Q I'm doing some research for a legal article about computer bugs generally (and the Y2K problem in particular). I am aware of other bugs such as the Unix 2021 bug, the 9/9/99 bug and the Dow Jones 10000 bug. Are you able to point me in the right direction to find more information about other bugs? Thanks.

A On the Web, a good place to start a bug hunt is the BugNet site, which is located at www.bugnet.com. BugNet contains a wealth of information about all sorts of computer bugs, glitches, incompatibilities and fixes. The heart of the site is the extensive BugNet database that includes descriptions and fixes for bugs that occur in almost 1500 popular PC programs. There is also a bug alert service and a bug analysis service. You have to subscribe to BugNet to search the database, access the archive of past bug alerts, and use the analysis service. But the site also contains a number of freebies, including access to current bug alerts, a list of the top 10 computer bugs, and various readme files which contain information about most of the popular (or unpopular!) Windows 95 bugs.

Caption: BugNet is a good source of "bugs and fixes" information. However, the best material is not available free

Another place to look on the Web is the Winfiles site at www.winfiles.com, which has information about Windows-related bugs. The Web sites of software and hardware manufacturers, such as Microsoft and Intel, usually have some good pages about bugs as well. WoodyÆs Office Watch at www.wopr.com is an excellent source of information about bugs that affect Microsoft Office products. If you use any of the popular search engines to find terms such as "year 2000 bug" or "millennium bug" youÆll get numerous links for pages that discuss the Year 2000 problem. There is also an excellent article called "BUGS: How they breed and the damage they do," at C-NetÆs Web site (www.cnet.com/Content/Features/DLife/Bugs/Index.html). Finally, at maxthink.com/news/bugs, thereÆs a page that lists a number of newsgroups that discuss Unix bugs and fixes for all varieties of Unix.

Off the Web, you may want to try and track down a book called Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bugs, by Ivars Peterson. It describes dozens of computer bugs, including past, present and future bugs, such as the Millennium bug. If your local library or bookshop doesnÆt have it, itÆs available from Amazon.com. Other books to keep an eye open for are Computer-Related Risks by Peter Neumann; Safeware: System Safety and Computers by Nancy Leveson; and Solving the Year 2000 Problem by James Edward Keogh. While youÆre at the library itÆs also a good idea to flick through old issues of computer magazines, as they frequently mention bugs and fixes.