Re: y2k reflections -- MIDRANGE-L

On my home network, both boxes running Linux (486 and low-end Pentium) had no
problems with the date rollover, and my state-of-the-art Windows machine had
no problems.

The worst that can happen to a PC is it won't boot, or the BIOS might
spontaneous reset. (Meaning you would need to reset your configuration, disk
type, etc.)

We probably did make a big deal over stuff. I was not personally involved in
any Y2K conversions, other than custom programs I wrote (we use vendor
software). OTOH, I had some headaches because of dumb vendor moves, such as
expanding all the dates in their databases EXCEPT those used for auditing....
Some programs I wrote used the auditing dates and died temporarily.

On the whole, we at least learned something about source management, and
peeked at all the databases and code we've got running around. At least now
it's easier for me to find sources, there's not ten copies floating on the
system.

For me, the verdict's still out on those using really old versions of software
(Lotus 1.x/2.x, dBase II/III) that use date information. I'm glad to hear we
made it through mostly unscathed!

Loyd

On Mon, 10 Jan 2000 18:03:17 -0600, nina jones <ddi@datadesigninc.com> wrote:

>well, we got through y2k, with our biggest problem being old autofax
>machines, that rolled over to 1980.  after some serious hair pulling, we
>found that these machines could be dated to 2000 by the dos date
>command.
>
>out of curiosity, i fired up my old p/c, (from 1990) and found the same
>thing to be true.  
>
>i never heard that you could do that.  just a bunch of media hype that
>old p/c's wouldn't work.  was there much money was spent on updating
>bios, etc, that a simple date command would fix? 
>
>after the big rollover, we've found system 34's still running, etc.  and
>carl's old as/400 on version 2 was still going.  he doesn't care that
>officevision won't work, since the machine doesn't use that anyway!
>
>as a profession, did we make too big a deal over some things?  for
>example, when david asked about v3r6, the only advice he got was to
>upgrade to version 4 or date the machine to 1972.  nothing was said that
>it would mostly work, and if it was only for 2 months, so what!  
>
>well, i'm running for cover now!
>
>nj

--  
"Why, you can even hear yourself think." --Hobbes
"This is making me nervous. Let's go in." --Calvin
lgoodbar@watervalley.net  ICQ#504581  http://www.watervalley.net/users/lgoodbar/
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