Millenium bug bites?

With only about 700 days left until Jan. 1, 2000, businesses, governments, and individuals are scrambling to make sure computers recognize that a year given as 00 refers to 2000, not 1900. That massive reprogramming effort is accompanied by predictions of dire consequences--from airplane crashes to financial system disasters--if the problem isn't fixed.

To help sort fact from fancy, a group known as Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), based in Palo Alto, Calif., has established a "rumor center" on its World Wide Web site (http://wwwcpsrorg/program/y2k/).

"The impact of the problem will vary considerably," says Norman Kurland of Delmar, N.Y., who chairs the CPSR working group on the year 2000 problem. "No one knows for sure just how extensive the failures are going to be."

Rumors known to the group or submitted by visitors to the Web site are put into various categories, ranging from confirmed to disproved. "There are some things that are clearly not going to happen," Kurland says. "No airplane will fall out of the sky or go off course because of the year 2000 problem, and no elevator is going to crash to the ground. But there will be even wilder rumors as the time nears."

The CPSR effort is aimed at providing information that could be helpful to small organizations, businesses, and individuals, who may lack the resources or expertise to address the year 2000 problem on their own.