Y2K: Year 2000 Mini FAQ (Version 4.2 - 30th July, 1997) (Brought to you as a free service by the Y2k Cinderella Secretariat) --------------------------------------------------- Question: What is the Year 2000 problem? Answer: Briefly, certain portions of computer operating systems and application programs which reference the year as two digits will cause spurious results in date calculations and comparisons. i.e. 00 will collate lower than 99. --------------------------------------------------- Question: Is this a real problem? Answer: Yes. US Government estimates to fix the problem currently run to $30 Billion. A Senatorial Commission of Enquiry has been established. The World-wide costs are estimated anywhere between $600 billn and $1.8 Trilln. ------------------------------------------------- Question: Where can I obtain information on the Year 2000 problem? Answer: UseNet: comp.software.year-2000 Prime Web Site: Peter de Jager's primary site for the Year 2000 problem. Info on Vendors, Jobs, Reference Archive, User Groups etc The Year 2000 Information Centre: http://www.year2000.com -------------------------------------------- Question: What Mailing lists exist? Answer: Year 2000 Information Centre Private moderated mailing list ($50 per year) send email with ***ADMIN***SUBSCRIBE in subject to y2k@tor.hookup.com Also: limited "Announcement only" Digest list year2000-announce-request@year2000.com Subscribe via http://www.year2000.com Independent Free echo (unmoderated) Mailing Lists: 1. Y2K@leba.net The fastest of all the Y2K free echoing lists. Subscribe by sending a message to Y2k@odd.com with the word 'subscribe' in the subject and with the body blank. Send mail to y2k@leba.net 2. listmanager@year2000.co.uk Slight delay in response, probably due to load. Wide cover. Subscribe by sending email to majordomo@year2000.co.uk with subject blank and the words 'subscribe listmanager' in the message body. Send mail to listmanager@year2000.co.uk 3. CCTA (Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency - UK) Again live after a brief rest during the British Election. Subscribe by sending email to majordomo@ccta.gov.uk with subject blank and the words 'subscribe bomb2000' in the message body. Send mail to bomb2000@ccta.gov.uk ------------------------------------------ Question: Where can I find Reference Material on this subject? Answer: IBM Systems: Year 2000 Technical support centre http://www.software.ibm.com/year2000 email: y2ktsc@vnet.ibm.com Definitive document: The Year 2000 and 2-Digit Dates: A Guide to Planning and Implementation http://www.software.ibm.com/year2000/resource.html ------------------------------------------- Question: Is there a Bibliography for this subject? Answer: http://www.ttuhsc.edu/pages/year2000/y2k_bib.htm ------------------------------------------- Question: As I am new to this group, please could you direct me to any site with FAQ or Archives. Answer: The comp.software.year-2000 newsgroup is archived at ftp://ftp.cinderella.co.za/pub (anonymous FTP). See the ReadMe file there for more information. All Usenet newsgroups are archived at http://www.dejanews.com. The Year 2000 FAQ can be obtained from the Year 2000 Information Center home page at http://www.year2000.com. Select the "Year 2000 Archive" link. The FAQ is the last item listed on the Archive page. The FAQ is also available at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rsandler It can also be obtained by anonymous FTP from www.year2000.com. It is in the /pub/year2000 directory; the file name is y2kfaq.txt. The above sources have the FAQ in ASCII text format, about 204K. CompuServe members can download the FAQ in PKZIP compressed form from the Year 2000 Forum, GO YEAR2000. The FAQ is in library 1, General Information; the file name is Y2KFAQ.ZIP. (With thanks to Robert J. Sandler for FAQ Information). --------------------------------------------------- Question: Will my PC be affected? Answer: Yes. Pc's and LANs must be assessed for Year 2000 impact. Most PC's will survive the transition between 1999-12-31 and 2000-01-01 if power is left on, but if powered off without a manual date change to 2000-01-01, the corrupted CMOS memory will reset the date to 1980 on reboot. A TSR solution is available from Righttime at http://www.rightime.com/ The crucial test for BIOS CMOS memory is if it will accept and store a manually set date of 2000-02-29 so that on poweroff and reboot the system recognises the correct date. Testing your system is the only definitive way to find out if your system is affected. Note: It is essential to backup your system before trying this. The impact on date fields stored in spread sheets, databases and other applications must be established. Identification of "Compliant" programs must be done. The Y2k Cinderella Project attacks this problem. http://www.cinderella.co.za/ The Two-minute Zero Cost Y2k Cinderella Solution. The ISO8601 Standard YYYY-MM-DD format is already available in most common PC software but the option to use it must be enabled. Do this. So far I have solved all the problems on my own system by adding COUNTRY=002 in config.sys and modifying the International section of Windows setup to use YMD, Century date on, leading zero day, leading zero month, separator minus (-). 24 hour mode Time. And I have a plan for my BIOS tickover. Configure and use full 4 digit years in applications and observe the results of their interactions. Old form date inputs and displays are OK (cosmetic) if internal binary dates are used and produce correct results. (See the Cinderella Acceptability Index). Replace programs that do not comply. ---------------------------------------------------- Question: Will the Operating System cope with this problem? Answer: Some Operating systems must be totally replaced. Most commercial suppliers have "promised" to make modified systems available by late 1997. User-written application systems will have to modified to fit new operational environments. This is the main thrust of Y2k activity at this date. -------------------------------------------------- Question: What other Web links are there? Answer: The list grows daily. Current sighting are listed in Usenet comp.software.year-2000 under the "More Y2k Links" Thread. A consolidation WEBREF database is available from: ftp://ftp.cinderella.co.za/pub or from the FTP section of http://www.cinderella.co.za ---------------------------------------------- Question. I have heard somewhere that there is no Feb 29 in the year 2000, is this true? Answer. Standard Gregorian rule. If divisible by 4 it is a leap year unless it is divisible by 100 in which case it is not unless it is divisible by 4 and 100 and 400 in which case it is. 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years. 1900 and 2100 etc are not. Blame Pope Gregory and the wobbliness of the Earth's orbit. If you really want the morbid details, check out the y2klinks.txt file in "More Y2k Links" at http://www.cinderella.co.za/cinder.html. There are several hard technical references in Area:Calendar including "Inter Gravissimus" the original Papal decree (also available in Latin if you prefer). ------------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers. While all due care has been taken to give accurate information, the author disclaims all liability for this information. Trademarks mentioned (if any) belong to their owners. Please send suggestions for updating this faq to webmaster@cinderella.co.za