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

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (2334)	8/1/1998 11:09:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

Some examples - Cory Hamasaki: '..... Listen Jack, paul, who is not a programmer, knows that all those things have nothing to do with bank processing... large scale, heavy-duty bank processing. Bank processing has to do with date-time stamping transactions, sorting them, posting them, and applying complex business rules. Amortization, while too hard to do with a 4 function calculator, is a couple lines of code when you have a y to the x function. Don't drag that into Y2K. Do you understand that older versions of CICS will loop on startup in a future date? They're still discussing that in the mainframe discussion groups. What's the significance of that? Upgrading software like CICS is a chore, especially if you have to upgrade other products and applications code too. > > MY CONCLUSIONS Here's an exercise for you, jack. Consider the expiration date on credit cards. These dates are not supposed to be validated by point of sale terminals... and if they are, you'd think that the POS programmers would code the edits to accept 98, 99, 00, 01, 02, etc. If they rejected any dates, it would be dates like 57, 67, 77, 0A, AZ, ... but no, not only did they reject 00, 01, 02, but more than one programmer made that same mistake. In fact, it seems that dozens or hundreds of programmers made that mistake. 1. They edited a field that shouldn't have been subject to an edit. 2. They used the wrong criteria. 3. More than one did that. This is a problem that should not have happened. SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. <---<<<< say this 100 times. Now you're ready for the real thinking... Of all the systems out there, the ones that are supposed to work with dates, how many have a similar flaw, simply that they reject 00 as an invalid date? We, society, have spent almost a year looking for these 00 POS machines and they should be apparent. The error is right at the user interface. What about all the hidden systems where the action is to neglect to add your deposit to your checking account... but it's happening during the midnight run and no one sees the reject take place... because it's never happened before. Neglect to post your bill payment too. And I'm just discussing the systems that have a flaw in the edit. There's more.... Sorting... there will be more of those.... did the deposit take place before or after the payment due date? If not, slap a fine on the account. Computation... what is the number of days that the account had over 1,000 dollars? Too few? No interest for you. There will be hundreds of thousands, millions of these problems. All these things have to be checked and rechecked. .... ___ From: kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net (cory hamasaki) 0:23 Subject: Re: The Problem with the Y2K Problem

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (2334)	8/1/1998 11:35:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

' ACTION 2000 LAUNCHES MILLENNIUM BUG PLEDGE SCHEME Action 2000 today calls on British businesses to sign a formal pledge saying they will take positive action - rather than legal action - to tackle the Millennium Bug in their organisations. Pledge 2000 is a six-point manifesto committing companies to share information, help other firms in their supply chains and avoid resorting to legal action where possible. The initiative is a world first. The first two big names to sign up to Pledge 2000, which is backed by the CBI, are Sainsbury's and Unilever - hundreds of others are invited to follow their example. Gwynneth Flower, managing director of Action 2000, said: "This is a landmark in the battle against the Millennium Bug. It will let businesses focus on beating the Bug together, rather than fighting over it." "We have been increasingly worried about companies' reluctance to disclose their Millennium Bug plans and their willingness to deploy lawyers. "The Pledge promotes co-operation rather than litigation among businesses of all sizes, up and down the numerous supply networks that underpin the economy. I am delighted Sainsbury's and Unilever have already signed up and encourage others to participate." Adair Turner, director-general of the CBI, said: "The CBI supports all work to make sure that companies have checked their IT and electronic equipment and that their customers and suppliers are also ready for the Millennium date change. "We encourage companies to share information with their suppliers and customers and plan effectively so that business will not be disrupted by the Millennium Bug." The pledge, drafted by top law firm Tarlo Lyons, commits firms to six courses of action: to tackle the Bug and ensure business continuity to share information on Bug projects to help users of products and services to overcome their Bug problems and give them access to compliance information to keep shared Bug data confidential to work with supply chain partners to solve the problem rather than take legal action. ... bug2000.co.uk