Listen folks, don't think that this will NOT affect you, and in very
crafty ways! Believe it or not I have already been hit and I am in essence
a museum of one with one single computer system!

Among my many hats I run about 20 arts related websites. In preparation
for this year's quadrennial USA International Ballet Competition, I used
the information that I already had in my "This Month in Dance History"
database to craft what I called a "Dance Season Planner".

For the planner I ttok my monthly printouts and extended them years into
the future looking for the major anniversaries that, given the extended
warning, could be developed into blockbuster tie-ins for the public. You
know how those 100th and 50th anniversaries sneak up on you, no? This
scheme was to give anyone free very advanced warning. (It would be a GREAT
idea for someone to do such a site for the VISUAL arts, no?)

Example. Here are some of the major milestones for the year 2000:

4/8/2000 -      50th anniversary of the death of Nijinski
4/15/2000 -     25th anniversary of A Chorus Line
5/5/2000 -      120th anniversary of the birth of Michael Fokine (Les
                        Sylphides, etc.)
5/7/2000 -      160th anniversary of the birth of Tchaikovski
6/21/2000 -     150th anniversary of the birth of Enrico Cecchetti
6/25/2000 -     90th anniversary of The Firebird

Well since we had entered into 1998 I needed to add another year to the
other end of my planner, 2001.  I was using an older version of Calendar
Creator. Amazing "It couldn't happen tp me" but as soon as I went one
month beyond December 2000, the screens on the software just went blank.
All data disappeared! Really! BUT I was lucky since the data re-appeared
when I backed back into 2000.

The morals:

a. Even NOW many date sensitive functions can give you problems.
b. These problems can strike at any time. My version of Calendar Creator
has no problem with 2000, but watch out for 2001!
c. I can get a new version of Calendar Creator but will be very paranoid
that perhaps the new version may be as bad as the old in this regard. Will
the new version self destruct in just two years? Will my current data
still be good in year 2000 compliant programs?
d. I am just dealing with about 500 dates, Imagine what could happen to
museum systems which might be cataloging dates of every one of their
holdings!

Richard F