Ok,

Mr. or Mrs. experienced computer person. I am minding my own business on Sunday afternoon just laying and watching the Bills take it to the Deadskins (sorry norv).

I casually take my remote and rapid fire along and stop on (don't know why) channel 39 cable. An estute looking gentlemen is sitting at a computer terminal and he is explaining to the viewing audience that they as Fairfax county teachers will need to have these little CDs for the patches in windows95,98,NT,.

Just at this moment the screen cuts off and I have a different screen which is just an information scrolling thiga ma jig for Fairfax county. Turns out its one of those opt-in private viewing channels. Imagine that!!

Did this gentlemen imply that if everyone that has windows95,98,NT and does nothing will be effected??

Micro-soft ---------Iceberg?

-- David Butts (dciinc@aol.com), November 08, 1999

Answers

I work For a computer company in New Jersey (for a little longer) We manufacture many brands of computer ex. Pionex, CyberMax, Quantex and Fountain to name a few. There are a lot of problems with the y2k issue and the above mentioned software. It is easy to get the fixes off of microsofts home page at this point. It just takes a lot of time to download all the patches. There is an easier way to get the patches for all the microsoft product and that is to subscribe to their TechNet which is basically all of their knoledge base and patches on CD It is not cheap I think they are charging about $200 for it but if you have a slow internet connection it could be worth it.

-- BrianNJ (Bgoldate@aol.com), November 08, 1999.

David,

Hello and welcome to the board. Yep - if you use Quicken, Excel, Access or other calculating software, yes your computer will be affected. You'll need different patches, and may have to upgrade your virus scanner too.

Hope you're not using Win. 98 - I've had nothing but problems trying to get that patch to take properly. You can download the patches for free on MSN's homepage, but be prepared for it to take a LONG time.

You might want to look at some other links too about prepping and especially take a look at the Senate's 100 Day Report (Executive Summary, pages 4 & 9). There's a lot there to make you think and get up off of the couch.

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), November 08, 1999.

David:

They have been coming out for more than a year now. For a price you can get them as a 6 CD set. In my experience, not all work. By-the-way, you will need patches for most other MS app's. I hear that there will be another Win 98 patch after turkey day.

Best wishes,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), November 08, 1999.

Try using mfx2000 at http://www.mfx2000 They are the only fix for the systems your using. NATO as them approved and the audit is free to download. The fix is available now. see for yourself. I will send the links to NATO testing site with conformation of mfx2000.

BLUE

-- Blue (bluefish@thepond.com), November 08, 1999.

Here is the link for NATO and the testing sites.

http://www.nato.int/Y2K/tools.htm

Blue

-- blue (bluefish@thepond.com), November 08, 1999.

I teach computer classes on wintel machines. Many times during the course of a day the computers lock up or give various error codes. I spend a substantial amount of time running scan disk and other apps to fix the problem. Most of the students in these classes are new to computers. Many students ask me what type of computer I use at home. I tell them I use a macintosh. They ask why. I explain to them that even though it is not as popular as the wintel machines it has a more stable operating system. I explain to them that I don't want all of the headaches at home.

-- rc white (cw5410@netscape.net), November 08, 1999.

Just one interesting observation. I am adding all of this stuff because MS says I should. What will happen if I don't? Don't know. Will the cure end up being worse than the disease? While I don't know, past experience leads me to believe that this is a reasonable question.

Best wishes,,,,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), November 08, 1999.

What happend to my answers????????????????????

Is this a free forum or what???????

-- blue (bluefish@thepond.com), November 08, 1999.

Big Blue:

Your answers show up on my screen.

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), November 08, 1999.

---way to go, rc! I've been advising ALL my clients to sell, get rid, STOP USING ridiculous wintell machines and that still not y2k compliant Macro$cam software. You save 200 greenskins on a system, and you get headaches and problems for as long as you own that system, and it's wide open for hacking, and the crap ain't compliant! I expect a BIG shakeout in the "everyone drive the same black ford" mindset next year, when zillions of the biz and home puters and systems tank, crash and burn. I get some problems with my macs, but NUTHIN like windoze.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), November 08, 1999.

We tried a hole lot of software at my work and the problems ranged from incorect intrest and loan calculations to hard drives being wiped out by a major software package. (you know the company N.U.)

Linux 2000 complient for years

-- BrianNJ (Bgoldate@aol.com), November 08, 1999.