Countdown 2000

By the time our next (Jan) newsletter comes out, there will be LESS THAN 12 MONTHS top prepare for the Millennium change.

As there are a number of known serious issues that have been addressed in many current products, there is a real risk that some countries lacking the IT infrastructure, skills or money, will face serious failures of basic systems in just over 12 months time. Many less affluent or technologically un-aware countries are still relying on outdated systems, off-casts from the "affluent" west. Those who have not prepared themselves WILL face problems.

Computer users in the more "affluent" countries who have adopted the ostrich principle (head in the sand - maybe it will go away) are also going to experience problems. There may be areas where, prepare as we might, there may be no warning until something fails. All we can do is prepare ourselves as best we can.

Recently a number of stories have come to light that emphasise our warning from last issue - BACKUP YOUR MACHINE BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY YEAR 2000 TESTS!!! We cannot emphasise the need for a complete working back-up enough. A number of well intentioned businesses and individuals, some locally, have attempted to test their Y2K readiness by setting their systems clock forward. Both during and after the test serious un-anticipated problems have occurred.

• During one test, a program that schedules jobs went berserk trying to schedule all jobs required between the "real" date and the 2000 test date. It was just trying to do it's normal task in an impossibly short time span.
• In another incident, upon returning their system to normal, another tester found an accounting package that rolled over the century OK would not allow any entries into the current years books. It had "closed the books" literally, on ALL TRANSACTIONS until after the turn of the century.
• Tests on one unix system resulted in the scheduled jobs not running once the system date was returned because the process involved had run all the jobs it had between the "real" date and the millennium test date during the test, and was quite satisfied that all scheduled jobs had been done!

These problems were not due to the Millennium bug itself, but were directly the result of trying to test for it! (we are unaware as to whether the people involved found any real Millennium problems. Ed.)

Year 2000 readiness - By Platform Update:

Some major operating systems and their status as of early November 1998:

Manufacturer/Product

Ready as shipped Ready with patches Not ready, no patches

Microsoft: MS-DOS
6.22 (English)	6.21 (English)	6.2 (English)	6.0 (English)	5.0a (English)
Comments: Compliant with minor issues Date mishandling issues. No patches currently available, no plans to patch 5.0a, 6.0, 6.2 or 6.21 Some work-arounds suggested.
Microsoft: Windows
3.1 (English)	3.11 (English)
Compliant with minor issues. 1 patch, 1 workaround, other errors and date issues unresolved. It is unclear whether there will be further patches for this product.
95 (English)	950A (English) 95(OSR)	950B (English) 95(OSR)	950C (English) 95(OSR)	95/Plus (English)
Compliant with minor issues. See links for patches, updates, some unresolved issues and some workarounds.
98 (English)
Compliant with patches. Some bugs, some patches, some issues still with no apparent solution??
CE
A mix of Compliant and Compliant with minor issues dependent on OEM issues. Refer to Microsoft for complete listing.
NT Server 3.51 English)			NT Workstation 3.51 (English)
Compliant. Patches, Service Packs and hot-fix required. See links above.
NT Server 4.0 English)			NT Workstation 4.0 (English)
Compliant with minor issues. Numerous patches and fixes, minor issues still exist. Service Pack 3 required for compliance. Service Pack 4 was released but has been recalled. Microsoft's compliance definitions: Compliant: "The product fully meets Microsoft's standard of compliance.May have prerequisite patch or service pack for compliance" Compliant with minor issues: "The product meets Microsoft's standard of compliance with some disclosed exceptions that constitute minor date issues." Summary: no Microsoft Operating System appears to be Year 2000 compliant as shipped (with the possible exception of some versions of CE). Most require at the very least some patches, Service Packs or hot fixes. Many date issues remain, not all have work-arounds.

IBM - DOS
Dos2000		Dos 7
IBM - OS/2 Warp
OS2.1	OS2 Warp 3 Warp Connect	OS2 Warp 4	Warp 4 Server
No update planned for OS2 2.1; Warp 3, 4 and Warp 4 Server are compliant with fixpacks applied. IBM's compliance definitions: "IBM considers a product Year 2000 ready if the product, when used in accordance with its associated documentation, is capable of correctly processing, providing, and/or receiving date data within and between the 20th and 21st centuries, provided that all products (for example, hardware, software and firmware) used with the product properly exchange accurate date data with it.Please note, IBM products identified as Year 2000 ready may require user intervention, such as the application of Program Temporary Fixes (PTFs) or Corrective Service Deliveries (CSDs) before the Year 2000 occurs, or for PCs, restarting the system after the Year 2000 occurs.

Apple - Macintosh MacOS
Mac OS7.x	Mac OS8.x
The Macintosh has always handled dates differently to PC systems, and as an operating system is not expected to suffer from the Millennium bug. Macintosh applications (programs) however, especially those originally written for Windows platforms may have problems and should be investigated.

Unix/Linux
Unix and Linux as a general rule are not expecting problems
FreeBSD Unix	Red Hat Linux	Debian Linux	Caldera Linux	SUSE Linux
Current versions of Unix and Linux handle dates correctly. Some older versions do not and will probably not be patched. As most versions of Linux and some versions of Unix are freely available users are advised to upgrade to the current versions as soon as possible to allow time to migrate and update applications. If you are using an old commercial Unix, contact the manufacturer ASAP for your options.

Previous ALI Year 2000 articles

• General background: July 98
• Tests, recommendations and warnings: September 98

Snippets from the (mailing) Lists:

>According to a recent news report over here, London Electricity has refused to make assurances that they will be able to supply electricty to the Millennium Dome (which I guess you guys in Oz have heard about) on 31/12/1999 - 01/01/2000, so apparently they're having to hire a whole bunch of generators just in case. London Electricty has also bought a bunch of bicycles (~140, I think it was) for the guys and gals on call that night, because they've worked out if the power system fails, the traffic signals fail, and you've got a problem moving about.

>From what I understand, they're pretty sure it'll be OK, but they're trying to minimise their liability if something does go wrong but not promising anything up front.

Anyone in Oz know if the relevant people have put it in writing that there will be a continuous supply of electricity on 31/12/1999?

...j

(Also, one paper reports the going rate for being a computer bod on call that evening will get you upwards of 700GBP/hour (ie, about $2000AUS/hour at the current exchange rate). I'm not sure if I should go sit on an island or go sit in an office building :))

On the lighter side ...

New Strategy to overcome the Year 2000 problem is outlined below. :-)

In order to be Y2K compliant the following plan is being implemented:

We will be removing all computers from the desktop by Jan, 1999. Instead, everyone will be provided with an Etch-A-Sketch.

There are many sound reasons for doing this:

1. No Y2K problems
2. No technical glitches keeping work from being done.
3. No more wasted time reading and writing emails.

The Help Desk will be trained to answer the following questions.

Frequently Asked Questions from the Etch-A-Sketch Help Desk:

Q: My Etch-A-Sketch has all of these funny little lines all over the screen.
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: How do I turn my Etch-A-Sketch off?
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: What's the shortcut for Undo?
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: How do I create a New Document window?
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: How do I set the background and foreground to the same color?
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: What is the proper procedure for rebooting my Etch-A-Sketch?
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: How do I delete a document on my Etch-A-Sketch?
A: Pick it up and shake it.

Q: How do I save my Etch-A-Sketch document?
A: Don't shake it.

Author unknown

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