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Show VOL : 4NO : dJ 7 LJz http:Wwww.ssanpete.kl2.ut.us j . v 6ung comes home! Benton THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1998 room of the building where the Senate meets and spend the day there, making runs, doing errands, and any other tasks the Senators needed done. When the day was done, they would go back to their dorms and get ready for another day. One thing that was pretty cool is that they took us up on top of the Capitol Building where hardly am bod gets to go. you actually have to be escorted up there by a Senator, and I got to sign my name on top of the Capitol Dome. Among the other interesting things he experienced while in Washington are: visiting the Trent Young gained when he By: Becca Scholes Friendships, a greater was awarded an internship in and understanding tor Washington D.C. respect our government, the chance to Im really grateful I meet Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich had the opportunity to go do and other prominent politicians, this, says Trent of his experiand six weeks in the capitol of ences, I would go back in a our country are all among the second. This was no vacation, things that Manti High Junior, however. Though away from Y2K - Nlanti, Trent did not entirely es- cape the attendance of school. Along with twenty fiv e other interns who all lived, worked and went to school together. He had to wake up to go to school at 7:00 ever' morning. At about 1:30, after four class periods, they would go over to the cloak 1 Na- tional Archives an hour before opening time to see them raise the constitution, getting a tour of the White I louse, being at the National Christmas Tree Lighting, going on several field trips including an overnight trip to Philadelphia where he saw the Broadway musical. Cats, and vi sited Mt. Vernon among other things. He also got to meet quite a few prominent people. Bob Dole was a pretty cool guy. He was really nice and he staved for a minute to talk to us. Trent sa) s of meeting with the former Senate Majority Leader.We also met Newt Gingrich and got our pictures taken with him but we didn't really get a chance to talk to him. He also got to see John Glenn, the famous astronaut w hen he visited D.C.. and pretty much all the Senators, not to mention getting to work with Utah Senators. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett. It was great to be able to see and meet all these important people. made a lot of good friends, got to meet some really neat people, and really have learned a lot about the government and have a greater appreciation for it, he says to sum it all up. I really miss it. After I got back, I was watching KSL one night and they were airing a shot of the Senate Floor and I saw some of my friends I met there just sitting one the Senate steps. 1 wished I could be there, but, he adds with a smile, I guess I should just be glad I got to go in the I I 1 first place. The Year 2000 Computes' crisis By: Thomas Bishop Man has created a monster. From worldwide com- munication networks to cars, many of the contrivances humans rely on for their everyday lifestyle contain computers. What would people do without these mechanical marvels of modem technology? They might very well find out, and soon. The problem, dubbed is caused by two digits in Y2K, a line of computer code, two digits where there should be four. Early programmers found that they could save valuable space by dropping the first two digits of years when program ming dates. Therefore, 1900 becomes 00. There is a flaw with this slightly more method, however. How does the computer express the year 2000? Simple. It doesnt. The programmers who it first used years extheir pected computers to be obsolete long before the year 2000, which they were. However, they also expected later programmers to replace the it years with four digits. Apple Computers did that (the Apple Macintosh does not face the Y2K problem). No one else did. Later programmers didn't write all new programming space-efficie- nt two-dig- two-dig- codes tor new' computers; they simply added to the previously written codes. That may not seem too serious at first glance, but a closer look at the details might be alarming. First, it isn't as simple to fix as it might appear. There are billions of lines of computer code that need to be changed, and millions of products with embedded microprocessors that need to be tested. Ihe time and cost required to complete an undertaking of this magnitude is stunning. Even if all of the necessary money w as available (which, in many cases, it isn't), the time is not. Tests have been performed, and the results show that computers react in bizarre and unpredictable wa) s when the clock reaches 2000. For example, a water treatment plant wanted to know what would happen, so they set their computer's clock ahead. When the clock changed over to what should be 2000, the computer dumped all of the plant's chemi-cainto the water at once, making the water toxic. There are many other problems, as well. Take elevators, tor instance. Elevators are serv iced once a year, at least. If not, the elevators computer ls directs it to die bottom floor and locks its doors. When the year 2000 comes, elevators that are not Y2K compliant will think they have not been serviced for 1 00 years, and will immediately drop to the basement and remain locked until a technician arrives to serv ice them. Elevators, however, are a comparative! minor problem. What happens when worldwide communication networks crash? What happens when manufacturing plants all over the world grind to a halt? What hap- pens when air traffic control computers shut down, with continued on pg. 10 |