'Tackling the Millenium Bug
...
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Indian Programmers Play Major Part in Y2K Fix
October 1, 1998
(This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.)
PETER JENNINGS We're going to take “A Closer Look”
tonight, as we do periodically, at the potential chaos that may
yet be caused by the so—called “millennium bug.” Just to
review, the problem, or the bug, is this.
(VO) When most computer chips read the date, they only
read the last two digits. Most of you know this. So when it
gets to be the Year 2000, many computers will see the '00
and think it is 1900.
(on camera) And what that might do to everything that runs
with computer chips is why the nightmare. Last night, the city
of Lubbock, Texas, underwent a comprehensive test, trying
to make sure that when the calendar turns to January 1,
2000, it won't be the night the lights went out in Texas—the
lights and everything else. ABC's James Walker was there.
JAMES WALKER, ABCNEWS (VO) At Lubbock's
emergency operations center, they are pretending it's January
1, 2000, and the millennium bug is spreading havoc.
1ST OFFICIAL Most of southeast Lubbock is without gas
right now.
2ND OFFICIAL The airline has lost communications to
headquarters.
3RD OFFICIAL I have no radio communications out of
here at all.
JAMES WALKER (VO) They are trying to simulate what
might happen if all kinds of machines malfunctioned because
small computer chips in them misread the date on January 1,
2000.
BOB CASS, LUBBOCK CITY MANAGER We have
got so many computer chips embedded in so many pieces of
equipment, and we simply don't know which ones will
function and which ones will not. So our mission is to find out.
JAMES WALKER (VO) Example—there are embedded
chips in the fire department's poison gas detector, in the
machines that fill the firefighters air bottles. And while the
manufacturer says the electronics that operate this truck's
engine, transmission and ladder will work in the Year 2000,
fire officials are preparing for the worst.
RHEA COOPER, DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF We can get
confirmation all day long that it's OK, but that doesn't tell me
100 percent. They can't say 100 percent for sure that this
truck will work on that day.
JAMES WALKER (VO) What lesson has Lubbock
learned from the drill? That it is not enough for the city alone
to be prepared.
4TH OFFICIAL It failed? The generator you bought failed.
JAMES WALKER (VO) Lubbock, like cities everywhere,
depends on outside suppliers—- manufacturers, gas and
electronic companies. If one of their systems fails, that could
have a domino effect, hurting even cities that are prepared for
the Year 2000.
(on camera) If you think that your town is as on top of the
Year 2000 problem as Lubbock, think again. In a survey of
thousands of cities and towns across the country, almost 80
percent haven't even started working on it. And what do you
say to those who will hear this and see this piece and say,
“Lubbock, you're a bunch of alarmists”?
BOB CASS We hope they're right. We hope they're right,
but we're not willing to take that risk.
JAMES WALKER (VO) James Walker, ABCNEWS,
Lubbock.
...
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