Just spent about 10 minutes having my suspicions confirmed about media cluelessness.

MSNBC just posted this today: Some Y2K bugs in hiding

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - For erstwhile Year 2000 (Y2K) exterminators, the most difficult millennium bugs to kill may be the ones in hiding. By now, most computer users know that without potentially expensive updates a majority of computerized systems built before 1997 (and perhaps some built after) will probably crash when the circuits that run their internal clocks flip from 12/31/99 to 01/01/00 - and cant decide whether the year is 2000 or 1900.

The same problems awaiting home, school and business computer users, however, may also lurk behind the scenes for anyone who has a machine that operates on a digital clock, including automated lawn sprinklers, cash registers, security and fire alarm systems, elevators, heating and air conditioning systems, time-controlled store and bank safes - even jail house doors.

{SIDEBAR] The biggest problem with year 2000 issues, is that organizations may think they have fixed all of their hardware and software, but if they have only one PC that isn't Y2K compliant - even in a networked supplier's system - the bad data it pushes can act almost like a computer virus. Dr. Stephen Floyd UAH [END SIDEBAR]

Of the 25 billion automated embedded systems in the U.S., an estimated 50 million arent Y2K compliant, according to information from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

And the time remaining for correcting those problems is drawing short, says Dr. Stephen Floyd, an assistant professor of information sciences at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. This may affect everyone who has a personal computer or who depends on an imbedded system...

Blah, blah, woof, woof. Rather boring, slightly inaccurate, and seemingly a bit dated. Stay tuned. Not seeing a byline (and wanting to drop the author a note to suggest that they look up the definition of "erstwhile"), I decided to source the MSNBC piece. They provided a link to UAH, and sure 'nuff, there it was:

Is a hiding millennium bug waiting to bite your assets?.

Not only was the title more, um, colorful than the one MSNBC used, but the date on the article was most interesting: Feb. 26, 1999. Yessiree, eight-month-old news was posted by MSNBC just today. Ah, the immediacy of the modern media...

But wait, it's get better. MSNBC indicates at the top of the article that WHDF (TV 15) in Florence, AL is their local source for the story. Tried to look that up and got nuttin'. Checked NBC locals and found that, unless they very recently changed callsigns, TV 15 in Florence is actually WOWL.

Tried to check that and found: World Wide Web Alabama. If you scroll down to "TV Stations", you'll note that the site for WOWL has been "Lost".

So, we have a badly-written, months-old Y2K story published as current news on a supposedly tech-savvy Website, and supposedly provided by a local TV station that does not appear to be available.

Yessir, these media types are all OVER this Y2K story, yessirree bob...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), October 12, 1999