Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Ridiculous Laws
After reading King's list of proposed laws, I'm reminded of the Y-2K problem for computers.
A refresher comment - when much of computer programming was done in the 1960's and 1970's, only two digits were used for the year designation. (1950 was 50, 1973 was 73, etc.) With 2000 was coming upon us (and there was no way to stop it), two digits caused a problem: did 01 mean 1901 or 2001? Just think of warranties, life insurance policies, etc. The dates in computer programs had to be reviewed and re-programmed where applicable.
All computer programs were evalauated, date changes were made where needed and those no longer needed were simply dropped.
This is a simplified rendition of what happened. Nevertheless, the garbage was tossed. Seems we could use that review approach regarding current and potential laws at the state legislature level.
A refresher comment - when much of computer programming was done in the 1960's and 1970's, only two digits were used for the year designation. (1950 was 50, 1973 was 73, etc.) With 2000 was coming upon us (and there was no way to stop it), two digits caused a problem: did 01 mean 1901 or 2001? Just think of warranties, life insurance policies, etc. The dates in computer programs had to be reviewed and re-programmed where applicable.
All computer programs were evalauated, date changes were made where needed and those no longer needed were simply dropped.
This is a simplified rendition of what happened. Nevertheless, the garbage was tossed. Seems we could use that review approach regarding current and potential laws at the state legislature level.
