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Y2K WAR STORIES
Prisoners in the State of Texas jails now may be paroled for a period not past New Year's Eve 1999. In other words, the max. parole is now less than 3 years!!
For Marks & Spencer, the nightmare began with a tin of corn beef, rejected on the ground that it was 96 years out of date!! Marks & Spencers are auditing their 700+ suppliers for compliance!!
The Brussels Stock Exchange crashing because of the date change from 1996 to 1997. Their Exchange was down for about 3 hours because of the "technical problem" (their words). The director of the Exchange said that one of the problems was orders placed on Dec. 30, the last trading day of 1996, were being recognized as December 1997 orders!!
New Year's Eve 31/12/1996 saw a software failure at the New Zealand Aluminum Smelter shutting down controlling computers without warning. Caused by a programming error that couldn't handle 1996 being a leap year, temperature control in the melters failed causing extensive damage. Replacing them will cost in excess of $NZ 1,000,000. Two hours later, the problem was duplicated in Tasmania as Australia entered the new year. Both smelters used the same software!!
British Telecom has given its 1800 core suppliers a warning that it will stop doing business with companies who can't guarantee their internal IT systems will be year 2000 compliant!!
The Global Positioning System weeknumber rollover at midnight of 1999-08-21 setting this number back to 1980-01-05. This system is on board of satellites and cannot be corrected.
Systems controlling defense operations in Russia are outdated within three years. Outside world assumes a Year2000 problem.
Lufthansa recently announced they will be grounding their flights for a 24 hour period on 19991231-20000101. Apparently they are not concerned as much with the electronics on their aircraft as they are with the various national air traffic control systems and the tremendous risk of legal exposure.
University College Hospital, London, has discovered that all the fusion pumps - an essential part of the drip feeds) will fail and cannot be repaired. This is a common piece of equipment in hospitals. There is no budget for their replacement.
In a Dutch pharmacist: It is common practice that older medicines are sold before the newer ones, however, medicines with expiration date of 00 were sold first! A new group was destroyed because the expiration dates 00 was passed.
Experience with Sidekick: Just to test my own machine I set the date to 31 December 1999 and the clock to 23:59:50. Switched off the computer and turned it on 30 seconds later. The date was 1980. All my Todos, calls, appointments in Sidekick for 1 November 1996 had moved to 1980. So back to Dos. set the date correct again and start Windows anew. Sidekick had lost all information!!
MORE...
xs4all.nl
Comprehensive UK & European Y2K site with above and LOTS more info:
compinfo.co.uk |
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