A personal tale.
I am essentially retired from the automobile collision repair industry. In 1987 my firm was among the first to computerize; with an IBM 286 clone and a slaved terminal. We enjoyed a management program that enabled us to perform all the bookkeeping functions and print out legible, appealing estimates that were mathematically correct. We still employ that program, (now unsupported) in DOS, on much faster machines today. In December 1997 I attended an industry trade show with the intent of checking out the software vendors because my datefields were all 19xx. I could see the immediate Y2K problem then.
To make it short I bought a program to accomplish my needs: "Windows 95 platform, network enabled and Y2K compliant". Lies! A $2400 mistake. I felt defrauded.
It turned out to be a DOS program with an accounting module add-on from One Write, with, you guessed it, the same old date fields. Was I pissed! These people still do not have the base program written in Windows code, although One Write does. I wasn't inclined to install it.
So I took the present program and rolled my PC forward to Dec 31, 1999 11:59 pm and watched. Much to my surprise the date for the transactions module would print a 2000 date when I hit enter, because it read the date off the computer clock and simply overwrote the 19 with a 20. Although other dates weren't as cooperative, I figured we could stumble through the new year and fix on failure.
More recently, I learned that a company had secured the rights to my original program and planned to upgrade it for compliance. So I paid my money and signed on. Got the first upgrade, some but not all errors had been corrected. A discussion yesterday leads me to believe that we may be okay. This new licensee sent their improved version out for review by a firm that in turn does Y2K remediation, and found three errors (in addition I guess to the obvious formatting problems I'd observed) and was duplicating update diskettes yesterday.
This is all complicated by the necessity of being able to import into the management program estimates from a Win95 third party platform, and digital photography, all of which gets transmitted to insurance companies via modem.
If you've read this far, you can see why I am so disturbed about Y2K. I really do not have our systems fixed, with 40 days to go, yet I have been aware of it since mid 1997.
That is my micro problem. Will all the suppliers of car parts be up to speed? Will the insurance companies who feed us be up to speed? Will there be ample fuel so that people can continue to fight traffic and smash their cars?
So I sold some of this business and moved across country. This way I don't have to look customers in the eye and assure them everything is hunkydory. This year spent improving the plumbing and weatherproofing of an older home, getting personally prepared, discovering a new environment, and making new acquaintances has been the best year of my life. I hope next year won't be the worst.
Bill |
