Shut off the computers??? It'll just go away???
vny.com
Friday, 17 December 1999 13:03 (GMT)
(UPI Focus)
MIT preps for Y2K
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 17 (UPI) - The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology isn't in a panic over any Y2K problems, but isn't taking any
chances, either.
MIT officials are recommending that all of the school's non-essential
computers be shut off no later than Dec. 30, a day before the date
changes from 12/31/99 to 1/1/00.
That's because Jan. 1 arrives in New Zealand as early as 7 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time on Dec. 31, and any computer problems there could
spread across the planet's computer networks, The Boston Globe said
Friday.
The concern is that some computers and microchips might shut down or
malfunction by reading "00" as 1900 rather than 2000.
MIT has some 20,000 computers and servers.
Gerald Isaacson, MIT's Y2K expert, told the Globe, "If you don't
need the machine on and you shut it down, you have that much more time
to deal with any issues that come up."
MIT, as a precaution, is also advising professors and students to
back up research data no later than Dec. 30, rather than wait for the
automatic storage scheduled for the last day of each month.
And in case of any Y2K power failures or civil disasters, MIT has
equipped all of its residence halls with cots and blankets, even though
most of MIT's 9,900 students are expected to be on vacation when the
clocks change over to the new year.
Gary Beach, publisher of CIO magazine, said, "I think it's a smart
piece of pragmatic advice that MIT is giving its community."
Besides, Beach added, "Why would anybody want to be sitting at their
computer on New Year's Eve unless they absolutely had to?"
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Copyright 1999 by United Press International.
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