[Breaking NEWS] French computer system found to be immune to Y2K problems

["Thanh C. Nguyen" <ncthanh@csd.uwm.edu>]

Paris, Tuesday, 1st of April 1997

The French Ministry of Informatics (MOI) today announced the they have 
determinecd that French computer systems will not be affected by the year 
2000 problem. An extensive series of tests have been run on a wide rane 
of applications within the country. and on no system has a Y2K problem 
been apparent.

A spokesman put this good fortune down to a side-effect of the French 
number system. In this system the number eighty is represented by the 
composiste "quatre vingts" -- literally "four twenties". French computer 
systems represent the "quatre" as a singly digit and will harmlessly roll 
over to "cinq vingts" or "five twenties" while the rest of the world 
collapses. Thus, "quatre vingts dix neuf" will increment to "cinq vingts"

French speaking areas of Belgium and Swizerland are bemused by these 
developments because thay still use the older "septant, octant, nonant" 
system for 70, 80 and 90. The Belgian government is thought to be 
considering an urgent change in the language. This would provide a major 
boost for the less prosperous French speaking part of the country when 
computer systems are relocated to French speaking communes.

Microsoft has announced that it will use similar techniques to guarantee 
the PC will not suffer from such problems, by launching a new version of 
their operating system. "Windows ninety ten" is expected to be available 
in the year five twenties two.

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Hapy 1st April
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