Computer bugs in the year 2000

[Robert Stroud]

I don't know about 2000 (I can guess :-) but I do have an anecdote
that relates to a summer job I had back in 1979. We got a 'phone call
from the suppliers of some application software along the following lines...

Them: Are you planning to use the machine on August 17th 1979?

Us:   Probably not - it's a Saturday.

Them: Well if you do, whatever you do, when you boot the machine, don't 
      tell it it's August 17th! Lie and pretend it's August 18th.

It turned out that the internal coding of "August 17th 1979" matched
a character sequence used by the application to denote EOF!

That's true - honest! Names of machines, operating systems and software
suppliers are suppressed to protect the guilty. I wouldn't swear to the
exact date, but it was around that time.

Robert Stroud,
Computing Laboratory,
University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

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