Whenever I talk with people willing to discuss the subject, I keep getting the "it's over-rated" reply. Someone sent me this, and said "HA HA...you're wrong, end of story...stop worrying about it!":

http://www.3com.com

3Com works very closely with its suppliers and they believe that there are no products which have have a "hidden" component of their subsystem with a date function which could be deviced to understand the date and time. There has to be some input at the factory or by the user to define the initial time/date. If this is set at the factory, some power source is needed for the time and date to be kept and as there are multiple time zones around the world, the factory would have to know the correct time zone of the end user. Though the possibility of this problem occurring has been discussed in some articles, they have no evidence of any manufacturer of any product in the world which has this problem. It can further be stated that 3Com does not set time and date functions on any products which do not also have the ability for the user to reconfigure the dates and times. This demonstrates clearly that no 3Com device suffers from this alleged problem.

I'm just a lowly VB programmer, so comments regarding this are appreciated.

-- Jenny (nosnart@GI.com), February 17, 1999

Answers

I apologize for the typo regarding the title. Hope those doesn't lessen credibility here!

-- Jenny (nosnart@GI.com), February 17, 1999.

Jenny,

See these two links...

"Problems lurk in more than just computers"

http://www.jsonline.com/bym/tech/0214chips.asp

...and...

"Firm with ties to GartnerGroup downplays the 'chip' problem"

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000OvB

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 17, 1999.

If typos were a porblem hear, Jenny, we'd awl be doing something else. See what I mean?

-- Vic (Roadrunner@compliant.com), February 17, 1999.

Thaaaaanx! I've been to some crazy boards, and it's refreshing to a find a polite one. I don't have an attitude, and I'm not here to prove anything. Just looking for references and links...it's gonna take me a loooong time to sift through this archive...whoa! :-)

-- Jenny (nosnart@GI.com), February 17, 1999.

Miss Jenny of the misspellers, from the fastest misspeller I know, look again at the "illogic" used in the arguement:

<< It can further be stated that 3Com does not set time and date functions on any products which do not also have the ability for the user to reconfigure the dates and times. This demonstrates clearly that no 3Com device suffers from this alleged problem. >>

They didn't test performance, reset times, restart times, "times" read "from" the lower level operating system, or the result of what happens _after_ a date-time-group is read and used. They merely said - we didn't set them at the factory, they are used internationally, and so there isn't a problem.

Huh? Failure in computers is unpredictable - and unexpected. The result of failure is unpredictable - they fail in wierd and wonderful ways. Now, realize that only 1-2 percent will actually fail - in some systems actually less than 1/2 of 1% have been bad. Also, some of those failures may not be critical, or may be recoverable (after re-booting, or after resetting initial parameters.

But tell that to the person who is riding the subway when the lights go out. Or fighting the fire when the water pressure is lost. To them, the wrong 99% are working.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), February 17, 1999.

Ahhhh...a "sleight of hand", so to speak. Looks good upon a quick glance to the average person, though. I thought I knew so much...now I feel so naive. Excuse me...:::heads to the door:::: I have more reading to do.

-- Jenny (nosnart@GI.com), February 17, 1999.

Hi Jenyn (oops). I'm a network administrator. Did you have a particular 3COM product in mind? If you're talking about a modem or network adapter, you most likely won't have a problem since I know of none that have a date problem. There coule (oops) d be problems with routers or "smart" hubs. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), February 18, 1999.

Don't worry about seeming naive, Jenny. There is a tremendous amount of confusion about just how widespread the embedded system problem really is. 3Com is a major player, and for them to state publicly: This demonstrates clearly that no 3Com device suffers from this alleged problem., they must be pretty damn sure about it.

Here is a terrific site. They've come up with a testing approach that may be a big help in many fields. Their FAQ has some excellent info on the characteristics of embedded systems:

Embedded Science corp. Delta-T probe FAQ

If I am summarizing accurately: Embedded chips with the potential for date related failure are not "everywhere". Many systems can be judged "safe" with a high degree of confidence simply by examination.

But where they exist, they are extremely critical and a often a bear to fix. Worth a look if you are interested in the technical details about embedded system remediation.

ICPhobia (the fear that Y2K might disable anything with an IC in it), is becoming part an unstoppable Y2K urban legend. I'm an Access developer (talk about lowly!), but I've been following the embedded system issue very closely.

My opinion , FWIW:, there aren't that many embedded show stoppers out there. But where they exist, they can stop some very big shows.

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), February 18, 1999.

Hey Jenny, I wouldn't be so sure about how polite this board is. It all depends on what your Y2K opinion is. If you don't buy the worst-case scenario as fact, you won't find too many being polite any longer.

-- (just@wordof.advice), February 18, 1999.

No Sysman, I didn't have a particular product in mind. I'm not much of a hardware person...mostly coding.

I just thought I'd share the 3Com statement so I could get various perspectives.

-- Jenny (nosnart@GI.com), February 18, 1999.

OK Jenny, and thanks for the input. BTW I've only been a regular here for about 2 weeks. All kinds of people here, but most are OK. Lots of good info here with some BS. See ya. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), February 19, 1999.