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Wednesday, January 21, 1998 Published at 17:09 GMT
Talking Point
Are governments doing enough to combat the 'millennium bug'?
The British, US and Canadian governments have underestimated the potential disaster of the millennium bug - huge areas of public life could be disrupted by collapsing computer systems. That's the verdict of the British-North American Committee which has been working on the problem.
"Breakdowns in revenue collection and debt management may trigger financial chaos, threatening institutional stability and household savings. Malfunctions in critical areas such as air traffic control and defense may put peoples' safety at risk."
The British government has allocated £370m. But many banks have earmarked £100m each to protect themselves from the dangers of "approaching zero".
Is it all hype? Are you worried about the millenium bug? Should businesses do more to protect themselves, and the public? Are you worried about its effect?
Goverments should not spend any money maintaing antiquated programs and
equipment. Millions of lines of unstructured code are almost impossible to
modify...
John Evans, USA
The only people who are making a fuss are those with a vested interest....
Petra Miles, London, England
The theory that I subscribe to is that we will all be too inebriated on 1/1/2000 to care!
Roger Luff, UK