The interview was pretty brief. They called me on the phone and asked if I could address the issue -- then they put me on hold for two minutes, and put me on the air.
They gave a ten or twenty second introduction, mentioning the recent example of credit cards not working on certain store cash registers if the cards had dates after the year 2000, then asked me how big a problem it is, especially for those of us with personal computers.
I said that PC's manufactured in the last few years shouldn't really pose a problem in either area, and that most older ones should be able to use software patches of one kind or another. I told them that the real issue has to do with bigger systems, and there are two main areas of concern: software and embedded chips. I explained that software code -- such as old Cobol -- is really the easier of the problems, because it can be fixed by going through the code line by line, and that all sorts of macros could be developed to comb through it more quickly.
The big problem, I said, was hardware. I briefly explained what embedded chips are, and that while perhaps only 10-15% of embedded chips aren't y2k compliant, it's hard to figure out which ones they are. Many companies have built their factory floors and other systems -- even those cash register credit card systems -- over a period of years, using many contractors, some that aren't in business anymore. Most companies don't know which chips are in their machines.
I explained that the trick is determining which chips in a system will cause a problem, and then replacing them one by one.
Why can't software just fix the problem? they asked.
Because most embedded chips don't have any inputs for keyboards or software control, I explained. Imagine trying to "reprogram" the chip in your microwave -- there's no place to plug in your keyboard. There's no software to replace. You'd have to open the whole thing up and replace the chip. Only in this case, it's not microwaves but bank vaults, offshore oil rigs, power plants...
"Oh my god..." they said. "That's why they're starting now."
Right, I told them. But it's going to take longer than we might think. Imagine a factory floor like, say, one at a GM assembly line, with hundreds of robots building cars, each having dozens of embedded chips. They have to figure out which chips were made by whom, and then if the chips are compliant. Then they have to go in, take apart the robots and replace all the bad chips individually.
It's a big big job, and it's already a bit late to be getting at it. A power company has already admitted that they it won't be completely year-two-thousand compliant by the time the clock strikes, and are just working to keep the power uninterrupted.
Then they said something flippant but ominous, and cut to commercial.
Honestly, I think they had someone else scheduled and then called me at the last minute when they couldn't find him. That's what syndicated columnists are here for. |
