From John Blockley
Ardross, Western Australia
I use my computer to keep records for income tax purposes and, like James
Follett (Letters, 22 February, p 52), was concerned about the “millennium bug”.
To test its potentially disastrous effect, I used my spreadsheet (Microsoft
Works) to calculate the interest on a hypothetical bank deposit from 1 January
1997 to various dates in the 21st century.
I found the program gave correct results until 3 June 2079, after which the
bug struck, rather tardily, and I received negative interest from then on. I
propose to invest a modest $5 at 5 per cent compound interest now in the
expectation that by June 2079 it will buy a new version of Works in which this
problem has been solved.
