http://www.news.com.au/news_content/national_content/4346608.htm

Y2K alert: There will be trouble By MICHELLE GILCHRIST 31dec99

AUSTRALIA is certain to experience Y2K failures this weekend despite spending almost $12 billion to counter the problem, the federal Government's Y2K co-ordinator has warned.

Senator Ian Campbell said the failure in Britain yesterday of credit-card facilities in thousands of shops could foreshadow the problems that Australians will experience as computers fail to read the date change to 01/01/00 tonight.

"I can just about guarantee that there will be problems," Senator Campbell said.

"I don't think there are any significant dangers. I think it will be business as usual. I am also sure there will be failures, but they will be irritations rather than disruptions."

In Britain swipe machines  manufactured by Racal Electronics and supplied by one of the world's biggest banks, HSBC  incorrectly rejected credit cards because of a failure to recognise the year 2000.

British retailers claim they have lost up to $7 million in sales because of the problem.

The problem occurred yesterday because some machines register a transaction four working days after the purchase date.

"When (the machines) looked ahead and compared, say, December 28, 1999, with January 1, 2000, they thought something was wrong and failed to function because they read the second date as January 1, 1900," a spokesman for HSBC bank said.

HSBC had issued 10,000 of the swipe machines to retailers, which had to resort to paper-slip transactions.

The failure has highlighted that Y2K problems could occur whenever a computer tries to use the 01/01/00 date, and not necessarily just at midnight tonight. Daylight savings in Australia means many non-compliant computers may not fail until 1am.

Senator Campell said Australian companies could experience similar problems, which could take weeks to rectify.

"All the major organisations are saying that they do expect glitches," he said.

"The process of trying to get Australia ready for Y2K has been like trying to find 10,000 needles in a bloody big haystack . . . even if we have found 9500 needles, there is still going to be a lot left."

And he warned that those worried about the millennium bug would be ill-advised to seek guidance from the Government's Y2K Internet site.

The http://www.y2kaustralia.gov.au site has recorded more than 270,000 hits since it opened on December 15, even though the site has been screening only dummy reports as a test run.

Senator Campbell said he hoped most Australians would rely on ABC radio or other information sources.

"You don't need to go to the Web site for updates, and I would rather keep people off the Web site because we want to make sure the critical people can get on to it," he said.

Government and industry have spent between $12 billion and $15 billion to rectify millennium-bug problems.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), December 31, 1999

Answers

At least he is honest .... More than can be said for the US or UK Czar.

-- merville (merville@globalnet.co.uk), December 31, 1999.

Now that Y2K is practically here, I'll bet some of these guys will indeed "get religion" and be a lot more candid, even as they enter their Y2K bunkers. Or, as in the case of Yeltsin, resign.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), December 31, 1999.

"Government and industry have spent between $12 billion and $15 billion to rectify millennium-bug problems."

Yeah, when they say "rectify," they mean "blow the money out their ass"!

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 31, 1999.