I support Rep. Barbara Lee Congresswoman ( D-California ) . "I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States," she said.It is Anno Domini 2000 years soon. The time which we should pay accounts for our having given computers only information of lower two places until now is close at hand. All people using computers must pay accounts. And we must work out measures. Therefore I want to suggest a preparation.
On June 25, 1998, MS Windows98 was released. By the way, what is "98"? "98" does not mean "9801, 9821, 98NX" series of NEC which is famous in Nippon. "98" is lower two places of "1998" that is released year. Naming was same as in case of MS Windows95.
Lower two places are used here. 2000 years problem attracts attention for a long time already in the public. Nevertheless lower two places are used. If Microsoft and Windows existed 100 years later, what is the name of Windows in 2098?
Computer circumstances must be treated from two sides to deal with 2000 years problem. One side is corrections of program, and another side is corrections of data.
The corrections of program are to change in program for four places from program for lower two places. In these works, correcter must deal with software or chips of microcomputers. Therefore these works are problems of experts.
The corrections of data are that date data with lower two places are converted into them with four places. These works can be dealt with by the person who is not an expert. And the person who can completely confirm your data is only you.
We, people using computers input data into them every day. When we who are authors of data will make data with lower two places in the future, 2000 years problem becomes more complex.
I think that you must try to input four places from now when you input data about year. It is inevitable during conversation that you talk using lower two places. You will think that it is troublesome to pronounce "nineteen" on every case. But you should input data with four places when you input it into the paper or the computer. If you use Arabian cyphers, what you should do is to write "19", only two line, or to push two keys.
You should not leave 2000 years problem to the experts. You should adapt yourself from a small thing to A.D. 2000.
For computers, four places were the difficult existence to use much memory. For human, it is troublesome to deal with four places in old days and now. But I think that Microsoft should have named "Win98" as abbreviated designation, and "Microsoft Windows 1998" as standard nomenclature. If that OS adapted itself to 2000 years problem, I wanted so.