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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (6081)	6/21/1999 9:51:00 AM
From: Jeff Mizer	Respond to of 9818

bostonherald.com excerpt The uncertainty of what is to come has raised several questions. And some warn the repercussions will be life-altering. ''The economy could falter because of this,'' said Wray, who has installed a wood stove in his home in case there is no heat on Jan. 1. ''Freighters could start dumping oil in the ocean. Even the government is talking about stockpiling 30 to 60 days' worth of food at overseas embassies because they know countries abroad are in worse shape than we are.''

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (6081)	6/21/1999 11:36:00 AM
From: John Hunt	Respond to of 9818

IEE Embedded Systems Fault Casebook iee.org.uk Hi Cheryl, Examples of the embedded chip problem ... some serious, some not. John

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (6081)	6/22/1999 6:12:00 AM
From: John Hunt	Respond to of 9818

Defense's Y2K worries << The U.S. Department of Defense is so concerned about the potential for problems associated with the Y2K millennium bug that it is considering unplugging itself from the Internet to defend against a simultaneous cyber assault. That word comes from Marvin Langston, the deputy chief information officer for the Pentagon, who says the discussions about the plan are "as serious as a heart attack." "We need to close down back doors around the year 2000 to prevent hacking during Y2K confusion," he said during a panel discussion at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association conference last week. In the event of a cyber attack, Defense would switch from the public Internet to the Nonclassified Internet Protocol Router Network, or NIPRNET, the military's own Internet with external connections. The military also maintains a Secret Internet Protocol Router Network of classified material without external connections ... more ... >> worldnetdaily.com

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (6081)	6/23/1999 1:52:00 PM
From: John Hunt	Respond to of 9818

Are Embedded Systems A Serious Problem? What I get out of wading through much of the links below is that there are two kinds of clocks, 'hard' real-time clocks and 'soft' timing clocks which either start from a predetermined epoch date such as the date of design or manufacture, or that take their timing from counting the cpu's clock pulses. The 'hard' real-time clock chips, which allow a date to be entered, can be readily identified and then tested/replaced with some difficulty. The 'soft' timing clocks are quite a bit more difficult to find, since when they run out will depend on how old the system is, how long the system has been turned on and how many bits were used in the software or firmware to count time. Some of these 'soft' clocks have now been running continuously for almost 20 years in control systems, manufacturing, etc and will cause intermittent problems at unknown dates into the next century. Some will reset when powered off and others will not. There are apparently also problems with libraries of software functions which were written in the distant past and are no longer documented or supported, manufacturers that have gone out of business and many that refuse to support systems of such an advanced age. In summary, the embedded system problem seems to be real, difficult to fix and of unknown duration. If anyone can correct me on any of this, I would appreciate it. John ***** Links The Frautschi Bug is the Century Bug in Embedded Processors (A little ways down from the top of the page) webpal.org IEE Embedded Systems Fault Casebook iee.org.uk