IP: Y2K and long lead times on orders

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 14:54:19 -0500
To: farber () cis upenn edu
From: "Richard J. Solomon" <richard () goodread com>


The NYT on Friday had a sad story about how screwed up Boeing is on back
orders for planes, but buried in the story is some insight on the real Y2K
problem: Boeing changed their computer systems to handle 4-digit dates
early to avoid Y2K from causing even further screw-ups, so now terminal
users type in "97" TWICE for the date because the machine won't budge
unless it gets four digits and everyone got used to just typing the last
two for the year. Hence, their computers were storing orders for parts for
the year 9797, and everything was getting backed up again in the
warehouses. A little education could have solve the Y2K problem in the
first place. Which goes for the global economy, too.


Richard








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