Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (1040)	2/5/1998 1:19:00 PM
From: gamesmistress	Respond to of 9818

Y2K Could Hit Asia Especially Hard In TheStreet.com (I think subscription is required to read complete article) thestreet.com Excerpts: Since the crisis hit, many businesses in Asia have simply canceled Y2K work, sending home consultants, said Peter Wright, vice president of DMR Consulting Group in Melbourne, which does a lot of Year 2000 contract work in Asia. "This crisis has totally ruined their focus; many are just focused on business survival for the next six months," Wright said. "If you've got trading partners in a supply chain that relies upon Asia, they just aren't going to be Year 2000 compliant." Telecommunications companies with long-term investments in infrastructure are generally best prepared, and followed by major banks -- many of which have five- to seven-year planning programs. Industries with only one- to two-year strategic planning cycles, such as manufacturing, state and federal governments and retail operations, are strongly at risk. Small to medium-sized enterprises in particular, he feels, are disasters waiting to happen. ...there is a reluctance among IT departments to fully own up to the Year 2000 problem due to the complicated Asian cultural impediment of losing face "My feeling is that Y2K is perceived in Asia as a Western problem, and as such won't really affect anyone else," said [top IT manager at one of Australia's largest exporters to Asia.] With many of the company's offices in Australia and around the region owned by Japanese or other Asian real estate organization, he worries that they may not be aggressively checking chips embedded in such things as elevators to prepare for the year 2000. "The biggest worry I have is not the compliance technically of our equipment, but of any litigation that may evolve," [IT manager] said.

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (1040)	2/11/1998 2:33:00 AM
From: Richard Babusek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

I'm a retired system architect with designs in many industries. Regarding "Embedded Systems Problems", I'm sure there are some, but I can't think of a single one of my designs that would suffer more than a degradation of service. Most process control systems I'm aware of have no notion of "year" as such, other than for ancillary functions, ie., report printouts. Some perpetual use equipment change their routines based on week end or holiday status, but they don't ignite the fuel tank because of confusing the of day of week between 1900 & 2000. I'm not trying to trivialize this problem, just understand it. Perhaps I should research more before making this statement, I'm not familiar with chemical, and petroleum processing. My systems are in the steel, paper, plastic & vinyl, paint & coating, tire & rubber, and agriculture industries. Ricardo