The Day The Nines Didn't Align

The 9/9/99 problem came and went without registering a blip on most IT department radar screens yesterday. But that doesn't mean the Year 2000 problem is any less of a concern, according to Y2K experts.

The alignment of four nines in the date field of business applications had been seen by some pundits as a potential system-crashing problem similar to the millennium rollover. But it didn't happen.

"We have seen absolutely no impact," said Noah Ross of Cap Gemini, which does Y2K services for many Fortune 1000 companies. "It was totally overhyped."

Most computers read date fields in two digits, not one, so they registered yesterday's date as 09/09/99, Ross observed. The alignment of four nines -- which in some programs is an instruction for the application to shut down -- never happened because the nines never aligned.

Ross was quick to point out that although the 9/9/99 problem never happened, the Y2K problem definitely will. "People should not read anything into the 9/9/99 issue, as though it is an indicator that the Y2K problem will not occur," Ross said. "There will definitely be issues with Y2K."