Friday, May 09, 2008
WILL YOU DO Y2K OK? (Jan. E-News from 2SS.Com)
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‘ E – N E W S from ‘
‘ 2SS.Com ‘
‘ Compiled and Edited by ‘
‘ Mailed on: 01/01/1999 8:17 PM Number 6 ‘
‘ Int’l Standard Serial No. - ISSN00751 (applied for) ‘
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‘ In this issue (4 Items): ‘
‘ ================ ‘
‘ 1--WILL YOU DO Y2K OK? ‘
‘ 2--QUESTIONS ‘
‘ 3--FIVE STRATEGIC / USEFUL LINKS ‘
‘ 4--WHY SUBSCRIBE?, 2SS.Com and YOUR ‘
‘ SUBSCRIPTION. ‘
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‘ --------------Item One----------- ‘
‘ WILL YOU DO Y2K OK? ‘
‘ =================== ‘
‘ There is a lot of talk about the Y2K (e.g. Year ‘
‘ 2,000) issue and the range of issues from note- ‘
‘ worthy interest to ‘Big Threat’ that it creates for ‘
‘ every computer user who followed the first pro- ‘
‘ grammar that rightfully (at the time) valued ‘
‘ computer resources more than a 4-digit year. In ‘
‘ Dec 1998 we’re too close not to be interested and ‘
‘ too ‘technology-savvy’ to believe there’s no ‘
‘ impact. ‘
‘ 2SS.Com has a rather extensive E-Mail news ‘
‘ clipping-file (Write us for an article on starting ‘
‘ a clipping-file of you own) running back to late ‘
‘ 1995. In fact a search for on the phrase ‘
‘ “2000, Y2K” generated 1,060 citings including ‘
‘ a few (like Microsoft’s new ‘Windows 2000’) ‘
‘ that have nothing to do with the Y2K issue. ‘
‘ Hoping to narrow down the list we went looking ‘
‘ for just ‘Y2K’ alone and still found over 450 items ‘
‘ dating back to:
‘ * 10/11/96 Is MSN = MONEY SQUAN- ‘
‘ DERED NEEDLESSLY? ‘
‘ Jesse Berst explains why the just re-launched ‘
‘ online service will squander a half-billion dollars ‘
‘ trying to get the Web ready for the year 2000. ‘
‘ - and - ‘
‘ * 07/21/97 VARBusiness Insider--YEAR 2000: ‘
‘ THE COUNT IS ON ‘
‘ Which went on to ask…”Are you involved in ‘
‘ Year 2000 conversion work yet? Perhaps you’ve ‘
‘ heard that it’s mostly a dilemma affecting ‘
‘ accounting…”
‘ As long as a year ago we noted articles on ‘
‘ progress being made like this one from ‘
‘ “InformationWeek Daily 12/17/97 ‘
‘ Government Accelerates Y2K Push ‘
‘ U.S. government agencies are making ‘
‘ progress with their year 2000 code conversion, ‘
‘ but the government is moving up a number of ‘
‘ target dates in order to get the massive job ‘
‘ done on time, according to a report issued ‘
‘ yesterday by the Office of Management and ‘
‘ Budget. ‘
‘ The OMB report found that 27% of 8,589 ‘
‘ critical systems are now year 2000 compliant, ‘
‘ compared with 19% in the previous quarter. ‘
‘ Total costs, however, increased to $3.9 billion ‘
‘ from last quarter’s estimate of $3.8 billion. ‘
‘ Nearly all-federal agencies have completed ‘
year 2000 assessments…” ‘
‘ So for the Government, and at major US ‘
‘ companies, the Y2K issue has generally been ‘
‘ taken seriously for some time. At 2SS.Com our ‘
‘ assessment is that a combination of recognition ‘
‘ and ingenuity will bring a level of attention that ‘
‘ copes with the major issues. Nevertheless ‘
‘ problems are almost certain to be more ‘
demanding than the ‘note-worthy interest’ idea we ‘
‘ mentioned above. ‘
‘ More significant for companies that recognize ‘
‘ the problem is to determine, in time to minimize ‘
‘ damage, what their suppliers, major customers, ‘
‘ shippers, trading partners, etc. are doing ‘
about Y2K. ‘
‘ As part of its research the Gartner Group has ‘
‘ estimated that: ‘
‘ 15% of large companies will have failures ‘
‘ 40+% of medium sized business will also,
‘ - while - ‘
‘ 55% of small companies will have at least ‘
‘ one failure. ‘
‘ Gartner went on to forecast that 10% of ‘
‘ systems failures will last as much as 3+ ‘
‘ days. Notably they also predict that the ‘
‘ failures will come throughout the year. ‘
‘ Fortunately Congress has passed legislation ‘
‘ offering safeguards to companies that share ‘
‘ technical information about Y2K issues. ‘
‘ THE WORST THREAT? ‘
‘ -------------------------------- ‘
‘ It’s definitely outside the US where experts say ‘
‘ most vulnerable countries include Japan, France, ‘
‘ Russia and Brazil and the most vulnerable sector ‘
‘ is, not surprisingly, utilities and especially power ‘
‘ generation. ‘
‘ In a 7-98 article titled “GARTNER SEES BIG ‘
‘ PROBLEMS COMING” it was noted that their ‘
‘ research indicated as many as 23 percent of ‘
‘ companies worldwide are not yet evaluating the ‘
‘ impact of Y2K even though they estimate Y2K ‘
‘ repair projects might need 30 or more months ‘
‘ to implement. ‘
http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/pcwt980922004/www.zdnet.com/pcweek/y2k/0998/21gart.html
‘ WHAT CAN YOU DO? ‘
‘ ------------------------------ ‘
‘ Following are a few carefully selected links, ‘
‘ among hundreds on the subject in every type ‘
‘ of media. ‘
‘ TIME.com has composed a comprehensive listing ‘
‘ of links and resources to help prepare for the ‘
‘ new millennium. ‘
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/digital/daily/0,2822,16418,00.html
‘ Is your Microsoft software ready? If you use ‘
‘ Access 2.0, Windows 3.11 File Manager, ‘
‘ DOS 6.22, FoxPro 2.6, Windows NT 3.51 be ‘
‘ sure to check in at ‘
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/topics/year2k/default.htm ‘
‘ Vendor 2000 - Y2K compliance information for ‘
‘ hardware, software, and other specialized ‘
‘ products. http://www.vendor2000.com/ ‘
‘ http://www.year2000.com is a Year 2000 Inform- ‘
‘ ation Center™ that serves as a forum for ‘
‘ disseminating information about the year 2000 ‘
‘ problem, AKA the Millennium Bug, and for ‘
‘ discussion of possible solutions. ‘
‘ And don’t forget to think big about Y2K. It’s ‘
‘ not a problem that is fully inside your computer ‘
‘ or even your company’s computers. The Mining ‘
‘ Company, an interesting subject-oriented and ‘
‘ human-attended, resource on the Internet ‘
‘ recently spoke out on Retirement Accounts with ‘
‘ much more information than just the following ‘
‘ check list: ‘
‘ * Check your retirement account providers' ‘
‘ progress now. ‘
‘ * Don't cash in all your investment and bank ‘
‘ accounts! ‘
‘ * Check the balance of each of your accounts ‘
‘ at least twice before 1-1-2000! ‘
‘ * Check again to be sure you still have an ‘
‘ account balance in early January 2000. ‘
‘ * Be patient! ‘
‘ * Check your January 1, 2000 balance against ‘
‘ the late December balance. ‘
‘ * Continue your disciplined retirement savings ‘
‘ program. ‘
‘ For more details you can see the article this was ‘
‘ extracted from at ‘
http://retireplan.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa101998.htm ‘
‘ For more on Y2K from The Mining Company see ‘
‘ http://specials.miningco.com/y2k.htm ‘
‘ NOT 1 BUT SEVERAL KEY Y2K DATES ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------ ‘
‘ May 17, 1998 - Ron Ellis had his new Master- ‘
‘ Card charge rejected due to the invalid expiration ‘
‘ date 4-30-00. (It was fixed with a call and worked ‘
‘ fine thereafter.) ‘
‘ Jan 01, 1999. - Some accounting systems roll ‘
‘ out a year ahead to set renewal dates for ‘
‘ insurance premiums or bank loans, etc. and ‘
‘ may have early trouble with Jan. 1, 2000. ‘
‘ Apr 09, 1999 - It’s , the 99th day of the year ‘
‘ (see below). ‘
‘ Sep 09, 1999 - Might be entered in a computer ‘
‘ as 9 9 99 and coincides with the old Cobol ‘
‘ programmer trick of using several nines as a ‘
‘ program cut-off for 'don't do this anymore’ or ‘
‘ ‘stop here!’ ‘
‘ Jan 01, 2000 The date that gets all the attention. ‘
‘ Feb 29, 2000? Nope! Every 4th year is a leap ‘
‘ year EXCEPT for years like 2000 that are ‘
‘ divisible by 400.
‘ Jan 01, 2001 Another date that may trigger some ‘
‘ latent Y2K style bugs. ‘
‘ Y2K SOLUTIONS? ‘
‘ ------------------------- ‘
‘ Many solutions, aids, tests, etc. are available and ‘
‘ we believe there will be a flood of new ones in ‘
‘ the New Year. One of the most creative we’ve ‘
‘ seen gives you a good feel for our belief in the ‘
‘ power of technology at 2SS.Com. ‘
‘ Sterling Software Inc. of Dallas, which has ‘
‘ released a new mainframe computer program it, ‘
‘ calls Phaseshift. The program lets old ‘
‘ application programs in Cobol, Fortran or virtually ‘
‘ any language, continue to work automatically. ‘
‘ How? By working between applications and the ‘
‘ operating system to intercept dates and make ‘
‘ them right. Phaseshift isn’t cheap at $275,000 ‘
‘ but for some organizations it may be a bargain. ‘
‘ Meanwhile it points to a future after 2000 that ‘
‘ could well be more manageable than we thought ‘
‘ thanks to innovative technology! (Drawn from ‘
‘ PC Week 8-17-98 page 34) ‘
‘ Y2K SOFTWARE TO HELP YOU? ‘
‘ --------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ Here are two FREE and highly rated programs ‘
‘ among over 80 available at ‘
http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=000HR4 ‘
‘ Y2KTEST from SecureNet Technologies, Inc. ‘
‘ Is your PC ready for the millennium? Find out ‘
‘ with this free diagnostic utility. Y2K Test checks ‘
‘ your system for Year 2000 compatibility. It will ‘
‘ reboot your computer three times and perform ‘
‘ a series of tests to determine if your PC's Real ‘
‘ Time Clock, BIOS, and operating system have ‘
‘ what it takes to operate smoothly once midnight ‘
‘ comes on December 31, 1999. When the pro- ‘
‘ cess has finished, just re-run the program and ‘
‘ view the test results. When you're done running ‘
the test, you'll need to reset your system clock. ‘
‘ Should your system not be 2000-compliant, ‘
‘ the developer has a fix available for purchase. ‘
‘ Note: If you're running a boot manager program ‘
‘ such as System Commander you may ‘
‘ experience problems when trying to run this ‘
‘ software. (The only boot manager known to be ‘
‘ compatible with the Windows NT's boot loader.).. ‘
‘ Reviewed by Ziff-Davis on Jul 8 1998. ‘
‘ YESY2K from SafetyNet Inc ‘
‘ Yes2K detects flaws in your CMOS and BIOS ‘
‘ that can cause problems when the PC is used ‘
‘ after December 31, 1999. After running the ‘
‘ tests, it recommends a solution for bringing the ‘
‘ tested PC hardware into year 2000 compliance. ‘
‘ An included module can be run each time your ‘
‘ computer boots up to provide you with the ‘
‘ opportunity to correct any problems found. ‘
‘ Also included is a Compliance Manager, which ‘
‘ enables an administrator to centrally manage ‘
‘ and analyze year 2000 tests from several to ‘
‘ more than 10,000 PCs. Yes2K is easy to use ‘
‘ and includes online help. It's free for individual ‘
‘ users; contact the author regarding corporate ‘
‘ licensing. ‘
‘ Reviewed by Ziff-Davis on May 26 1998 ‘
‘ THE BOTTOM LINE FROM 2SS.COM? ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ It’s worth being aware and careful but we don’t ‘
‘ believe you need to go crazy. Try to see that your ‘
‘ business is Y2K proof early in 1999 to give you ‘
‘ plenty of time to check up on others who are either ‘
‘ out of your control or vital to you success. And ‘
‘ take a few personal precautions too like updating ‘
‘ your portfolio, checking in on investments and ‘
‘ planning a safe-‘n-sane New Year’s 2000 maybe ‘
‘ somewhere close to home. ‘
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‘ --------------Item Two----------- ‘
‘ QUESTIONS ‘
‘ 1. How can I be sure my CPA is keeping up ‘
‘ to date? ‘
‘ Thanks to 2SS Advisory Panel member DAVE ‘
‘ LJUNG we’re pleased to respond: ‘
‘ In your regular dealings with your accountant, ‘
‘ you should expect answers to your questions ‘
‘ or requests that indicate an understanding of ‘
‘ your business, along with a creative, problem- ‘
‘ solving perspective. If you’re not sure you are ‘
‘ receiving that, consider interviewing other ‘
‘ accountants, particularly those who may ‘
‘ have experience in your industry or ‘
‘ circumstances. The California Society of ‘
‘ CPA’s has a web site that allows you to identify ‘
‘ CPA’s according to their particular expertise and ‘
‘ by location. You will find it at www.cpabsn.com. ‘
‘ Good luck. ‘
‘ 2. How can I get the best deal arranging for ‘
‘ rental computers needed for presentations ‘
‘ in several cities over several consecutive days? ‘
‘ Thanks to 2SS Advisory Panel member RICK ‘
‘ RANDALL we’re pleased to respond: ‘
‘ We are doing more and more of this. If you ‘
‘ provide us with your equipment needs, ‘
‘ the locations and times that you need ‘
‘ equipment, we’ll coordinate it nationwide! ‘
‘ In any area of the country, we have a handful ‘
‘ of contacts. We’ll shop prices and reputations ‘
‘ and haggle over price. We get a cross-rental ‘
‘ discount, so you don’t pay any more than if you ‘
‘ made the calls, and you don’t have to do any ‘
‘ of the work! ‘
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‘ -------------Item Three---------- ‘
‘ 9 STRATEGIC / USEFUL Y2K LINKS ‘
‘ Following are links that show the impact of ‘
‘ Y2K. There are many more. These were ‘
‘ selected in addition to those above to provide ‘
‘ a good cross-section. ‘’
‘ 1. http://www.garynorth.com - Extensive infor- ‘
‘ mation on Y2K ‘
‘ 2. http://www.y2k-aid.com - The official Y2K-AID ‘
‘ preparation guide ‘
‘ 3. http://www.y2kwatch.com - Y2K newsletter via ‘
‘ e-mail ‘
‘ 4. http://www.y2ksupply.com - another Y2K ‘
‘ preparation site ‘
‘ 5. http://www.y2k.gov - what the government ‘
‘ has to say ‘
‘ 6. http://www.prepare4y2k.com - preparation for ‘
‘ Y2K ‘
‘ 7. http://www.y2kchaos.com - One of the biggest ‘
‘ Y2K sites. ‘
‘ 8. http://www.erols.com/steve451/impact.htm ‘
‘ Dealing With the Y2k Problem. ‘
‘ 9. http://www.firstsql.com/year2000 - good Y2K ‘
‘ information. ‘
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‘ -------------Item Four----------- ‘
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