Barberio's Web Page

August 98 Column
Note: If you are having difficulty reading this page, try using the Netscape Browser instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Why Two Kay?
By Jana Barberio

    At least one state has declared the problem a natural disaster to avoid law suit damages. What is it? If you read the paper or work for a company that uses computers, you have heard about the Year 2000 Problem, otherwise known as “Y2K” for short (k=kilo=1,000). For more details, read on.
     You might have read in the newspaper how Governor Engler issued an executive order requiring department and agency heads to make Y2K issues a priority or how globally, governments and businesses will spend $3 trillion to fix the problem. In fact, the Wall Street Journal recently stated how 100 U.S. companies expect to spend $6.55 billion on solutions.
     According to Skip Osterhus, a software recovery technologist who spoke at a monthly Flint Area Computer Enthusiasts (FACE) meeting about the Real Year 2000 Problem, this is a problem for personal computer users and not just big companies.

What exactly is the problem?

Although programmers offer varied explanations, if a computer code contains a two-digit date field instead of a four-digit date field (for example, 98 instead of 1998), date-sensitive equipment can confuse the year 1900 with 2000. Years ago, programs and computers lacked space for extraneous digits. The thought was that the programs and computers would become obsolete before it became a problem. It would have been more costly (in terms of expensive memory) back then to create a four digit date code than to spend the money hiring programmers and replacing software today.

What Can Happen If The Problem Isn’t Fixed?

This “Millennium Bug” as Miller Canfield TEAM 2000 consulting group calls it, can create sticky situations for people who depend on government checks, medical devices and equipment, heavy machinery and airplanes to use dates without error. Can a simple date spell disaster? Groups like Metro Detroit Healthcare Y2K User Group, publications such as Andrews Year 2000 Law Bulletin and Y2K seminars abound to ensure that disaster won’t happen.
Businesses, health care, government and transportation systems may or may not successfully fix the problem prior to January 1, 2000. One Washington, D.C. attorney I spoke with for another article, commented off the record on the Federal government’s slowness in dealing with the problem. Security devices, credit card validation devices and military devices have systems which, if not fixed, will either crash or produce incorrect results. Already there is a lawsuit involving a Michigan grocery store whose cash register system cannot process credit cards which expire in 2000 or later.

What Can I Do?

    Some people will have no choice but to deal with these links to the outside world on December 31, 1999, while others will simply stay home to avoid the doom and gloom of date glitches. Staying home is no guarantee. Do you wonder about the phone service? How many gadgets in your home have computers inside them? Are they Y2K compliant?
    Your computer hardware and software deserves a second look. Now is a good time to know what a PC BIOS is, because if not compliant, the date glitch will effect the hardware boot up. Your data files—the files you store your financial and personal information on—and software programs can be affected.
    These things can all be fixed. Software fixes abound by service-oriented vendors. From now on, buy only new certified machines and software you know to be compliant. To confirm compliance and for more information, contact the manufacturer, check on-line chat and discussion groups and try these web sites:

www.year2000.com
www.2ktimebomb.com/Investing
www.2k-times.com/y2k.htm
www.comlinks.com/legal/tmjb10.htm
www.andrewspub.com
www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Year_2000_Problem

Meanwhile, as Osterhus suggested, profit from this bug by learning to program, speaking on the subject or buying stocks.

******************
Jana Barberio is a freelance writer and a former paralegal. She and her husband, John started the Holly Computer User Group in Holly, Michigan. She can be reached by email at
jana@barberio.com
************************************
Click here to Return to Main Page
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at
jana@barberio.com