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: RagTimeBand who wrote (2631)	9/28/1998 10:42:00 PM
From: Ruyi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

Sept. 8 was not a good day for Tom Roskop and his wife, Lorna. That was the day the Olathe couple got an urgent phone call from their credit card company. "Did you place a $15,000 charge with an insurance company?" the credit card representative asked Roskop, an information services consultant with Johnson County. "Heck no," Roskop responded. "We never spend that much money with a credit card." But the credit card company showed that at 4:28 a.m. the day before, $15,000 was drawn as an automatic debit from Roskop's account. Four minutes later, his insurance company pulled an additional $2,800 from the account. Roskop had been bitten early by the year 2000 bug. And it hurt. Roskop's insurance company had installed new software that was ready to handle the year 2000 situation. But the company's computers garbled date entries and miscalculated insurance premiums. It got worse. By now, the couple had exceeded their credit limit. The company agreed to extend their $19,000 cap so they could purchase two plane tickets for Lorna's parents to visit from Europe. But the airline saw a "caution" on the couple's account and in the confusion billed them twice. "It's been a real hassle. And when we got our credit card statement it was well into the five figures," Tom Roskop said. "Now I don't know if this is going to affect our credit rating. It's like a domino effect." Disappearing lien Consider if you will George & Bill's Appliance Service, a business in Springfield. The store, and former owner John Gillespie, have already entered the year 2000 zone. On July 25, 1996, a UCC statement was filed showing that the store had borrowed money from Metropolitan National Bank of Springfield and secured the loan with collateral. A UCC statement is a filing under the state's Uniform Commercial Code, and is used by lenders when considering whether to lend money to a business or individual. The year 2000 bug, however, made the lien disappear -- at least on the computer records maintained by the state. Instead of expiring on 2001, documents on file with the Missouri secretary of state's office said the lien expired in 1901. "The effect of the error could be significant to anyone doing business with the debtor," said James L. McNish, a lawyer and executive director of the Kansas City Year 2000 Coalition. Because the UCC statement erroneously shows that the lien on collateral used by George & Bill's Appliance for a prior loan expired 97 years ago, a lender considering another loan to the business could end up making a loan without appropriate collateral, McNish said.

To: RagTimeBand who wrote (2631)	9/30/1998 8:42:00 PM
From: Ruyi	Respond to of 9818

The mobilization starts,Millennium bug fighter enlists teens in campaign The millennium bug has spawned an entire industry of compliance consultants who promise to stamp out the bug wherever it occurs -- for a few million dollars. But where does that leave the little guy? ''If Y2K happens, the nonprofits will be hit hard for services, but they're the least equipped to handle it,'' said Mick Winter, who hit on the idea of helping nonprofits deal with Y2K while he was building a computer network for the Bay Area Homeless Coalition, a California group seeking accessible housing. ''Their computers aren't going to work and they have no one to fix them,'' Winters said. The problem is this: Many nonprofits operate on meager budgets, using older equipment, with employees who have minimal technical expertise. To make things worse, many of these groups rely on databases to carry out their day-to-day work. Winter realized that these databases were sitting ducks for the Y2K problem. But instead of calling up Arthur Andersen or another pricey ''Big Five'' consulting firm, he turned to a bunch of 17-year-olds. Winter is mobilizing students from his daughter's high school into a volunteer Y2K SWAT team. They will fan out across the San Francisco Bay Area with orders to eradicate the dreaded millennium bug from the computers of groups least able to cope with the problem. ''I like the idea because it gives our students an opportunity to give back to the community,'' said Mark Morrison, the director of Napa New Technology High School, an innovative high school that Winter's daugher attends as a senior. Morrison agreed to support Winter's proposal. He said the task force will enlist 10 to 12 students and be up and running before the end of the year, if not sooner. The Napa New Technology School opened its doors in 1996 to prepare students for the digital workplace. Taking its cue from the intensely competitive business culture of nearby Silicon Valley, the school is run like a start-up company, with each student getting a computer and email account. The curriculum combines a traditional education program with heavy doses of science, multimedia, software certification, and community service-which Winter saw as an opportunity. Seniors must complete 10 hours of community service each semester, and complete an internship. Morrison approved Winter's proposal that the ''Bugbuster'' task force could fulfill either of those requirements. Students will be taught to analyze a group's computers and propose bug fixes. They'll be armed with an inspection checklist and floppy disk containing software that troubleshoots a computer and is able to run basic fixes and upgrades. If students can't fix a problem themselves, they will refer their clients to a commercial consultant. It's also possible, Morrison said, that students with advanced Y2K skills could charge nonprofits a nominal fee for their work. ''It's a r Desum De-builder for technical skills as well as a community service,'' added Morrison, who also sees the educational value of the project. ''Y2K is a supreme example of the downside of information technology.'' Bugbusters is the first tangible project of the Napa Valley Y2K Action Group, a group Winter founded a few months ago to educate leaders in his community on the millennium bug. For his part, Winter says the Bugbuster program represents a practical approach to solving the problem, something that Y2K survivalists who are stockpiling their dried lentils and hunkering down for Armageddon might wish to consider. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------