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At 3:37 PM -0400 7/14/98, BrentinUtahsDixie wrote:
>
>Not to over play the Y2K mess but something I read said that because of
>departmental guidelines and fiscal years, trouble could begin as early as
>July of this year. The one thing that I don't understand about Y2K is that
>computers are so much cheaper, more powerful and versatile now. If I were
>a manager and suspected that I had a bug. I would simply replace those old
>computers and programing with new. Wouldn't your job be on the line if you
>had known for years about the problem and didn’t do anything? Something
>about Y2k just doesn't jive.
The Y2K problem is not primarily with small desktop computers. It is with
large programs that run on large computers that control everything from air
traffic control systems to the IRS to power plants and banks. Many of these
programs were written 20 or 30 years ago and have been modified many time
since. The programmers who wrote them never imagined that the programs
would still be in service after so many years so never even considered what
would happen in 2000.
In addition, there is software (usually called "firmware" because it is
fixed in a read-only memory) in millions of microprocessors that control
everything from toasters to VCRs to automobiles. This code cannot be
changed without changing the microchip which may be soldered into the
equipment. I have heard that an offshore drilling rig has over 200 such
processors. No one knows how much of this firmware is Y2K compliant. Some
of this equipment will just stop working. If it is older equipment, even
the company who built it may no longer have the original code that they
built into it so it probably cannot be fixed.
It is all a huge unknown. Could be a minor blip that is gone in a few
weeks, or could be a disaster.
Bob Fulks
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