languages and platforms in use throughout that past three decades, and the multitude of uses for date fields, and the extensiveness of infected programming area, no single "silver bullet" could exist to correct the problem. Moreover, the problem cannot be solved individually. Y2K is a universal problem which will bring a chain effect among industries and firms. No business is immune, every firm is affected either directly in its own operation, or indirectly, by the action or inaction of others. A Year 2000 compliant computer system may fail to process, produce error messages or generate incorrect data even if it receives contaminated programs or data from a third party that is not Year 2000 compliant. With all these issues involved, and with remaining time ever decreasing, management awareness must focus on these problems. The Hardware Dilemma If the computer hardware cannot handle dates past 31/12/99 then no software solution can fix it. Some applications request the system date directly from the hardware and cannot be trapped by the operating system, which obviates a software resolution. F...
