for all working in Y2K projects, here another approach from the past.
enjoy it!
Andreas Schmidt, CSC, Germany



Message from: Rome
January 18,  1 B.C.

Dear Cassius,

Are you still working on the Y zero K problem?  This change from BC to AD
is giving us a lot of headaches and we haven't much time left.  I don't
know how people will cope with working the wrong way around.  Having been
working happily downwards forever, now we have to start thinking upwards.
You would think that someone would have thought of it earlier and not left
it to us to sort out at the last minute.

I spoke to Caesar the other evening.  He was livid that Julius hadn't done
something about it when he was sorting out the calendar.  He said he could
see why Brutus turned nasty.  We called in the consulting astrologers, but
they simply said that continuing downwards using minus BC won't work.  As
usual, the consultants charged a fortune for doing nothing useful.  As for
myself, I just can't see the sand in an hourglass flowing upwards.

We have heard that there are three wise guys in the east working on the
problem, but unfortunately they won't arrive till it's all over.  Some say
the world will cease to exist at the moment of transition.  Anyway we are
continuing to work on this blasted Y zero K problem and I will send you a
parchment if anything further develops.

Plutonius.

PS - To make matters worse, we don't even have a numeral for zero!