As Ive posted before I work for a mid size city government. Im currently working off of a 486 computer in my office. This should give you some idea how low on the food chain I am within my department. Anyway always looking to better my situation, I decided to enlighten my supervisor about the ill effects that y2k could have on an old PC. My plan being to capture a new PC and advance my standing among my fellow bureaucrat.

I pick my moment and tell my boss that come January my PC could be dead, and perhaps a new one would be a good idea. Of course I tell her that I have backed myself up with hard copies, as we were instructed to do, but there are those pesky deadlines that I may not meet after January 1st. My supervisor, tells me shell take it under consideration.

Several days later my boss says I talked to my friend who does computer programming in another department about your computer. He told me that 438s will continue to work in January. I calmly replied that I was happy to hear 438s will survive y2k and maybe she should let the rest of the department know, so people wouldnt worry.

-- Mabel Dodge (cynical@me.net), August 27, 1999

Answers

Mabel, go to www.2000check.com and run the FREE test to see if your PC is compliant or not. Of course, this does not even BEGIN to do checking of applications, nor for that matter data, but it is a place to start.

Good luck.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 27, 1999.

Mabel, your boss is a dunce. Please increase your Y2K preps.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), August 27, 1999.

King Of Spain My system failed RTC test any advice on a patch or? would be great.

-- G Bailey (GBa6872290@aol.com), August 27, 1999.

No..Mabel is a dunce..increase your Y2K supply! SHEEEEEEESH!

-- diggin your grave (diggginyour grave@digginyourgrave.com), August 28, 1999.

G: "Normally" its not uncommon for a PC's real-time clock to not be Y2K compliant -- a compliant BIOS "fudges" for it (ye olde windowing trick to determine the century), and "normally" the operating system will only get its date from the BIOS, and applications will only get the date from either the operating system or the BIOS. Normally.

But there are exceptions, such as the QNX operating system (still used a lot in the manufacturing industry) which at least as of a few months ago got its date DIRECTLY from the RTC.

Like I told Mabel, www.2000check.com -- like any of these tools -- is just a start. The real crux of Y2K compliancy -- and non-compliancy -- requires that you carefully examine applications, data, and interfaces to other systems, shared data, etc., etc.

Honestly, its pretty hopeless. But armed with the results of 2000check, maybe someone can at least get their boss to spring for a new PC! Might as well go out in style!!!

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 28, 1999.

Heeheeheheheheheheh, like your style, Mabel Dodge :-)
Great comeback, let 'er ride her ossified fungus foot into her gaping mouth in front of more burrowrats -- would anybody know the difference?
Dept Pep Rally: Not To Worry, Our 438s will carry us through. Party on!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 28, 1999.

No..Mabel is a dunce..increase your Y2K supply! SHEEEEEEESH!

-- diggin your grave (diggginyour grave@digginyourgrave.com), August 28, 1999.

I'm preparing and have been for the past year. But you know what I really, really enjoy every time I look at my boss? The knowledge that she doesn't get it. Come January for a bag of beans, I may own her. Heh Heh Heh

-- Mabel Dodge (cynical@me.net), August 28, 1999.

Hey Mabel - does your boss go by the name of Decker???????

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahah ha ha

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 28, 1999.

Thanks king for the advice, for the hell of it I'll check out the old 436 Monday.

Aston, Leska and Randolph thanks for laughing at my story,I may be a bureaucrat but I have the soul of a comedian.

-- Mabel Dodge (cynical@me.net), August 28, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

On my GI day #1 I tested my computer using software downloaded free from some website. The results of the test convinced me to order a Centurion hardware card by Micro2000. I had it installed by a handyman friend who seemed qualified, since he has a master's degree in electrical engineering, and computers of his own. A few weeks later I noticed that my computer had started randomly overwriting files, here and there. Things went downhill for a few more days until it finally wouldn't boot.

At this point, I called in a service representative from a local computer store (PC People). He told me everything was hosed, and I ended up erasing my hard drive and starting over with a fresh copy of my operating system. The service rep blamed everything on the hardware card and took it out. He seems to think I don't need to do anything but turn off the computer for the rollover.

I'm a heck of a lot more diligent than most people, but even so, I don't feel my computer is ready, and I haven't the foggiest idea what to do about that.

I don't consider myself to be a computer wizzard by any stretch, however, most of the people in my life think of me that way, I believe. I have made a living at computer consulting (years ago), and have been using computers pretty much all day for almost 30 years. I'm quite certain that there will be plenty of personal home computers heading south at the end of the year. Probably including my own.

Don't flame me for being lazy or tell me I deserve to have problems. I'm no idiot. This is just my experience.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage.neener.autospammers--regrets.greenspun), August 28, 1999.

Mabel.. my local - once a week - newspaper had a front page article a few months ago, reassuring residents about the 2KY problem. I was greatly reassured.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 28, 1999.