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CALIFORNIA : BRIEFLY / TECHNOLOGY : Four 9s Add Up Just Right for Computers

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The “Dreaded 9s”--a potential computer problem caused by the date 9/9/99--passed uneventfully Thursday, providing another small sign that the impending millennium computer bug may not bite as severely as once thought. Experts had warned of potential computer problems since early computer programmers had decades ago sometimes used the number 9999 to indicate the end of a data file. The problem is similar to the millennium bug, which was created by the use of two-digit dates in programs to indicate years. In 2000, some computers may incorrectly interpret the year “00” as “1900.” The Dreaded 9s was one of several critical dates so far this year--including the beginning of fiscal year 2000 in July and the 99th day of the year in April, that experts had warned about. But none of the critical dates so far have caused any significant problems.

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