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

To: Steve Woas who wrote (1658)	5/4/1998 5:59:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 9818

[MILITARY Y2K] Steve, Great find! Here is some other military stuff: usace.army.mil (THIS IS ALSO further confirmation of the message sent by Mrs. Albright to ALL U.S. ambassadors worldwide to look at y2k status in countries worldwide - see end of this message). John ______________ 'INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES Host Nation Support The main problem with the Year 2000 problem is that it is ubiquitous. Literally any digital device or controller which has an embedded date function may be effected. Even worse, the fact that an embedded date function exists may not be evident to the user. The scope of the problem extends from any digital device in the Corps Real Property inventory - digital surveying devices to dredge instrumentation, office automation devices to Global Positioning Systems (GPS), to computers and embedded controllers used for water control, power generation management and control, emergency operations management and response, and "intelligent" building systems - elevators, HVAC, electronic security systems (ESS), utility monitoring and control systems (UMCS) and even traffic management systems. Perhaps more ominous, the problem is not confined to "within the gates." Ft Apache is no more. You can longer shepherd the settlers inside and wait for the hostiles to get tired and leave. You are dependent on the surrounding civilian community for critical infrastructure functions - electricity, water/sewer, gas, telephone service, railway service - none of which can be taken for granted on 1 Jan 2000. It is relatively certain that there will be impacts to critical infrastructure support services supporting the Army and the Corps; what is unclear is the magnitude of those impacts - whether we face clerical problems from invalid bills, inadequate service, or denial of service altogether. The record is far from clear. To get a feel for the dimensions and potential seriousness of the problem, the following three world wide web sites are recommended for further information: www.euy2k.com www.y2ktimebomb.com www.accsyst.com/writers www.prepare4y2k.com www.garynorth.com/y2k www.contingencyplanning.com (Be sure to search for keywords in the articles, not just the titles.) ourworld.compuserve.com GPS Manufacturers navcen.uscg.mil Additional information will be referenced at this site as available. It might be noted that there is evidence that 30% of IT control systems used on Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) and Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCC) fail Y2K testing. As of this writing, 24 Feb 98, the Coast Guard is only beginning to grapple with this problem. Host Nation Support (HNS) For those of you in OCONUS MACOMs, or with OCONUS installations, the Department of State has useful phone numbers on their website at state.gov These are by-country listings of people in the embassies who might be able to help you talk to the host nation's officials to see what they are doing about electricity, water, and the other off-base support items which your local suppliers might not be able to answer. The first person in the embassy you ought to look for is the EST name, which stands for Environment, Science, and Technology; he/she should be able to steer your inquiries to the correct host official. While each embassy may not have an EST person, many do, and they can help. ....

To: Steve Woas who wrote (1658)	5/4/1998 9:27:00 PM
From: Cheeky Kid	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

Steve, Even I have to admit he raises a good point. RE: y2ktimebomb.com

To: Steve Woas who wrote (1658)	5/4/1998 10:13:00 PM
From: Cheeky Kid	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 9818

That article raised a very good point about 4 digit dates. I wonder why Quicken gets away with it? Quicken uses 2 digit dates, they state: To enter dates in Quicken for events after December 31, 1999, omit the "20" and enter "00" or the appropriate year number. Quicken assumes numbers from 00 to 27 are for the years 2000 to 2027. They also say: Quicken can display dates in a variety of styles which include the yy/mm/dd and dd/mmm/yy formats. The article says: Therein lies the problem. You see, as users, we don't always get our dates from the operating system. Sometimes, we insert dates ourselves rather that asking the operating system to do it for us. In fact, most of the time, it is not the current date we need at all but some other date in the past or in the future. The peril is in the application software and in the data files as well as in the users who fail to recognize the danger in something so simple as using two digit years. AS I just said, that article raised a good point. I feel All software should use 4 digit dates. Software companies should adopt a standard of 4 digit date, no exception.