Thanks Steve, but short and long have dug up just about everything out there. Please post anything "new" you come across, as far as the shorts, if the info is not endorsed by Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, or the almighty himself, they will be there. Talked to Jay Mait, that Smith Barney/Matridigm info would sure look good on this thread. Here's 2 articles from the Las Vegas Sun REF Nevada's Beta Testing
Las Vegas SUN archives
State finds help with 2000
computer glitch
By Cy Ryan
SUN CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- A computer company in California may provide
answers to a $36 million dilemma facing Nevada's state government.
The state has agreed to become a guinea pig for testing by MatriDigm
Corp., which boasts it has a quicker and cheaper solution to the
so-called 2000 computer problem.
It won't be known until the end of October whether MatriDigm
possesses the tools to do the job, but Marlene Lockard, director of the
state Department of Information Services, says it's worth the time to go
through the test.
At the turn of the century, many of the computers programmed from the
1950s through the 1970s dealt only with functions of the 1900s. Come
Jan. 1, 2000, if not fixed, they will spit out wrong computations. The
computer won't be able to distinguish between the 20th and 21st
centuries.
For example, the age of a person born in 1954 would be 45 in 1999.
But if the computer was not corrected, the age in 2000 would show up
as -54 instead of the actual age of 46.
A computer not changed will affect things such as government benefit
checks, license renewals, release of prison inmates and interest on
income investment.
In state government, Lockard says, a "worst-case estimate" is that it will
cost $36.2 million and may require replacing 2,200 of the older personal
computers.
For instance, the state Employment Security Division figures it will cost
$4 million to keep the checks flowing to the jobless and maintain its
other programs.
The Legislature's Interim Finance Committee last week gave the division
permission to use $395,909 to employ two additional computer
programmers and hire outside consultants to start conversion of the
benefit and tax systems. These conversions can take years.
Lockard refers to MatriDigm, formed in 1995 in Fremont, Calif., as the
"silver bullet."
Lockard won't divulge any more. She said she has a "confidential test
arrangement" with the company to allow it to try its patented method of
solving the problem. "They do it by automation and they don't go in line
by line."
It is estimated that 20 million lines of code in state computers need
correcting and that could cost anywhere from $1.10 to $1.65 a line.
Lockard said the 2000 problem is "much like a virus."
"If there is an exchange of information, it could create a problem in the
entire system," she said.
The State Industrial Insurance System alone estimates it will require
5,000 to 9,000 additional hours of work to correct the problem.
Some agencies are ahead of the game. State Gaming Control Board
Chairman William Bible said computer applications written in the last
five years have been developed with the year 2000 in mind. ..." He said
the corrections will be handled during normal maintenance.
Some of the most critical problems are faced in the Insurance Division,
Taxation Department, Personnel Department, Employment, Training and
Rehabilitation Department, Purchasing Division, controller's office,
Medicaid, Transportation Department and the Motor Vehicles and
Public Safety Department.
Estimates of the cost of correction worldwide are $400 billion to $600
billion.
MatriDigm, although only one year old, boasts it has 500 years of
computer industry experience in its top executives. It said its system "can
find, fix and test code at least 20 times faster than any other known
approach." A conversion of a business or an agency can be completed
in weeks or months instead of years.
The MatriDigm system operates on a Microsoft Windows NT system
with propriety software capabilities.
If MatriDigm lives up to its publicity, Lockard said the state will be able
to save a good part of that $36.2 million and complete the job more
quickly. A price and timetable won't be agreed upon until the end of the
testing in about seven weeks.
Las Vegas SUN archives main page
Questions or problems? Click here.
All contents copyright 1996 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
Portions copyright 1996 Associated Press.
This page last modified Monday, September 16, 1996 16:53:35
Las Vegas SUN archives
Company may have solved year
2000 computer problems
By Cy Ryan
SUN CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- Marlene Lockard, the director of the state
Department of Information Services, never dreamed her talk to a group
of state executives and a subsequent newspaper story would ignite a run
in the stock market.
But that's what has happened.
Since her remarks in late September, the shares of Zitel Inc., traded on
NASDAQ, have shot from about 14 to 37 5/8 as of Thursday.
And investors are trying to corral more information from her.
"I've had calls from London, New York, Chicago, California and other
places wanting to know if this is for real," she says.
Zitel is a publicly traded corporation that holds 37.5 percent of
Matridigm, a firm involved in computers.
Matridigm is less than a year old but brags that it has a fast and cheap
answer to the year 2000 computer dilemma. It is now testing on the
state computer system to see if its performance is as good as its boast.
State government faces spending $36 million to change its computers to
avoid a massive crash come Jan. 1, 2000. Unless corrections are made,
the computers will spit out the wrong information on such things as
taxes, welfare grants, time prison inmates are behind bars and a variety
of other items.
Most computers are programmed only for this century. And the difficulty
isn't confined to government. It is estimated it may cost up to $600
billion around the globe.
In September, Lockard told a meeting of state executives that she and
Matridigm have entered into an agreement to allow the company to test
its innovation on the state system. The state, in effect, was serving as the
guinea pig for this private company. And her comments were reported in
the Las Vegas SUN.
It's the interest in Matridigm that is driving up the share prices of Zitel,
says financial advisers.
J. David Stewart, who publishes his own financial newsletter, says
Lockard has "inadvertently uttered the cry starting the modern-day
technological equivalent of the California Gold Rush." And he called the
shares of Zitel Corp., a "strong and immediate buy for aggressive
investment accounts."
Lockard says that if the Matridigm system works, the cost to the state
could be reduced by at least 30 percent. And instead of years, the
corrections could be realized in months.
The tests by Matridigm are due to be completed late this month. And
then Lockard's department will analyze whether or not it works. "We
want to know if this is real. We hope it is," she said.
But she said the state is still preparing a contingency plan if Matridigm
bombs out. There's no firm date for a final decision.
Matridigm, of Fremont, Calif., is headed by James Brady, who spent 34
years with IBM before retiring. One of the gurus of the firm is Franklin
Chiang, credited with developing innovations that improved the color in
television. He also is credited with inventing the hand-held calculator for
Hewlett Packard.
While many have benefited from the fast rise in the stock price of Zitel,
Lockard isn't one of them. She says she's barred by ethical standards
from investing.
Las Vegas SUN archives main page
Questions or problems? Click here.
All contents copyright 1996 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
Portions copyright 1996 Associated Press.
This page last modified Saturday, October 12, 1996 13:52:42 |
