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Year 2000 Bug,
Are You Going to Be Affected?

Generally when we consider the Year 2000 bug we think of computers, spreadsheets, credit cards. Sure we all have computers, but even if they did stop working on January 1, 2000, it wouldn't affect me would it?

WRONG!

Your appliances could be affected, possibly even your electricity and water. The fire truck down the street could be affected, oil rigs will be affected if not fixed. Everyday products these days have millions and billions of embedded chips that all will be affected. This issue is important enough where President Clinton felt the need to address the issue (click here to read his address on the Year 2000 conversion and its potential problems). President Clinton mentions VCR's, farm equipment, credit cards, rental videos and even the fact that one single oil drilling rig may include 10,000 separate chips.

This is a far reaching problem that WILL happen. John Koskinen, the Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 conversion gives some more detail on what the situation looks like in his address. He mentions fire trucks, airline and travel scheduling, construction equipment etc.

I'd like for you to think just for a moment about the oil rig comment made by President Clinton. If one oil rig has up to 10,000 chips that have to be replaced/reprogrammed or fixed and there are hundreds and thousands of oil rigs out there in the world, is this work done? Will it be done? And if not, how will it affect us, if there is no longer any oil production? We don't have to go too far back to find the answer to that question. My first guess would be increased prices as supply can't keep up with demand and hopefully it wouldn't go any further than that.

There are some pretty grim possibilities here. Some people speculate that there will be riots, disasters, no food, no fuel. I've even heard stories of people, afraid of urban areas being overrun with rioters, selling their belongings and moving to rural areas set up with food and supplies to last them a year or two. Others say the worst case scenario is a couple of weeks of confusion, annoyances and slight panic. Whoever the expert, they all agree, it is going to be a New Year as no other.

I tend to take the middle road. I believe it will affect us far greater than 2 weeks worth of annoyances. Both the President and the Chair of his Year 2000 Council say that one of the worst problems is that businesses, local and federal governments and the general public isn't aware or isn't concerned. John Koskinen said in his address mentioned above "It turns out that we actually now run everything from oil refineries to waste treatment plants to power plants to water control plants with people sitting at computers responding to the information provided by sensors embedded in the process."

What will I do to prepare? I will keep good paper trails of any transactions I make, I will have to check to see if my paycheck will be able to be processed in a regular manner and if my bank can handle the deposit. I'll have to ask my mortgage company some tough questions, not just about them being Year 2000 compliant, but also the services they use that might affect my account. Tax returns, insurance, credit cards, social security, electricity, water, health-care and hospitals and many other services might be affected.

Like it or not, regardless if we have computers or not, we will probably all be affected by this issue in one way or another. The question is what can we do to be prepared?

We have compiled some links below to articles, online magazines, websites devoted to this issue. We've also included some links to some utilities that you can download that will let you check your own PC's clock. We suggest you spend some time getting informed about the Year 2000 issue and how it could affect you, what you can do to prepare etc.

Y2K for Women - An informational site geared toward women. This site will explain the what the Year 2000 problem is, how it could affect you and what you can do to be prepared when the time comes. It has information on what supplies/items you would need in an emergency, how to store them and how to come out ahead incase there is majore inconveniences or even worse, emergencies.

Year 2000 Test - This program will test your PC for Year 2000 compatability. It will also test for problems with leap years that follow the year 2000.

Remarks by the President about the Year 2000

Press Briefing by John Koskinen about the Year 2000 - John Koskinen is the Chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 conversion.

Will the Year 2000 Problem affect me? - Examples of problems, what you can do and resources for help.

Microsoft Year 2000 Resource Center - Here you will find information about Microsoft's products and good Q&A on the Year 2000, what it is, how you can be affected etc.

The Hidden Side(s) of Y2K - This is an article by Jim Seymour, a columnist at PC Magazine. He gives you examples of what could go wrong, talks about the fact that the Year 2k business is full of misinformation but also that a backlash has begun against Y2K warnings saying that it isn't a real problem, that it is all hype. Jim says it isn't just hype, it is real and it isn't going to go away by sweeping it under the rug.

RightTime - Here you can download a free PC hardware year 2000 diagnostic to test your PC to see if your machine is if your machine is truly year 2000 hardware compliant.

The PC Compliance Kit - Another free software utility that will check your computer to see if you will have a problem with the year 2000.

Welcome to the Millenium- This article written by Neil Randall for PC Magazine gives you tips on how you can check your computer for if it can handle the Year 2000 date problem without downloads like the ones we have linked above. What the Millenium bug is all about and why it came about.

Year 2000 bug hits credit card users - This article is by Amanda Grove from MSNBC. She brings up the issues involving credit cards and the fact that problems have already occurred with cards that expire in Year 2000.

Year 2000 - This site is entirely dedicated to the Year 2000 problem. Here you will find links to other sites, newsworthy articles, information, user groups, press releases and other resources.

ComputerWorld's Year 2000 Resource Center - This is a great resource if you want to know more about the Year 2000 issue. Articles on pretty much any topic can be found here, how it will affect companies, the IRS, credit cards, email, banks and much more.

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