APOCALYPSE 2000...computer bug worries lawmakers

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Some state legislators and business leaders predict the "Year 2000 Bug" could have dire effects on the state. A special panel of legislators met today (MON) to evaluate the state's preparations for the bug, which is the result of a calendar shorthand that tricks many computers into confusing the year 2000 with 1900. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports: The ad hoc panel of legislators is eager to make sure Minnesota business leaders are taking the Year 2000 Bug seriously -- to that end, it invited national expert David Hall to outline what he sees as the potentially catastrophic result of all those computer clocks cranking over to zero-zero. Hall estimates at least 400 million clock-based microprocessors will have unpredictable problems because of the bug, and will compromise everything from databases to prisons: ((State of CA almost released a violent felon who just last year

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Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.

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