WASHINGTON -- The clock is ticking, and experts are wary that small businesses may not cross the finish line in time.

Harris Miller, President of the Information Technology Association of America, and Daniel Hill, Assistant Administrator for Technology of the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA), appeared on a June 15 WorldNet television satellite interview with participants in Canada,Ecuador and Chile to discuss Y2K compliance by small businesses.

[snip]

Miller stressed that Y2K-readiness and -compliance are not synonymous terms: readiness signifies a state of preparation enabling a company to make any necessary adjustments should problems arise, while compliance indicates that a company has already anticipated -- and resolved -- potential Y2K glitches.

LINK

[snipped remainder]

When we are all hoping and praying for the grid to stay up when the clock rolls to Y2K, there is no room for using language to obfuscate the issue. I don't see the word compliant. Yo! Diogenes, help me search for an honest press release with the word 'compliance.'

-- Sandmann (Sandmann@alasbab.com), July 01, 1999

Answers

Y2K compliant means code uses 4-digit years and data has 4-gigit years. Period.

Y2K "ready" covers a vast area of patches, workarounds, separate utilities (date window expansion, etc), whatever, which may or may not bite the users in 2000, 2001, 2020 ...

Even recent Microsucks products are not compliant, and their "readiness" varies by product.

Let the games begin.

-- vbProg (vbProg@MicrosoftAndIntelSuck.com), July 01, 1999.

*Sigh* Sandmann, far too few people today use words well, even when they are trying to.

When you slip into the area of people possibly trying to cover their a***s, it makes you want to scream.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), July 01, 1999.

In my experience, Ready vs. Compliant isn't a CYA issue, it is a display of honesty on the utility's part.

I have performed Y2K tests on numerous mission critical T&D relays, RTU's and other protective devices. A Ready device is one that fails in a mundane way that does not impact operations.

Example #1: A protective relay monitors line current and voltage to isolate damaging faults. The relay under test does not fail any Y2K protective tests, but the LCD readout shows the date as 01/01/:0. Did the relay pass - honestly no, it has an anomaly. Is the relay still going to perform it's critical function - YES.

Example #2: Another protective relay tests fine. All rollovers are good, and all inputs and output functions operate fine with one exception. One test calls for rollover with power off to see that the device roll over with just battery power. A second test calls for the power to be removed after the rollover to see if the device re- boots with the proper date. This relay has no battery backup. Everytime power supply voltage is removed the date must be reset. This does not meet the criteria of these tests according to the GM test plan. Is it a failure - NO. Is the device compliant - NO, not according to a strict interpretation of the test.

In both these examples, I designated the devices as READY, not COMPLIANT. Neither will impact operations. I will just dial the devices and reset the date the next time I dial it up. The date is used for sequence of events only.

These are 2 examples that are real, and I hope they illstrate the nature of the difference. I love analogies. This is equivalent to having a car that still starts, runs and drives perfectly, but the "seek" function of the stereo won't work.

-- cl (cl@sky.com), July 01, 1999.

From my personal "vendor" of electrical power and natural gas, TXU's web page. You'll notice they think enough of the difference between the word compliant and the word Ready to use Ready in every instance. I've deleted about the last 3/4 of the info from their page but it is in much the same vein. Enough to make me happy I found wool blankets at the thrift store, know what I mean?

Q. What is the overall status of the TXU Year 2000 effort at the end of May?

TXU's monthly report to the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) indicates that remediation and testing of mission critical items is at 93%.

Q. What is the readiness status, at the end of May, of TXU's fossil- fueled steam generating plants? Forty-seven (47) of TXU's fifty-three (53) fossil steam generating units have been tested and determined to be Y2K Ready. The generating units are capable of producing 15,500 Megawatts, nearly 30% more than TXU's normal load requirements for the January 1st timeframe.

Work on the remaining six (6) units is scheduled to be complete by the end of June.

Q. What is the status of the facilities from which TXU purchases power? TXU has 1,164 Megawatts of generation under contract for purchased power. Based on the reports provided to NERC by the companies that operate these facilities, 816 Megawatts have been determined to be Y2K Ready. 270 Megawatts will be upgraded during a Fall scheduled overhaul. The contract on the remaining 78 Megawatts of purchased capacity will expire in September 1999.

Previously released information:

Q. What is the readiness status, at the end of April, of Texas Utilities' fossil-fueled steam generating plants? Forty (40) of Texas Utilities' fifty-three (53) fossil-fueled steam generating units have been tested and determined to be Y2K Ready. Testing on the remaining thirteen (13) units is scheduled to be completed by June 1999.

Q. What is readiness status of Texas Utilities' quick start combustion turbines? All fifteen (15) identical combustion turbines in TU's generation fleet have been determined to be Y2K Ready. These combustion turbines make up approximately 4 % of TU's generation capabilities.

Q. How much of Texas Utilities generation equipment is Y2K Ready? Texas Utilities already has over 13,000 Megawatts of generating equipment ready for the Year 2000. TU's normal load requirement for the January 1st timeframe is approximately 12,000 Megawatts. By the end June, nearly 20,000 Megawatts of generating equipment is scheduled to be Y2K Ready.

Q. What is the status of Texas Utilities mission critical business applications such as finance and accounting, procurement and inventory systems, customer information systems and personnel systems? TU's core mission critical business systems have been tested and certified compliant for the span of century. Enhancements to these systems will continue to be tested and verified compliant until the application code is frozen from additional changes later this year.

Q. What is the status of TU's mainframe computer hardware? TU's mainframe computer hardware has received all necessary upgrades to make it Y2K Ready. All hardware associated with TU's data center has bee assessed as being Y2K Ready. Testing of the hardware and mainframe software is being planned for later this year to verify compliance.

Q. How much of the embedded system testing work is complete in your fossil-fueled steam generating plants? Thirty-three (33) of Texas Utilities' fossil-fueled steam generating plants have been tested and determined to be Y2K Ready. Testing on the remaining twenty (20) units is planned for the spring overhaul season of 1999 with anticipated completion by June 1999.

Fifteen (15) fossil-fueled steam generating units have been tested for critical dates "on-line" while generating electricity. No significant problems have been identified during either "on-line" or "off-line" testing.

Q. Does Texas Utilities utilize quick start combustion turbines in its generation equipment and what is their status? TU has fifteen (15) identical combustion turbines in its generation fleet. These combustion turbines make up approximately 4 % of TU's generation capabilities. Five (5) of the fifteen (15) CT's have been tested and determined to be Y2K Ready. The remaining units are scheduled to be tested and verified Y2K Ready by the end of April 1999.

-- Mommacares (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), July 01, 1999.

If we accepted readiness, there would be no plausible gloom & doom scenarios. Therefore we must not accept it, we must whine about "compliance" instead.

-- cd (artful@dodger.com), July 01, 1999.

cd: YUP! This isn't being 'ready' for a three day snowstorm , that we're talking about here. I'm ready for that year round, my friend. This has a 'bit' more at stake than that! And, if they want my money, and I'm relying on their 'warranty'.....I want the seek button operating in my car.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), July 01, 1999.

Duh.

-- Bill (odony@netscu.net), July 01, 1999.

Maybe we need a different scale here (to be applied in a year):

10: Your preparations saved your life

7: Your preparations kept you out of the bread lines

5: Your preparations tided you over between jobs

3: Your preparations made you a bit more comfortable

1: You never touched your preparations

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), July 01, 1999.

vbProg wrote:

Y2K compliant means code uses 4-digit years and data has 4-gigit years. Period.

Phew! If I believed that was a necessary condition for Y2K compliance, I'd be fingering that Doomer application form rather pensively right now.

-- Richard Dymond (rdymond@healey-baker.com), July 02, 1999.

Dymond: Well, get that doomer app filled out, just in case. I didn't say that "ready" couldn't alleviate a lot of problems -- temporarily (and temporality is undefinable). "Ready" implies all these patches, utilities, etc., which CAN bite you on the ass. "Compliant" means problems are solved -- period -- until at least year 10,000.

BTW, a failure unrelated to Y2K programming (or lack) is not a Y2K failure. Seems obvious to me, but I'm only a linear thinking programmer, so what do I know?

Whoever it was that mentioned the "seek" on the stereo not working is a bozo. Is that a replacement for the "planes falling from the sky" bugaboo?

-- vbProg (vbProg@MicrosoftAndIntelSuck.com), July 02, 1999.