The Y-Zero-K Problem

Message from: Rome
October 3, 1 B.C.

Dear Cassius,

Are you still working on the Y zero K problem?
This change from BC to AD is giving us a lot of
headaches and we haven't much time left.  

I don't know how people will cope with working
the wrong way around.  Having been working happily
downwards forever, now we have to start thinking
upwards.

You would think that someone would have thought of
it earlier and not left it to us to sort out at the
last minute.

I spoke to Caesar the other evening.  He was livid
that Julius hadn't done something about it when he
was sorting out the calendar.  He said he could see
why Brutus turned nasty.  We called in the consulting
astrologers, but they simply said that continuing
downwards using minus BC won't work.  As usual, the
consultants charged a fortune for doing nothing useful.

As for myself, I just can't see the sand in an hourglass
flowing upwards.

We have heard that there are 3 wise men in the east
working on the problem, but unfortunately they won't
arrive till it's all over.  Some say the world will
cease to exist at the moment of transition.  

Anyway, we are continuing to work on this blasted
Y zero K problem and I will send you a parchment if
anything further develops.  I must end this message
short because I have suffered from a terrible case of
enscriber's syndrome ever since you sent us the new
high-speed rewriteable tablets.

Best Regards,  
Plutonius