Cleveland pays $10 million for Y2K Bug protection

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City pays $10 million for Y2K Bug protection

A US city has paid $10 million to protect itself from the Millenium Bug - almost two years after Y2K day.

Cleveland is paying two computer firms around $500,000 each month to make sure the city is safe from Y2K disasters.

The cash is due because of contracts signed in the run-up to January 1, which passed off without a hitch in Cleveland.

City Council President Mike Polensek said: "The intent was not to give them a blank cheque.

"The council supported that because of what we were approaching and all the predictions of doom and gloom."

Cleveland has paid about $500,000 a month to the two computer firms, and part of the cash is paid for 'firewall security' and 'Y2K follow-up.'

Doommongers had predicted computers worldwide would crash because they used two-digit date systems and would misinterpret "00" as 1900, not 2000.

The city Mayor Michael White has come under fire for approving and re-signing the contracts, reports The Plain Dealer newspaper.

"Why we're still spending under a Y2K contract is a mystery to me," said Councilman Bill Patmon, chairman of the Finance Committee.

"I have never been able to get to the straight of it."

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_389103.html?menu=news.quirkies

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 03, 2001


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