| The Year 2000 and Your Personal Computer by Erold Ansell You have a problem - in fact, the whole World has a problem. Unfortunately, many people don't understand the problem and that's going to create an even bigger problem. About 30 years ago, when computers were first being developed, certain decisions were made. Most of these decisions were made to save space and energy. One of these decisions was to change the way computers handle dates. The decision was to handle date formats as a 6 digit format. So instead of writing my date of birth as 21st October 1956, a computer interrupts it as 211056. Why was this done? The primary reason was to save valuable disk space and memory. Back in the 70's a one megabyte memory chip cost over one hundred thousand dollars. A one hundred megabyte hard drive sold for about half million dollars. Remember when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon? Well back then, if the programmers of the day had of insisted on using the four digit number for the year in all the computer code, the extra weight of the computers used in the moon missions would have been too much for the Saturn Five rockets to lift the space craft off the ground! The other thought was that technology would change so much in the next few years, that what the coders wrote back then would be obsolete by the year 2000. Well, it's not. In fact we still use a great deal of code that was written back in the 60's and 70's. Its called Legacy Code. Now, here we are just a few months away from the year Two Thousand. In many cases our computers still use the date format 211056 to convey the date of October 21st 1956. When your computer changes the date from the 31st of December 1999 to the first of January 2000, the dates your computer will look at are: 311299, then 010100. The problem here is when it starts to do date calculations, your computer could think it's January the 1st, 1900. (If you want all the technical info, please visit our Web site at http://www.survive-2000.com) Let's do a simple exercise based on my year of birth - 1956. Currently, if you do an exercise based on my age - the computer will work out the difference between 1956 and 1997 and come back with the answer of 41. In the year 2000, I will be 44. The computer is going to work out the difference between 56 and 00 and come back with the answer of 56. (Frankly, I don't want to get any older, any quicker!) Start to see the problem? And its not just limited to computers. Many vehicles have computer controlled maintenance chips embedded in the engine. These chips tell the operator when the vehicle is due for a service. If you go past that date, or number of engine hours, the chip will disable that engine. The vast majority of these chips use two digit dates. Here is what is going to happen. In December 1999, the vehicle gets serviced as per the schedule. The maintenance chip is reset from that service point. On the first of January 2000, the operator goes to start the vehicle. The maintenance chip checks the date, its reading 010100. The maintenance chip does a calculation and works out that its been 99 years (99 to 00) since it was serviced and disables the vehicle. The chip is simply doing what it's programmed to do. Nothing more, nothing less. You are facing the same problem with Security Systems, Phone systems, Traffic lights, Lifts and Escalators, Medical Equipment, our Banking System. And you thought it was going to be a party! Now, lets talk about Personal Computers. There is a problem with IBM compatible Personal Computers. In fact, there are areas of concern with IBM compatible computers, and one area of concern with the Mac's. The big problem is there is no way of know if your IBM compatible has a problem without testing using specific testing software. This is the only solution. WARNING: NEVER advance the date to 23:59 on the 31st December 1999 to 'see' what can happen. I have had several clients do this and it has cost them dearly! The only way to find out if your computer will function in the year 2000 is by using Year 2000 testing software. There is NO OTHER WAY! In a fairly normal IBM compatible computer you are facing three areas of concern. These are firstly the BIOS - Basic Input Output System. The second area of concern is in the Operating System of your computer, be it DOS, Windows, OS/2 or any other system. The third, and really big headache you will face, is with your Software. The software problem can also raise its ugly head in the Mac environment. Why? Because a great deal of Mac software is written for the IBM's, then 'ported' (modified) to suit the Mac environment. So, what can be done about this situation? There is only one answer. Every IBM compatible computer in the World must be tested and checked. Not a problem, we have over 2 years to do it! WRONG! We have until the 30th June 1999. Your technology must be 100% correct when you enter into the financial year that will hold the rollover date. If it's not, you are facing all sorts of headaches. And for the Entrepreneur, Survive 2000 offers an excellent opportunity. The good news is that basic testing software is readily available. If you have an internet connection, log onto http://www.survive-2000.com and download a copy of Survive 2000 - The PC Compliance Kit. Survive 2000 has been developed in Australia for the World to use. In its free downloadable form, it will tell you if your computer will survive the rollover between the year 1999 and the year 2000. For the full story on how your Operating System and Software will perform you will need to register Survive 2000. Once registered, Survive 2000 performs a total of 8 tests on your computers hardware, it reports on your operating system and gives you a total inventory of all software loaded on your computer. Survive 2000 is available in several formats, a stand alone version for single IBM PC's, a Network Version that will test and compile reports on an unlimited number of PC's running off a network and a pure DOS version. And for the Entrepreneur, Survive 2000 offers an excellent opportunity. Think about it, every IBM compatible PC in Australia - the World for that matter MUST be tested and made compliant in under 2 years. The going rate to test and rectify a PC is between $69.00 and $99.00 per PC. Distribution licenses are available for Survive 2000. For full details on how you can become a distributor of this product, contact the Small Business Help Shop on 1800 079 114, or email us at di@sbhs.com today. Just to recap - the year 2000 problem does effect IBM compatible computers. Never test your computer by resetting the date - you can easily destroy valuable data - especially if your computer is not Y2K okay (Year 2000 compatible). The only way to know for sure if your PC will survive is to test it. There is FREE testing software available from Small Business Help Shop (1800 079 114 - email sbhs@sbhs.com) or if you have an internet connection, download it from http://www.survive-2000.com - it's free to use and will show you if you have a problem. If you want that problem solved - just register your software and it will run further tests, plus give you the solutions you need. |
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