The Year 2000 Computer Problem Y2K INDEX of TOPICS: Overview Year 2K Compliance We will get it fixed in time, won't we? What's the Rush? Countdown to the Year 2000. Consumer Preparedness Thoughts Isn't anybody safe? I thought my computer company was a good one. Do you know a good lawyer? Where else can you look for help? Inside the CLUB 2000 site.

WHAT'S THE RUSH? COUNTDOWN to the YEAR 2000!
While many people are eagerly awaiting January 1st, 2000 to see if anything will actually crash, there needs to be an awareness that this is not only a one day problem. Since software and hardware that is involved in projections and demographic data we are surely going to need to be up to speed at least one year in advance. According to the Gartner Group, while 40% of the time and resources might be spent on analysis of the problem and modification of the situation, another 45% of the time is spent on testing, training, disaster recovery and documentation. This means that companies cannot START their fixes in the year 1999, they need to be on it by mid 1998 to have a good chance of minimizing the problems. We are less than 380 days away before this date arrives.

These are some of the projected BITES identified by the CLUB 2000 technical information team that this "Millennium Bug" (as some people call it) may take:
Bite 1 July 1, 1998 This is the first day of the fiscal year 1999, for 46 of the 50 states.
Bite 2 October 1, 1998 This is the first day of the fiscal year for the Federal Government.
Bite 3 December 1, 1998 This can be a concern for companies that use inventory control systems that forecast for more than one year ahead.
Bite 4 January 1, 1999 The FIRST REAL bite - Expected to cause data and software failures globally. This is when the first true impact of the Year 2000 computer glitch is supposed to hit. Any business that does one year projections or bookings for the upcoming year, will start to see problems occurring. (This is a concern for the travel and tourism industry.)
Bite 5 January 4, 1999 This is the first workday of the year 1999, any companies that do calculations using the year 99 or projections beyond 99 may have trouble.
Bite 6 April 1, 1999 This is the first day of the fiscal year 1999, for New York and Canada as well as many large companies, which means the problems could start earlier, since there is the situation of networking and interdependencies of other companies.
Bite 7 April 4, 1999 The series of three 9's in the date, 040999 could cause some computers to signal a response or purge data.
Bite 8 July 1, 1999 This is the first day of the fiscal year 2000, for 46 of the 50 states.
Bite 9 Aug. 1, 1999 This and the rest of the year on the first of each month, is the first day of the fiscal year 1999, for many corporations.
Bite 10 September 9, 1999 This may confuse some programming code in files since programmers have used this code 9999 (a.k.a. 9/9/99) as an "end of file" indicator, so the date may confuse some systems.
Bite 11 October 1, 1999 Start of the fiscal year 2000 for the Federal Government.
Bite 12 December 1, 1999 This is the last month of the year 1999 and many companies may drop their business, or people may quit or move if they realize that they can not fix the Y2K bug in time.
Bite 13 December 31, 1999 This date has been programmed as the end of a sequence and may cause computers to shut down automatically.
Bite 14 January 1, 2000 THE BIG ONE!…(Thank goodness it's on a Saturday!)
Bite 15 January 3, 2000 The first business Monday after the big date change. What's still working and what's not?!
Bite 16 October 1, 2000 Numerous programs are not designed to read 10100 as a date.
Bite 17 February 29, 2000 The Leap Year "After-Bite" did we forget to tell you about the other computer glitch? It has something to do with counting leap years. Because of an obscure leap year rule in the year 2000, stating that if the year is divisible by 4, then it is a leap year, but if it also divisible by 100, then it isn't, but if it is divisible by 400, then it is a leap year. Did you follow that? Guess this will finish off some of those computers that skated through the "00" glitch unscathed.