Jim, the Y2K problem with PC hardware is that there are some real time
clocks (RTC) on some mother boards that may not operate properly. These RTC
chips are also present in embedded computers ... like the ones that control
machines (such as your car). The BIG Y2K problem is in older software. Back
in the old days, memory was a precious commodity and programmers would use
as little as possible - hence some data structures were never designed to
hold a "century byte" and will fail when the year goes to "00". The year
"00" is fine all by itself, but when a business app starts doing stuff like
subtracting last transaction date from current date .... well you get the
idea. So yes there are problems, but mostly in the business world, and yes
there is a lot of hype too. There's a big demand for Cobol programmers
right now because most of the big business computers (banks, insurance
companies, etc.) are still main frames running old Cobol apps. Chances are
your PC's are safe, but you might want to stuff your extra cash under the
mattress until the financial community gets their act together :)
Bill
Jim Hutchinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on 09/11/98 05:44:37 PM
Please respond to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc: (bcc: Bill Douglas)
Subject: WC:>: Is Y2K a farce?
Hi All,
In the midst of yet another conversation with my brother last night about
Y2K, we decided to see if the rumors are really true. You know the ones,
where if a computer is not at lest a Pentium 166 or higher it is not Y2K
compatible and will shut down when the clock clicks over to 12:01AM
01/01/2000.
Check this out! I fired up my brother's 386SX16 in his basement, changed
the date and watched it roll over to January 1, 2000. I then edited a file
and checked the date written to that file. The result was 1/01/2000. I left
it at the year 2000 and everything runs great even after shutting the power
off and turning it back on! In Windows 3.11 there's a clock, which I
enabled and watched as the date was 1/1/2000 and the time kept ticking away
like it always has.
So tell me what all the fuss is about with this Y2K thing - Please!!! Is it
just another marketing ploy to get people to buy more computers? If not
that, then what's the motives? Or is this just related to mainframes?
Confused and unconvinced there's a "real" problem,
Jim
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