Just finished testing GlobalFix 2000 this afternoon. It's a rather small program (807K). It is not a "fix-all silver bullet". It's documentation clearly states that it does not check software (applications) for Y2k problem. (I don't think there is a Y2k solution that can effectively check software anyway. There are so many software out there. There is no way to predict which software a user may have installed in his PC and it is impossible to write "ONE" program that works on all the software.)
Installation was smooth. User interface is well designed so it should be easy for anyone to use. The only part that requires some patience is the "Power-Off Tests". You have to turn the computer off and reboot it at least 8 times to check 8 difference "Roll-Over" date. In my case I had to do it 9 times since I defined a customer "Roll-Over" date. (Besides my obvious interest in the stock, this customized test was one of the main reason I tried this GlobalFix 2000, as explained in next paragraph.) The whole process took about 20 minutes and no problem was found in my PC.
Now about the "customized test". In my post #244
(https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=7235933 ), I reported that I observed a Y2K problem. Although I mentioned that I reported the problem to both Netscape and NDB, implying that I was not sure whether the problem was caused by Netscape browser or NDB, somehow NDB knew about that post. In his email reply, their network manager was angry that I posted that (post #244) on SI. He accused me of lying. I wrote back telling him that I like NDB and always recommend it to my friends. I have no intention to do any harm to NDB. I pointed out that all he had to do is to set the time in his PC to a date after year 2000 (I gave him several dates that I tested), and use Netscape (explorer won't give detailed error message) to do a customer login on www.ndb.com to find out that I was not lying. He never wrote me back after that. After further testing, I found that the "Roll-Over" date for this particular problem was Jan. 18, 2038. That is, when I set my computer clock to Jan. 18, 2038, and then login to NDB, the error message I got shows the server recognizes my date correctly. But if I set the clock to Jan 19, 2038 (or any date after that), the server fails to recognize the date, it says my clock is "Dec 31, 1969". So when I use GlobalFix 200 today, I defined a customer "Roll-Over" date: Jan. 18, 2038 and my computer passed that test. So I guess the problem is either the browser or NDB server.
Again to be fair to NDB: I feel more assured after my own test that NDB won't have any problem handling my account on year 2000. Even if the Y2k problem I found is in NDB's server, it will only show up after Jan 18, 2038. By that time, most of us won't be around anyway.
yongzhi |
