According to Information Week, the tab for the Year 2000 software fix alone will hit $600 billion. Thats enough to buy 500,417,014 iMacs at $1199 each (although if you place such a large order, you should probably demand a discount).



Thats enough iMacs to circle the globe four times. (And youd better get those ships and trains and 18- wheelers ready: at 38.1 lbs per iMac, youre talking about hauling away a total weight of around eight million tons.)



That $600 billion is enough to buy iMacs for every man, woman and child in the United Statesplus everyone in Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, France, Greece and Guatemala. (And youd still have more than 3,000,000 iMacs left over to pass around as tips for your army of delivery people, each of whom will have to make more than 150 door- to- door trips.)



A phone call that begins just before midnight on December 31, 1999, and ends moments later on January 1, 2000, could be billed as a gabfest that droned on for 99 years.

Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure



We may not have got everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end. Douglas Adams Computer systems that cannot correctly process dates beyond 2000 are at risk of failure one second after midnight on December 31, 1999.



The good news is that since their introduction in 1984, Macintosh computers have had the ability to make the transition to the year 2000. In fact, the Mac OS and most Mac applications can handle internally generated dates correctly all the way to the year 29,940.



Heres an easy way to check the Year 2000 compliance of Apple products:







What is the Year 2000 Problem Anyway?

Many computer systems use a two- digit date format (mm/dd/yy), and experts believe that these systems could interpret the Year 2000 (00) as 1900.

This means that mission- critical information systemsand the institutions that depend on themcould be severely compromised by the turn of the century; everything from financial records to hotel reservations would be affected. This scenario of information meltdown has been called the Year 2000 problem, or Y2K. The Y2K problem can come from several sources, including:



Hardware : a clock circuit may be incapable of holding a date beyond 1999



Operating System : may not correctly recognize and process dates beyond 1999



Software Applications and utilities: may have limited date- processing capabilities

In addition, some systems may not recognize that the Year 2000 is a leap year. If a year is evenly divisible by 4, it is a leap year, unless it is also evenly divisible by 100. But if a year is also evenly divisible by 400, it is a leap year. So 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 is. Apple Computer, Inc., Year 2000 Compliance Statement



A Year 2000 Compliant product from Apple will not produce errors processing date data in connection with the year change from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000, when used with accurate date data in accordance with its documentation, provided all other products (e.g., other software, firmware and hardware) used with it properly exchange date data with the Apple product. A Year 2000 Compliant product from Apple will recognize the Year 2000 as a leap year.



The Apple Year 2000 Compliance Statement refers to all Apple- branded hardware and software products as originally delivered by Apple indicated as compliant on this website. The Compliance Statement does not apply to product features that have been customized or altered, or third party add- on features or products, including items such as macros and custom programming and formatting features. Apples Year 2000 Compliance Statement does not extend to third party software applications, whether shipped preinstalled on an Apple computer or installed using a program supplied by Apple. Apple does not test third party applications for Year 2000 compliance and encourages customers to consult third party publishers directly for information concerning Year 2000 compliance.



Only currently- supported Apple products have been tested for compliance. The Apple Year 2000 Compliance Statement and related Year 2000 information does not constitute a warranty or extend the terms of any existing warranty. The limited warranties provided for Apples products, if any, are set forth in the documentation and license agreements that accompany the products.



All information available from Apple concerning the Year 2000 is provided for the sole purpose of assisting our customers in their planning for the transition to the Year 2000.



Apple is continuing its efforts to make the Year 2000 information contained herein, as well as the information contained in its web sites and other communications, as accurate and up- to- date as possible; however, all Year 2000 information is provided without warranty.



Apple will be providing updated Year 2000 information on its various products periodically through its web page at http://www.apple.com/about/year2000/. Apple advises customers to consult the web page for product information updates. However, customers are encouraged to properly test their computer systems and related software to ensure that they have adequately addressed their Year 2000 issues.