Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I have been designing computer systems for 34 years. Embedded controllers for 22 years. I have been involved, as a consultant, with hundreds of companies. There are millions and millions of programs, embedded computer boards, and associated paraphernalia, that NO ONE has the foggiest clue as to, where they are, how they work, where they came from, who programmed them, or anything else about them. The power grids, communications grids, and transportation grids are run by this stuff. I know. I did lots of them. Granted, not all of this stuff cares what year it is, but they do indeed rely on signals from other systems that DO care what year it is. So even if 75% of the stuff doesn't care, it's fed by systems that do care, ergo, the WHOLE system fails. Caring or not! The financial industry runs mostly on live bootable computers, not embedded processors. These computers, for the most part, will not have a Y2K problem. BUT!!! they may not have power and they may not have any communications. Your money probably won't be lost. Just not available. Just how many imbedded processors do you think are living within the phone system? Not the analog part, the real phone system. The digital network. We are talking about millions of independent processor boards, buried in every conceivable nook and cranny, dusty, dirty, and dank location imaginable. Throughout the entire world. And most of these processors/processes know what time it is and what day it is. And a huge percentage of them have been forgotten about. But they won't forget us at 00:00 / 00. Ooooo, the beginning of time! Must be the 'Big Bang." Zonk!!! Just remember, most of the computers/processes/embedded controllers in the world that DON'T care what day it is, usually get their instructions from computers/processes/embedded controllers that DO care what day it is. So you cannot say, in any way, that there are thousands of computers out there that don't care. Their boss cares, and that means, ultimately, they care. This is a very very complex situation and brushing it off lightly is really really short sighted. It's like a house built of cards. Move one card and the whole house collapses. No one can predict the consequences of going from 1999 to 2000. There indeed will be failures. Just how severe and how wide spread are facts that we will collect during the year 2000. There will be outages, bottlenecks, and inconveniences. In the USA alone, the Y2K problem is a multi Billion dollar problem. Anyone who says there won't be failures, is simply uninformed. Anyone who attempts to predict exactly what the failures will be is nuts. Anyone who isn't prepared, is foolish. So, be "penny wise and pound (£) foolish" if you wish... But it's much simpler to be ready. What have you got to lose by being ready? Nothing. The stuff you need to get ready is the normal stuff you use anyway. Just more of it. Plus a few precautions. Nothing is wasted. Disaster or not. What have you got to lose if you are not ready? Well... try it, and then tell me. My snail mail address is: Jim Brick 820 Sweetbay Dr. Sunnyvale CA, 94086 Jim PS... I truly hope that there is enough redundancy being built into the world grids, that re-routing through newer networks (power and communications) is a possibility. But please understand that the technology that we have in place today, is running at or near CAPACITY. When any single component goes out, someone, somewhere, is inconvenienced. So what happens when more than one component fails in more than one discipline? That thought alone, should cause you to stop and think. Over and Out Jim