Word: y2k
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...energy and good humor are infectious, thinks planning for the millennium has been a family blessing. "We used to fight like cats and dogs, but this has brought us closer together. We have a common goal." The goal is facing off disaster. The Eckharts first got wind of potential Y2K trouble a few years ago when they came across newspaper articles mentioning the computer glitch that led them to the Internet, which--surprise!--is full of alarming Y2K websites. That's when Bruce concluded that "there are not enough people on the planet who can fix this problem in time...
From time to time, Bruce runs his family through surprise drills, shutting off the power, announcing, "Y2K's here!" Then he fires up the generator to see how many household appliances it can handle. "We've learned we can run either the coffee machine or the refrigerator, but not both at the same time," he says. "And there will be no hair crimping during Y2K," Diane reminds Danielle. "I'm not going to burn up the generator so you can crimp your hair...
...school bus, Danielle explains to other kids the range of potential Y2K problems. (The one they like hearing about the most is the collapse of the school system, the IRS of childhood.) But her parents have had trouble winning over community leaders. When Diane asked to address the local Girl Scout troop, she was turned down by a scout leader who was worried that Diane would alarm the girls. "Scouts prepare for emergencies lasting 72 hours," says Diane. "We just want to extend that to six months." And if the year 2000 arrives and civilization doesn't fall to pieces...
...seven-headed beast from The Revelation of St. John, the New Testament's dense and cryptic vision of the last things. But in these final days of the 20th century, religious millennialism has once again found a real world problem on which to hang its visions of doom--the Y2K (that's the year 2000) computer...
...Y2K problem is this. Many of the world's computers and microchip circuitry, the ones that run everything from cash machines and VCRs to interstate electric-power grids and intercontinental ballistic missiles, contain a programming oversight that makes them incapable of reading the date 2000. To represent years, computers generally use just the last two digits. When 1999--that's 99 in computer language--rolls over at midnight to 00, computers that have not had the glitch repaired will conclude that the date is 1900. That can lead to a surprising range of malfunctions, and not just in such obviously...