[11408] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Will Your Computer Crash in 2000?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ernest Perez)
Thu Jun 19 20:59:30 1997
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 18:54:44 -0500
From: Ernest Perez <perez@opac.osl.state.or.us>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: perez@opac.osl.state.or.us
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> On January 1, 2000, many of the world's largest computer systems will
> crash. Why? Because their date routines were not programmed to handle
> century changes. For some people, the inconvenience will be minor -- senior
> citizens being told they must register for the draft, for example. For
> others, it will be devastating: some software uses "99" in the year field
> to mark a file for deletion. Files are already being deleted, systems are
> already crashing, and we're 30 months away from 2000.
Seems to me that the Year2K hysteria is lots of sound & fury signifying
<not much>, like unto the neverending Dreaded Virus Armageddons.
Check out last week's issue of InfoWorld. Their observations:
* Most every large organization and commercial vendor is hard at work
and/or nearly/done with Y2K fixes. Does anyone really think any
organization with the slightest clue hasn't noticed yet?
* 30 months is a couple of Internet/DP decades. Really, how many of
your apps were you using 30 months ago, which you haven't replaced
and/or upgraded?
* InfoWorld's lead software evaluation & recommendations were for
tools to help companies work with BIG program suite fixes. I mean, like
for apps with up to millions of lines of code, a la LEXIS or DIALOG.
Their final recommendations included tools for UNIX, DOS, MVS, Windows,
etc. So labor-saving fixes are out there for who needs them.
I agree, lots of folks want to make a buck off this new Sky is Falling
Down scare. C'mon, let's drop this rather irrelevant hysteria as per
this list. Really, how many big apps does _your_ library maintain at the
source code level? Or do maybe lots of us fear huge Y2K disasters in
our HTML page coding? :-)
- ernest
Ernest Perez//Oregon State Library//perez@opac.state.or.us//503-378-4243
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.
The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty."
- Winston Churchill
