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

To: B.K.Myers who wrote (7476)	7/31/1999 4:50:00 AM
From: J.L. Turner	Respond to of 9818

B.K. and Jim, Thanks for rational discussion,no pontification,no flames.A welcome change. J.L.T.

To: B.K.Myers who wrote (7476)	7/31/1999 6:21:00 AM
From: Jim	Respond to of 9818

Hi B.K., Thanks for your response. I seem to remember that we were having a good discussion here a few months ago, before I was distracted by you know who. This will not happen again. 1. Computer Hardware Failures When we booted up the older computers into DOS, we had to reset the dates at the C: prompt. Is this what you meant, or have you found the problem with Windows, and with a good battery? If they come back with the wrong date, will they not hold a date that is re-keyed? I have told my customers that if they ever find such a machine, to take it off line and use it for games, writing letters etc. I think we agree that computers will not just stop working next January. This gives me more confidence about the hydro systems, which of course is the major concern. 2. Computer Operating Systems Good point about other operating systems, since most businesses do not use 95 or 95 to run their shops, and the operating system is just a doorway to their application software. As I previously mentioned, we use the PICK Operating System for all our software development. We also use NT, Unix, and Linux as a base or PICK. Do you know how compliant these O/S are? You also made some good points in our last discussions about the dates as part of the keys that I have not forgotten. With regard to testing, I was talking about smaller businesses with PC based software perhaps on a small network. I tell them to bring in the staff on a weekend, pretend it is a working day, enter previous day's invoices, payments, and other transactions, and then run the daily, weekly and monthly jobs. It also is a good test of their backup and restore procedures. I think it is negligent if any software was written within the last 10 years that did not store a four position year for year sensitive applications. I think that the companies who wrote the software should fix it at no charge, or be sued for selling such a product. I totally agree that larger systems with older software have more serious problems, and they are fortunate to have found people like yourself to help them get it fixed. 4. Embedded Systems I do not have expertise in this area so I appreciate your comments. I did not know about the GPS link to embedded chips, so that is news to me. I will be watching what happens August 21 -22. That sounds like a neat VCR you have that resets the date and year after a power failure. My VCR is still flashing 12:00:00 since the last power outage. Thanks again for the rational discussion. Jim

To: B.K.Myers who wrote (7476)	7/31/1999 3:55:00 PM
From: Cheeky Kid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

You said: >>In the organizations that I have seen these systems in, the PCs are usually older models. They have been running, usually trouble free, for years and are often overlook when doing Y2K remediation and testing. They could even be completely overlooked because no one has touched it in years. << I have an old Compaq notebook, 4 years old, every time I turn it on the date shows 1980. That's because the battery on the motherboard is dead. I have to enter the correct date manually. Since these batteries don't last forever, even the rechargeable ones, why are we not seeing screwed up data problems due too failed batteries on older computers after power outages? From my experience, batteries last 3-5 years, so if the power goes out, computers with dead batteries (for the BIOS) should be causing problems after power outages. BTW, did you see this: bester.com