Emily Peoples

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Emily Peoples

Time change a ‘Mini-Y2K’ bug?

Did congress create a monster when they passed a law two years ago to extend daylight saving time by one month?

The move seemed harmless enough and would let us burn a little less fossil fuel and enjoy a bit more sunshine.

Now it appears the move may cause a ‘mini Y2K.’ If your company deals with overseas companies, the problem magnifies because most of Europe goes to daylight saving time March 25, two weeks after the U.S., while most of Asia, Africa and South America do not observe daylight saving time at all.

This puts the United States out of sync with the rest of the world for longer than usual this spring which will almost certainly disrupt computers as well as business and travel schedules of millions of people.

Remember the late 1990’s rush to change old software, which was unable to recognize dates in the new millennium, 2000 and beyond? It may be remembered as the Y2K bug #1. What we are facing now may be dubbed “Y2K bug #2”

Then again, it may pass as quietly and uneventfully as the original Y2K bug on January 1, 2000 As the world stood by expecting the worst, it turned out to be a non-event.

Link here for ‘Mini Y2K’ story . A tongue-in-cheek illustration of the original Y2K bug can be found here.