Hold that millenium, please!
It seems that our forebears were more capable of determining the end of a
century
than are we with the aid of 750 MHZ Pentium Acceleron processor chips. A recent
program on the PBS channel regarding America in 1900 stated that the beginning
of
the 20th century
washeraldedwithgreatfanfareandthrongsofpeople.Andwhen
did the celebration take place? Would you believe December 31, 1900? Our
anticipation of the new millenium is 12 months premature!
And while I'm up here on this soap box; a few words about the millenium bug.
It is
neither millenium related nor is it a bug. It has to due with the century
rollover
(not the end of the century... see above). If this were 1899 we would have the
same
problem, thus it is century related and not millenium related. A computer
program
bug is a failure to operate as designed. These programs were designed with
2-digit
years and work correctly in that time frame. This phenomenon could more
accurately
be described as a century break design flaw.
Ken Rowland
Parkinsn's Archive Treasures Doctors, students, patients and caregivers find current Parkinson's information such as the Algorithm, Caregivers Handbook, and talks by respected Movement Disorder Specialists.
