Y2K Computer Glitches Might Not Appear Until Long After New Year's Day

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Technology News

Tue, 28 Dec 1999, 9:03pm EST

Y2K Computer Glitches Might Not Appear Until Long After New Year's Day

By Kim Dixon

Y2K Glitches May Not Appear Until Well After New Year's Day

Washington, Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Y2K doomsday scenarios predicted to arrive with the new year this coming weekend actually may not appear for many weeks, say some experts watching preparations for the date change.

One group predicts that 55 percent of all Y2K-related bugs will occur over the course of the year. That assessment puts into question the thousands of Y2K command centers set up internationally this week to monitor the changeover to 2000, many of which will close soon into January.

``This is not a single catastrophic event, but an issue that must be managed throughout the year,'' said Matthew Hotle, vice president of Y2K research for Gartner Group, a technology consulting firm whose clients include Fortune 500 companies.

``That is missed by a lot of folks.''

Government and private industry worldwide have spent as much as $600 billion dollars preventing Y2K-related errors, Gartner estimates. Companies have been reprogramming and testing systems to ensure that their computers read the last two digits of the new year as 2000 and not 1900 for the past five years.

For years, the focus has been on what would happen when the date changes to Jan. 1, 2000. But vigilance must be kept up throughout the year, especially for those the electric power and telecommunications industries, U.S. Y2K czar John Koskinen said yesterday. Tracking errors will be difficult in these industries, and problems may snowball, he said.

``I think it's very unlikely that we're going to see lights go off around the world,'' Koskinen said. ``What you will have is a degradation of service.''

Tracking Y2K

The U.S. is part of an international, United Nations-backed group tracking Y2K globally. That group, the International Y2K Cooperation Center has said health-care facilities in the developing world, particularly Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe, are the least prepared to avert the computer glitch.

The U.S. set up a war room this week and next to distribute information to the public and media about Y2K glitches, though officials downplay the chances for serious foul-ups.

The U.S. and most industrial countries are likely to have few if any problems, said President Bill Clinton, adding that he worries about less developed countries.

``My concerns really are for some of our friends around the world that have more rudimentary computer networks and capacities,'' Clinton said at a press conference. ``If there were a problem in the financial system, what if records disappeared and people lost money?'' he said. ``That would be destabilizing in some countries.'' )1999 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Terms of Service, Privacy

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@AOL.COM), December 28, 1999

Answers

Good find. I'm glad some wrote this up finally. We are going to see a lot of corrupted databases which won't blow up till later. I remember reading a post here from a fellow who was working on some mainframes that melted down 4-5 months due to corrupted data from their fiscal rollover on July 1.

Now here's where the realy interesting question comes in. The companies will not admit they have failures due to y2k because they have to stick to the party line that they are compliant. But then they have to give some explaination when their business is interrupted and they get sued. Because if its not y2k, then they get no protection from suits. But then on the other hand they get protection from insurance companies, who my guess are not going to let the wool get pulled over their eyes and will pay out nothing until they are convinced it is not y2k.

This should be an interesting year for the lawyers and the programmers as each try and prove both that each event was and was not a y2k event at the same time. It'll just depend on which side of the money game you're on which will dictate what your team is upto.

-- Interested Spectator (is@the_ring.side), December 28, 1999.


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