My 84 year old dad normally gets a pension check from the German government wired to his account on the second day of the month. This month, zilch, zero, nada. Must be one of those non-mission critical systems at work.

-- fatanddumb (fatdumb@nd.happy), January 06, 2000

Answers

Would you call the bill I got from my credit card company last July overcharging me $10,000 an example of a Y1999 problem?

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), January 06, 2000.

How about the notice I found on the windshield of my car that I was going to have my tags taken away in two days due to being uninsured (even though I've never been uninsured and it's always been paid up?)

And the resulting 7 hours I spent at the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles to get them realize they had totally messed up?

And it was in July? :-)

-- John H Krempasky (johnk@dmv.com), January 06, 2000.

I'm sure it must all tie in to that Nostradamus thing somehow.

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), January 06, 2000.

re: july 1999 Alot of programs look "ahead" to y2000. Also, last summer is when many organizations bought new equipment/programs to get ready for 2000. Thus, lost of boo-boos then. I took delivery of a Subaru 2000 Model in early October and the registration date was 1900.

-- d (dd@sover.net), January 06, 2000.

My point was that sometimes a "cigar is just a cigar". I doubt my bill due August 7th, 1999 was looking ahead to 2000. If everybody's bill was wrong that month, that would most likely be computer error, but still perhaps not Y2K related. Because the company was not having widespread problems, I must assume that this was a single input error.

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), January 06, 2000.

I've said it before (as have many others), but I suppose it bears repeating.

Many computer problems pre-2000 as well as post-2000 are the result of the introduction of new systems in response to legacy systems not being prepared for rollover. Companies have options - they can remediate, or they can also replace systems.

Is the decision to replace a system based solely on Y2K fears? Well, probably not. A company may have other business reasons for introducing new systems. It DOES affect the timing of said implementation, however. Gotta get those ducks in a row before 1/1/00.

Look at Hershey and the SAP debacle as an example. When SAP failed, was it a Y2K glitch? Of course not. But it was Y2K related, I would maintain. Because of the timing of Y2K, Hershey did not necessarily have the luxury of simply reverting to legacy systems,and reworking SAP. The clock was ticking....so the continued to work with SAP.

No, I wasn't in the meeting room when these decisions were being made, but I have been in the meeting rooms of enough clients to know that many factors go into the decision making process of companies.

And let me tell you, for many companies, Y2K was the 2000 pound gorilla of decision making for the past 3+ years.

Should it have been? I think so. Others might think it was all a hoax. Again, reasonable people can disagree.

So as to a $10,000 error in July of 1999, was it a Y2K error? No, of course not. Was it Y2K related? I don't know, perhaps. Did they put in new systems? Did the put remediated versions into production at that time? Perhaps.

Just as we shouldn't assume a problem is Y2K related, we shouldn't assume it isn't, either.

Year 2000, for me, has always been about a period of heightened possibility for problems:

software Hardware firmware terrorism people's reactions bank runs JIT stock market bubbles viruses etc.

The actual rollover was just one of the hurdles to overcome. Thankfully, we have successfully passed that hurdle. As for me, however, I will continue to remain watchful.

I am not a doomer. I am, and always have been, a pragmatic idealist.

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), January 06, 2000.

Don't forget that the Fed issued an "Advisory" to the major banks to close down all overseas/exchange transactions between 22nd December and January 10th. It was reported on this forum at that time.

Late-coming Pollies: go hunt it up yourselves in the archives - it'll give you something to do...

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 06, 2000.