This past Spring I took an intoductory computer literacy class at Chico State in Chico, CA. There was not even a mention of y2k in that class by the instructor! What is going on? I've also been asking other students(in general) if they know about it. And I've been getting, "Uh, yah, I heard something about that". And that's the extent of it. And this is at an institute of higher education. I also asked my local water company about their perparedness. The front office clerk gave me a clueless stare. Y2k what? The office manage did overhear my questions and spoke with me. She said to come back in 1 - 2 months and she would be able to give me some definite answers. She did say that the purification(chlorine) plant has a generator with a 3-day supply of diesel. And since the system is gravity fed, in an emergency situation "with state approval", they could run non-treated water to our homes without the help of elecetricity. She said they are working on being y2k compliant since the plant is computer run, but it can be manually overriden. She seemed straight with me and didn't try to mislead me that all was well. I'll check back next month! Johan

-- johan (reisch@c-zone.net), September 18, 1998

Answers

You answered your question: this was at an "institute of higher learning", not at a place that does anything related to the real world.

Your real answers (as you found at the water bureau) will only be found from the people who are fixing the problem, or the people who understand they will be affected by it if it isn't fixed.

No one else understands until it hits them in the pocketbook or powerplant.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 18, 1998.

Also, you said this is an introductory computer literacy class. A class such is that couldn't even come close to covering all of the topics falling under the subject Computer Science.

-- Buddy Y. (buddy@bellatlantic.net), September 18, 1998.

From the computer science viewpoint, Y2K is not that big a deal. The technical problem is simple, the technical fix is straightforward, and so even if it were covered, it would not be worth spending more than maybe 15 minutes on. Of course, from a civilization viewpoint, the problem is complex and the fix is impossible, and will likely result in a total long term collapse. Of course, that is really outside the realm of your CS class (but the professor may be open to giving extra credit on non-required report, never hurts to ask).

-- Joe (shar@pei.com), September 18, 1998.

<< From the computer science viewpoint, Y2K is not that big a deal. >>

Not necessarily. Back in the early 80's when I was in a CS program, Y2K came up in several different classes. Of course, it wasn't called that then, but the problems inherent with 2-digit year representations made excellent examples of how short-term expediency can create long-term headaches.

Also, while they have not shown any great leadership in this area, the ACM (Association For Computing Machinery) has had several Y2K articles in it's flagship publication "Communications of the ACM" over the last few months. There are computer scientists do care, albeit most of them have come to that position too late.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), September 18, 1998.

FYI - Also in Chico. Go to City Council Council Chambers on Sept. 24th @ 7pm for Y2K Action Group meeting. You'll get the answers to many of your questions. Local research has already been done. Chico doesn't look good!

-- Grandma (ml@cusd.chico.k12.ca.us), September 18, 1998.

Paul N., I didn't want to start a new thread with this but I thought you might find it interesting. Inside the article is a website where you can read more about Y2K litigation. I hope you stumble onto this posting. :-)

http://www.techweek.com/articles/9-21-98/helpfile.htm

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), September 22, 1998.

Thanks, Gayla. I'm not a lawyer and I never wanted to be one, but with a grandfather, uncle, father and sister who were I just can't help but be interested in legal subjects. I also feel that the way Y2K plays out in the courts over the next ten months will set a tone for how it plays out in the first 5-10 years after the rollover.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), September 22, 1998.