Quote Originally Posted by Iron Maiden View Post
That penny thing was something the computer programming staff would use as an example at the Purdue extension I went to years ago and it was based on a true story. And I recall all the panic around fixing Y2K issues that cropped up. There were some programmers that got a bit lazy and only used 1 digit for storing variables dealing with years! Either that or it could have been a limitation on some of those old languages like assembly.

I wonder if Reed and Victor had to study COBOL when they were in college?
I had to learn Fortran in college. Seems an appropriate computer language for the FF.

Seriously, my understanding of a lot of the Y2K wasn't a laziness issue, but a space issue. Storing a field with 4 instead of 2 digits cost more and space was more valuable in those days.