In this scenario, ill-written software itself intended to patch the Y2K glitch might go overboard and read an intentional 9999 end-of-file value as a date and convert it into an explicit 1999 date.
Sir Alan said this week that he had always intended to serve for only a short period to oversee the forecasting for the first budget; his three-month contract expires in mid-August.
He lived locally and was on a day's test run prior to a planned five-week journey following the River Danube to Romania, where it empties into the Black Sea.