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Tony Haas wrote:
> I checked with the tech's at BMI yesterday and received
> the standard "duh, I don't know" reply regarding Y2K problem.
> I know that BMI transmits date and time stamps every 30 sec
> with the real time feed, so there is a legitiment concern.
This is not a legitiment concern. BMI didn't send dates in the past.
Someone said they do now, but so what? Do you know if the Omega Server uses
the dates BMI sends? I doubt it does. However, even if it does, there is
no need for BMI to send four digit year values. The year 2000 will be sent
as 00. The year 2001 will be sent as 01. It only is necessary that
receiving software assume low year values are twenty-first century dates,
like humans will.
These concerns are ridiculous. Various computer programs you use probably
display today's date as 12/11/97. How do you know the year is not 1897 or
2097? You know the year is 1997, because you don't need a computer to tell
you which century we are in. The same will be true in the year 2000. When
your computer shows 1/1/00, will you be confused and wonder if the year is
1800, 1900, 2000, or 2100. I won't be. If the Omega Server is confused it
will be an absolutely trivial problem to fix. Omega will fix it. If they
don't, I will send you software patch that will fix it, so relax and worry
about something else.
> We BMI users on this list should voice our concerns and
> send letters first inquiring on the status of Y2K compliance
> and when it will be implemented and, second, if we're blown
> off, follow with a letter DEMANDING compliance per the SEC's
? regulations. Letters should be sent to:
>
> BMI Engineering Department
> 1900 S. Norfolk St.
> Suite125
> San Mateo, CA 94402
BMI users should not do that. If there is a problem, it will be an Omega
software problem, not a BMI problem. BMI should not send four digit dates,
because there is absolutely no need for them. It would be a ridiculous
waste of transmission bandwidth, because everyone on earth will know we are
in the twenty-first century whether BMI tells some traders every few seconds
or not. It is a waste of transmission bandwidth for BMI to send date
information at all, because we all know what day it is without them
broadcasting it many times a day. Why encourage them to delay the
transmission of price quote information to repeatedly tell us something we
already know?
If you want to reduce quote latency, encourage them to not send anything
that is already known.
-Bob Brickey
Scientific Approaches
sci@xxxxxxxxxx
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