>What I don't understand is why some people seem to think traffic lights will
>have problems (as some newspapers seem to think)? Why should they need the
>absolute time? All I can think of is that they might make a mistake over
>whether it was a weekday or a weekend, if they currently take that into
>account (do they?), but that just makes things sub-optimal, not dangerous,
>and could easily be tweaked after the event.
I was reading an article somewhere (the Mercury News, I think) that
mentioned timer chips that were used in consumer devices like coffee
makers, where the chips don't handle the year 2000 correctly. It seems
to me that for anything to have a likelihood of having a year 2000
problem, it would have to actually know what time it was. Since few
chips have nonvolatile clocks, somebody would have to tell them what
time it is when they are plugged in.
Does anybody out there ever have to set the time on their coffee
maker? If not, I fail to see how they could possibly have a year 2000
problem. The same, I would think, goes for cars, TVs, and all other
devices that don't ask for a date in order for them to run. VCRs might
very well break (since you have to give them the date), but few
consumer devices are likely to rely on the date for very much, and if
they do, few consumers are likely to have set those devices to have the
right date, anyway. Most such devices probably never get to beyond
a few virtual years after their base date value (presuming they reset
whenever the power fails).
I suppose this is kind of off the subject, so feel free to toss away
this message with extreme prejudice.
--
Ronald S. Karr
tron |-<=>-| tron@???
