The Australian National Audit Office issued a timely warning last week that many Commonwealth agencies are not ready to deal with the Year 2000 problem that is likely top beset many computers around the world when the century ticks over.
The trouble is that computer programmers in the early days of computing in the 1950s used only a two-digit field for the year. They did this because computing memory space in those days was at a premium. They new it would cause a problem at the end of the century, but assumed that it would be fixed well before then. The trouble is that the two-digit programs have been used for source code for thousands of other programs. When the century ends and people put 00 in the date field, all sorts of unforeseen consequences could ensue. An example is the humble traffic light. Many lights are geared differently at weekends for different traffic flows. The first day of 1900 (year 00 in two-digit speak) was a weekday. The first day of 2000 is a Saturday, but a two-digit computer will treat it as a weekday.
Of course, security systems that work differently at weekends could also pose a problem. A computer that subtracts a birth year from the present year to get an age that will generate pension or other social security entitlements will go haywire with negative ages unless its year field is converted to four digits. Aircraft navigation systems could be affected. Indeed, there are few areas not affected in some way or other.
The problem requires diligent attention in both the public sector and the private sector.
The ANAO’s report Managing The Year 2000 Problem: Risk Assessment and Management in Commonwealth Agencies, fears that even though everyone knows what needs to be done the ANAO’s analysis shows that “” majority” of government agencies will not be prepared unless they do something while they are in a position to do something.
It is likely to be cheaper to prevent the problems than solve them after the event.