Y10K Unlimited Consulting Knowledgebase

Why you need to be Y10K compliant.

It's not too early to worry about the Year 10000.

So you think that if you can just get to the Year 2000 you'll be okay? So you think that you'll have plenty of time between then and the year 10000? Well, I bet you weren't worried about the year 2000 problem way back in the "computer dark ages" when two-digit year fields were all the rage--but now you wish you had been.

Conventional wisdom said that memory would get cheaper and more plentiful, and systems would get more sophisticated, and by the year 2000 there wouldn't be a problem. What the "conventional wiseguys" didn't figure on was that backward compatibility would ensure that old systems would live on much longer than truly needed. Let's face it, bad habits are hard to break. But if you still don't think your computing decisions now will influence what happens in 8,000 years, if you still don't think code that is written today will be in use well into the future, consider:

• Compared to geologic time scales and the age of the universe, 10,000 years is nothing.
• Petroleum-powered cars are still prevalent, despite the fact that the earliest cars were electric.
• The roads that the ancient Romans built are still used as the paths for modern automobile roads.
• The most modern novels and television shows still refer back to the oldest stories of the human race. Homer's Odyssey was recently a mini-series.

This is the best time to deal with the problem

You're already working on the Year 2000 problem. Why can't you deal with the Y10K issue later? Well, if you really want to drag down productivity with useless work, sure, go ahead. If you really want to have to scrutinize every line of code twice instead of once, you certainly can. But since you've already got programmers working on implementing Y2K "solutions", take advantage of the chance to have them solve two problems at once. Rather than viewing the "Millennium Bug" as a problem, consider it an opportunity to beat your competition to solving the Y10K problem. There will never be a better time than NOW to prepare for the year 10000!

Less than 8,003 years until January 1, 10000!