Friday, 4/18/97 New millennium will transport some computers
back to 1900 Many programmed to read only last two digits of
year
By Michelle Navarro Daily Bruin Contributor 11:59 p.m., Dec. 31,
1999 – there will be no partying. Life as we know it may end when
the clock strikes 12, heralding the birth of the "millennium bug,"
a problem that will greatly affect the object the world has learned
to depend on to run almost all its operations: the computer. During
the 1970s, in order to minimize the amount of disk space used,
systems and applications were programmed with only a six-digit
capacity to record the date, "mm/dd/yy." "Back then, one megabyte
was about $350. Disk space was expensive, so they wanted to store
as little as possible," said Jeff Mirich, director of year 2000
preparation at Northrop Grumman Corporation, a company dedicated to
electronic systems. This arrangement to store the date does not
allow computers to define or comprehend what comes after the year
1999. Consequently, once year 2000 noncompliant computers are
switched on for the first time in the new century, clocks may
either reset back to ’00 (defining it as 1900), reject the date and
label it as an invalid entry, or they may simply cause the system
to crash in confusion. "Computer systems do a tremendous amount of
date calculations, so you can see how big of a problem this will
be," Mirich said. "One example I like to use is: Say my birthday
was May 20, 1960, and I wanted to calculate how old I am on my
birthday in 1999. The computer would do the calculation and tell me
I’m 39. Now, what if I try and calculate how old I am on May 2000?
It’s going to tell me I’m either 60 or -60 years old." The
limitation may highly disorganize any company or organization that
heavily uses dated information. From prison systems to the bank
down the street to the IRS, all are potential victims. "Things with
computers embedded in them, will also have trouble. Traffic signals
are programmed to use different times for weekends. Jan. 1, 1900
was a Monday but Jan. 1, 2000 is a Saturday. So, if they’re messed
up, they’ll start to run on weekend signals," said David Smallberg,
a lecturer for the computer science department. UCLA is also a
candidate for computer chaos, given that it operates and controls
everything from student records to the campus security systems. To
prepare for the year 2000 deadline, a team was formed to try and
assess the university’s situation and create a plan of action. "We
have analyzed all the administrative applications and prepared a
budget. We actively started on this about two months ago," said
Judith Freed, applications manager for Administrative Information
Systems (AIS). Each application needs to be looked at, changed and
tested separately, Freed said. A process that could take a
considerable amount of time. "About 4 to 5 million lines of code
need to be changed. I think we have the potential to finish on
time. We’re not behind. In fact, I think we’re probably ahead,"
Freed said. Problems are already surfacing from systems that have
to run ahead of time. For example, credit cards with an expiration
date of ’00 have been rejected because the machine thought it
expired 97 years ago. The year 2000 crisis isn’t a surprise.
However, the problem wasn’t discovered by hearing about rejected
credit cards. Instead, it is the result of the notorious
combination of denial and procrastination. "They’ve known about it
for years. This problem has been pushed off through time, and now
there’s a minimum amount of time left to solve it. Most programmers
thought the systems and software wouldn’t be in use by now. Systems
were built with the anticipated life span of five to seven years.
But, in our company, the average software is 20 years old. They
were a good code and worth maintaining," Mirich said. It is mainly
the older models and software that will be affected. But, in order
to determine for sure whether or not a computer is year 2000
compliant, the best way is to run a test by setting the clock for a
few minutes before the year 2000. If the hardware is noncompliant,
the software must either be prepared or replaced. Testing can be a
problem, however, when a number of systems are interrelated. It
would be basically impossible for a bank to shut down its ATMs for
one day, refusing service to people who want to withdraw money.
According to Smallberg, there are systems available for companies
to rent in order to test their own computers, but they’re all
booked up through the next couple of years. With less than two
years left, organizations and companies are frantically trying to
devise a plan to prevent computer meltdown. Northrop Grumman has
organized a team dedicated to the problem and plans on having
corrected "all mission critical Y2K computer systems by the end of
1998." Unless other companies and businesses also adopt similar
agendas to convert any noncompliant systems, a virtual nightmare
will ring in the new year. "The reason why many haven’t done
anything to prepare is because they haven’t moved out of the denial
stage. We need to move out of that in order to go on to the
correction phase," Mirich said. "Organizations just know getting
started won’t have enough time to fix everything. They have to
focus on the critical areas," Smallberg said. "This is every
computer in the world and all have the same deadline and it can’t
be missed. It’s going to be real interesting." Effects of the Year
2000 on the communication world
The 2YK Homepage