IP: Brits warn of Y2K and collapse of government

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

From: declan () well com




http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1860,00.html


The Netly News
March 30, 1998


        Do the Brits know something we don't? Yesterday's Sunday Times
   quoted "a senior executive at Barclays" bank who warned people to sell
   their homes, buy gold, and head for the hills when the millennium bug
   hits. "I am talking about the need to start buying candles, tinned
   food and bottled water," the anonymous bank director said. On Friday
   the UK Telegraph reported the government's former Y2K czar, Robin
   Guenier, concluded it was too late to fix "a problem that could bring
   down a government." Tony Blair will give his first public statement on
   the Y2K problem today.


*****


Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 11:57:31
From: [anonymized --dbm]
To: declan () well com


> > > Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> 03/27/98 07:11pm >>>
I would be interested in hearing more about the Dow and phone networks. I
know there are a bunch of telco types on politech. Want to respond? I'll
anonymize if you like. --Declan]


I'm not really a telco type, I just work for them.  I don't know a lot
about the public switched network's Y2K status, although my impression is
with so many new digital switches (something in the 90% ballpark, I'm
guessing) it probably won't be much of a problem getting dial tone.  Some
might have problems with billing software if they're behind the times, but
that shouldn't cause phones to go dead 1/1/00.  I'm not a techie, but I
talked to many of them in my last position where I edited a newsletter for
telecom managers at mid to large businesses.  From what I understand, the
Y2K problem is slight on the telephony side for business users.  Most PBXs
are either already compliant or easily patched.  In most cases, even
non-compliant systems won't totally fail.  They'll still provide dial
tone, but advanced functions like conference calling, usage tracking,
caller ID and other applications might be at risk while calls still go
through.  Or so I've been informed; can't vouch for it myself. 


********


Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 21:52:28 -0700
From: Aaron Weissman <aweissman () mocc com>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: RE: Dow Jones, telephone networks & Internet: Y2K compliant?


> This assertion is demonstrably false. Think about it. A two-
> digit number requires how much storage? Two bytes, that is,
> sixteen bits? No, much less: numeric data are seldom stored
> in text format, since a more compact representation is
> readily available. A two-digit year would be a number
> ranging between 00 and 99. That can be represented in just 7
> bits.


sorry, this viewpoint ignores semi-recent history.  Many 70's era legacy 
systems were designed with backwards compatibility with old 80 and 88 
character punchcard input systems.  If your total record width is 80, and 
every record needs a date, then two seemingly irrelevant characters become 
INCREDIBLY dear.


We are still with some of these systems.  If you look at some of DoD's 
procurement system web pages, you see that they still call for input 
restricted to total record width of 80 characters, for download to some of 
these legacy systems.




Aaron


Aaron Weissman
PGP Key Fingerprint:  FA28 725D 4B5B F221  6CA8 6560 F1B7 C95D










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