The media in bed with millennium bug

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ROB MORSE

Aug. 25, 1998

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1998/08/25/ NEWS6784.dtl

LAST WEEK KRON-TV took a break between presidential sex scandals and war with terrorists to warn of a possibly worse disaster to come, the "Y2K problem."

The station ran footage of the Marina burning, tap water drying up, PG&E switchboards flipping off and ATMs refusing to show us the money.

Then the news report got really scary. KRON's reporter warned that our microwaves and toasters could shut down, too.

Horrors. We'll have to eat room-temperature bread and real popcorn, actually shaken in pans on the stove.

What would cause a disaster of this magnitude? Hydrogen bombs going off in the upper atmosphere? San Francisco government taking over the world?

No, civilization supposedly may crash because of the "Y2K problem." "Y2K" stands for "the year 2000." The problem, also known as "the millennium bug," is that when big mainframe computers were built in the '60s and '70s, engineers saved valuable storage space by giving them clocks with years recorded only by their last two digits.

Thus when 1999 turns into 2000, those clocks will flip back to 1900.

It wouldn't be so bad to have a chance to do this century over. However, we could face worldwide computer breakdowns, according to consultants who are trying to sell their services to solve those computer problems.

Hundreds of companies are selling Y2K services. There are only 482 shopping days until 2000, and after that no big computer clock problems to fix until we get five-digit years.

You bet. I'm going to call a $250-an-hour consultant to reset my microwave. My microwave doesn't know what year it is, and my toaster isn't run by a mainframe computer.

Last week, a team of salespeople from the Symantec Corp. stopped by The Examiner to pitch their Norton 2000 software, designed to spot Y2K problems in small-business desktop computers, which the company says are vulnerable to confusion about which century they are entering.

When computer hardware and software knows it's entering 2000, and not the year of McKinley's re-election, it's called "Y2K compliant."

The Symantec brochure gives two opinions about the Y2K problem. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, is quoted as saying it could bring down financial markets and telecommunications. Heck, the Russians can do that without the help of computers.

High-tech writer Robert X. Cringely is quoted as saying his best advice is to simply withdraw a big wad of cash, because ATM machines may fail.

Symantec product manager Tom Andrus said the magnitude of the problem probably lies in between - in desktop hardware and software, where Symantec can fix the problem.

As for good old KRON, its reporter said the Federal Reserve will provide millions of dollars of extra cash. KRON warned us to be prepared for fire, water shortages, power failures and shutdown of public transit and public safety services.

If KRON was trying to scare me, it didn't work. This is the Bay Area, where every year brings disaster.

I've had power outages lasting as long as six days, and lost my water four times in 13 years.

I take Muni. I'm used to public transit not working.

I don't expect cops or firefighters to come in case of a major disaster. I've been through a 7.1 earthquake, and know they tend to get occupied elsewhere.

I keep batteries, water and food on hand, and always have a wad of cash hidden somewhere because I suffered through the legendary ATM blackout (I mean, green-non-out) following the quake of '89. Not being able to buy a beer in a bar is the problem I worry about, not whether global telecommunications work.

The stock exchange and many corporations have fixed the clocks in their computers, but Andrus of Symantec said the government might have problems. His direst prediction was that the IRS would have no Y2K compliance problems. We'll have to remain taxation compliant.

Maybe Y2K led to that cruise-missile attack against terrorists last week. Maybe the Pentagon had to use those missiles before their clocks ran out.

To me, the Y2K problem is the why-to-care problem, and not just because I'm semi-prepared for the earth to move and return us to 1906 - the heck with 1900.

Like most Americans, I live in good times and expect the worst.

The Symantec marketing team showed how pension software could get confused at the beginning of 2000. Frankly, I don't expect ever to see a pension, or Social Security.

Neither do I care if the Y2K problem ruins health care records. You can't get an appointment with a doctor anyway.

One thing we don't have to worry about, according to the man from Symantec, is the Internet crashing because of its built-in redundancy. No, that doesn't refer to all the repetitive Monica jokes and ads offering to make computers Y2K compliant.

I'm not about to take to the hills in case the world's computers crash. I already live in the hills, and the computers at work crash every day.

All I worry about is the world Champagne shortage at the turn of the millennium. I'm stockpiling Taittinger, and even saying yes to Kornell and Korbel. That's my Y2K problem.