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Digital village: how Xday figures in the Y2K countdown

Here we are, eight months out and counting. We’ve already seen glimpses of things to come. Stories like that of Lynn Electric, Bluefield, WV. When the company tried to close its 1998 payroll “all documents reverted to 1944.” (Washington Post, 1/1/99.) In Sweden, airport police were unable to issue one-year temporary passports after midnight, Dec. 31, 1998. The computers refused to accept a termination date beyond Dec. 31, 1999. (Source: Bruce Taylor.) Palace Produce sued Tec America Inc. because their system was incapable of handling credit cards with an expiration date past 01/99. They won their case and were awarded $250,000 in damages. (Source: Peter de Jager.) Newspapers, magazines, and the Web are replete with similar stories. And there is every expectation these sorts of incidents will continue for the immediate future. Examples might include the June 30, 1999 fiscal roll-overs for many organizations. This may provide a useful estimate on the number of active legacy applications that have so far escaped repair. Also, consider accounting and spreadsheet software that seem to take on a mind of their own when it comes to manual and automated attempts to reset to correct dates. Some system-sensitive processes will be reset to 1900 at century’s end, resulting in system failure and data loss (exactly how many of these will occur is subject to wide speculation). Some post hoc BIOS’ repairs will conflict with software fixes, resulting in new and as yet unimagined categories of software and data conflicts. Perhaps OS vendors should put a new prompt in their toolbox akin to Microsoft’s “General Protection Fault,” something like “Generic Y2K Fault: Reboot without prejudice.” Small, local telephone companies may charge for 99-year calls those which span midnight next New Year’s Eve. An occasional blackout could result if a noncompliant computer in the grid get’s confused about the date. Valid credit cards may be rejected as out of date. Small bank ATMs may only work with a fraction of the supported debit and credit cards. Air Traffic Control problems may arise in the smaller, local airports spawning missed connections for the passengers and load-scheduling problems for airport hubs. In some smaller corporations, security IDs may fail to work for awhile, necessitating doors left ajar, and a temporary, but large, lapse in security. It’s not inconceivable that time-locks on small bank safes may fail to operate correctly. Of course, the gloom-anddoom forecasters see things in a very different light.