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BOOT CAMP 076
SURVIVING THE MILLENNIUM, PART 1
Only 91 days to go! No, we're not talking about the famous
millennium meltdown scheduled for January 1st 2000. This one might, or might
not happen on Thursday 9th of September 1999 or '09/09/99. This is a 'dump
date' used on some programs to indicate the end of a file (or a file with no
particular date) and there's a chance that some COBOL based business
applications could fail on that date. This is just one of a number of critical
dates to watch out for during the coming year. February 29th 2000 is another
because the year 2000 is a leap year, but according to the rules it shouldn't
be, apparently some date-sensitive applications and products will keel over and
die.
Scare stories in newspapers and the media have variously
predicted that everything from washing machines to oven timers will stop
working, or worse, on the first day of the new millennium. Police and troops
will be on standby to deal with civil unrest caused by power cuts,
interruptions in food supplies, nuclear detonations and Jumbo jets falling out
of the sky…
An astonishing amount of twaddle has been written about the
so-called 'Millennium bug' in the past year or two, so this week we'll try to set
the record straight; next week we'll show how to make sure your PC doesn't let
you down on or after January the 1st 2000.
Leaving aside the year 2000 or 'Y2K' issues in the wider
world, for the average consumer and householder the principle concern is
devices or products in the home. A lot of reports have focused on 'embedded
microchips'. They're everywhere controlling functions inside a huge range of
electronic and electrical products from Furbys and fridges to vacuum cleaners
and cars, but only a tiny, tiny fraction of them give a fig about the date. The
simple rule of thumb is that unless you had to program the time or date into a
gizmo or appliance when you first brought it, it won't be affected.
There is absolutely no need to worry about the vast majority
of domestic appliances, including time-conscious things like central heating
timers, video recorders and camcorders. We are aware of a couple of ancient
video recorders that won't recognise 2000 as a leap year and one or two other
elderly VCRs might stumble, if programmed to make a timer recording over the
New Year holiday. But after that they will continue to operate normally,
assuming there are no power cuts...
The only device you're likely to own or use that might
conceivably give you some trouble is the PC. However, it's important to say
that no computers will stop working as a result of the millennium bug, nor will
they catch fire or explode, but getting the date wrong could cause the
operating system or some applications to misbehave or crash. Now is a good time
to take stock and sort out any Y2K compliance issues, before they can
happen.
Year 2000 problems for the PC fall into two basic
categories, hardware and software, and yes, all you Mac users out there can
look smug because none of this affects you. The hardware side of things is only
relevant if your PC is more than two or three years old. It concerns a widget
called the Real Time Clock or RTC that lives on the computer motherboard and
the BIOS program that configures the PC every time it is switched on. The BIOS
takes time and date information from the RTC and makes it available to the
operating system and programs running on the PC. After midnight on 31st
December 1999 some older PCs may get the date wrong, reporting that the year is
1900 or some time during the 1980's (when the software was written). This won't
stop the PC functioning and the date can be easily reset the next time the PC
is switched on. There are also add-ons and software upgrades (more about that
next week), that will ensure the date 'rolls-over' correctly if the PC is left
switched on and running. In short it's not a big deal and in most cases it can
be easily fixed.
On the other hand software problems can be a bit more
involved as they concern both the operating system (Windows 3.1, 95, 98 etc.,)
interacting with the programs and applications loaded on your PC. There's the
potential for a lot of mix ups to occur if the software interprets the date
wrongly from the BIOS or system clock, or it fails to recognise the date
change. Even recently published software isn't immune and there are quite a lot
glitches in Windows 98, including one discovered as recently as April this year
that can affect users of International (non-English) versions running Access or
Visual Basic programs. Don't panic, even if you are using older date-sensitive
applications, there's still plenty of time to sort it out. If your PC is mainly
used for word-processing or accessing the Internet you may not need to do
anything at all, at worst files may be tagged with an incorrect date stamp,
which might be inconvenient, but it won't stop your PC from working.
Unfortunately there are no easy or quick fixes for Y2K
software-related problems since the operating system and the programs on your
machine will have been written by several different companies and some of them
may go back several years, so there's no saying what sort of things might
happen. The best way to proceed is to carry out an audit of all of the
applications on your machine. Identify which ones are date dependent (the
operating system, financial packages, accounting programs, etc.), and which
ones are not (word processors, paint and graphics, games etc.), so you know
which ones need to be checked first, we'll show you how in next week's Boot
Camp.
Next week – Fixing Y2K problems
JARGON FILTER
BIOS
Basic Input Output System, a set of instructions that tells
your PC what it is connected to, and how to communicate with devices like disc
drives and memory chips
COBOL
Common Business Oriented Language – programming language
used in data processing and business applications
OPERATING SYSTEM
A collection of programs, such as Windows 95, 98 and DOS
(disc operating system), that that manages all of your PC’s resources -- RAM
memory, disc-drive, display screen, etc., -- and controls how files are stored
and retrieved.
TOP TIP
Windows Explorer in Windows 95 has a mind of its own and
always seems to open with a different shape, position or icon and display
settings. You can make remember your preferences -- for a while at least – set
it up the way you want it to look then press Ctrl + Alt + Shift when you click
on the close icon (the 'x' in the top right hand corner). It will eventually
forget but it's easy enough to repeat the exercise. It's a lot easier in
Windows 98, set up Windows Explorer, go to the View Menu then Folder Options
and select the View Tab and press the 'Like Current Folder' button.
NEXT
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