And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Navajo Nation Copes with Y2K http://www.y2ktoday.com/modules/home/default.asp?id=1521 WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) _ In the heart of America's largest Indian reservation, the Navajo Nation, Tico Charlee sits at his desk worrying about bugs, the electronic kind that could ruin your New Year's. And the worrying, he says, started "way too late.'' For Charlee, there may be too many bugs and too little time. Wincing, he explains, that only last month _ just eight months before the Year 2000 computer glitch is set to trigger on Jan. 1 _ the Navajo government officially began to attack the so-called Y2K computer pest. Actually a programming glitch, Y2K refers to the longstanding, deliberate practice of designating the year in computer data with only two digits, such as 99 for 1999. Dating back to the earliest days of computing when memory was costly and needed to be conserved, the practice has continued until today, raising the potential for information chaos in uncorrected, date-sensitive systems that could interpret the year 2000 as 1900. Experts say the Y2K programming practice could corrupt critical information and disrupt essential services from electrical power to calls for emergency help. Charlee says Navajo government officials and staff have only recently realized that it could cause havoc across the huge and thinly populated reservation. "The past administrations didn't know how to handle it,'' says Charlee, who took over as the Navajo Nation's director of communications and utilities in December. Last month, he was named Navajo Y2K coordinator. Among his mandates is developing a emergency disaster contingency plan that assumes there are could be significant Y2K-induced failures, including possible power outages and loss of telephone service. With just 225 days left for remediation, he says, "we're looking at all our mission-critical stuff first,'' such as ensuring communications systems will work for police and ambulance crews. The tribe is receiving help from some computer companies and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he says. But the challenge seems enormous since much software needs to upgraded in the Navajo capital and the community centers or chapters that it supports in Crownpoint and Shiprock in New Mexico and Arizona chapters in Chinle, Dilkon, Kayenta, Shiprock and Tuba City. Before the end of the year, systems in 518 tribal buildings must be assessed, Charlee says. Charlee says he fears the computer bug is lurking in unexpected places and potentially could reach out to afflict traditional and modern Navajos alike. Because traditional Navajos live with few, if any, technological advances, Charlee says they could be isolated from most Y2K potential impacts being forecast by system analysts. But Charlee worries that they may be more reliant on technology than they realize. For example, he has begun checking for Y2K compliance in off-reservation drinking water supplies from which many traditional and modern Navajo families truck water to their homes. "If people can't get water, you'll have a holocaust out here,'' he says, "especially with the season so dry like we've been having.'' A former computer consultant who worked in Dallas but returned home to the reservation last year, Charlee says Navajo leaders "didn't realize how extensive and overwhelming'' the problem was. But new Tribal President Kelsey Begaye has been supportive and says he is committed to finding solutions, not wringing hands about the past. The new administration is "more technology oriented and more business-minded,'' he says. Still, unlike the rest of country, the Navajo Nation will have to cope with Y2K within the context of already difficult economic times. It is not clear today where the nation will get the $4 million that he estimates will be needed to fix only the most pressing Y2K problems. These may include rewriting computer codes, replacing old computers that fail Y2K compliance tests and allowing some date-sensitive, but non-essential technologies to just fail, implementing repairs later. Charlee expects to spend New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in his office, prepared to marshal the nation's resources for any potential Y2K emergency. "It's so big, its scary,'' he says. Among his top worries: Whether Navajo Nation computers will accurately issue biweekly payroll checks to some 6,147 employees. Ensuring that off-reservation water sources, general stores and pawn shops critical to many isolated Navajos are completely Y2K compliant. Checking assurances from energy and telephone utilities that serve the nation that power and communications will be Y2K resistant. Testing hospital and medical facilities to assess their Y2K vulnerability and determine how they will provide services amid Y2K disruptions. The nation also is working to keep its nearly 160,000 people informed about the steps being taken to address the problem. "What worries me is grandma out there alone,'' he says. "Who is looking out for her? Does she have a place to go if things get bad?'' Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
