Letter: Millennial myth

Millennial myth

Sir: M C Patrick (Letters, 7 March) states that "under the Computer Millennium Problem up to 90 per cent of computers will be unable to move ... to 1 January 2000, and will become useless".

This is an urban myth. Virtually all computer systems are perfectly capable of dealing with dates in the next century; the problem is only with certain quite old (mainly pre-Eighties) software, most of which will be fixed well before 2000. Those making most noise are the contractors who are offering to fix these software problems, and certain elements of the mass media.

BEN HUTCHINGS

Oxford