Don't
get smug about
the Year 2000 Syndrome: for at least one company, it's here already
by Alan Zisman (c) 1996 First published
in Business in Vancouver
, Issue #349 July 2, 1996 High Tech Office column
You
may have
heard some of the advance paranoia about the upcoming Year 2000 and
corporate computing. The germ of this is that many computer programs
use two-digit date fields for years, e.g. 96 for 1996. So when users
start entering 00 for 2000, all those nice calculations for payment
due, etc., start failing, as the very literal computers assume that
06-21-96 occurs after 01-01-00, not before, so no payment is due.
Most
problems are expected
to occur with custom-designed software for large mainframe equipment,
which was designed in the '70s and '80s, when no one expected they
would still be in use at the turn of the century, but some problems
are also being found in nearly-new shrink-wrapped personal computer
software, and in applications designed for trendy new client-server
networks. Some companies are starting serious searches to root out
such problems before they occur, but many or most computer users are
assuming "it can't happen here." Well, too late--the Year 2000 Syndrome
is already upon us.
According
to Joe
Celko, of Atlanta's Ososoft Development, one of
his clients date-stamps material entering its warehouse with a
five-year
expiry date. Goods produced in 1996 should be stamped with 2001 dates,
but the new computer system has been setting the dates as 1901, and
writing off the inventory as spoiled. This causes the automated
inventory
system to reorder the merchandise, and the automated accounting system
to write off the inventory as a loss. Celko isn't naming names, but
swears it is a true story. Stay on top of Y2000 from
http://www.year2000.com.
* * *
And
then there's
viruses... Until recently, there were two basic sorts of viruses:
one infected your computer when you ran a program that carried the
virus, while the second, known as a boot-sector virus, was only passed
on if you booted with an infected diskette in your floppy drive. A
new type of virus emerged last year, and as a result, companies have
seen a dramatic increase in the rate of infection.
The National
Computer
Security Association (NCSA), after polling a range of companies
and government agencies, suggests an infection rate of about one in
100 business computers per month--a rate it says is five to 10 times
as high as last year's. Fully half of all infections are from the
new virus type--a "macro virus" which infects data files, most often
(at least for now) Microsoft Word documents.
Simply
reading an infected
document, including files attached to e-mail messages, infects
Microsoft
Word. All documents saved by the now-infected copy of Word can spread
the infection further. And since Word documents can be opened on both
PCs and Macs, these new and improved viruses also can spread between
computers of different types, something that was never possible with
older virus varieties. NCSA estimates that viruses cost North American
businesses $1 billion last year, and expects that this year will see
that cost double or triple.
New
versions of virus-protection
software can check for and remove macro viruses. Most companies have
purchased antivirus software, but few computer users use them regularly
enough. And since new viruses are being created and spread all the
time, it's important to upgrade this software regularly--last year's
version won't know about the entire category of Word macro viruses,
for example.
For
PC/Windows users,
one of my favourites is the Icelandic shareware, F-Prot. It's very
effective and easy to use, in my experience, and is upgraded every
two months or so. The registration cost is a humble $1 per machine
per year (free for home use), and registration gets you annual
payment-due
letters with collectible Icelandic stamps. Check ftp://gar
bo.uwasa.fi/pc/virus/ for the latest version.
* * *
A plug
in every port... Taking a computer travelling? Did you know that
there
are 17 different phone plugs used in Europe, along with two different
power plugs? Port Incorporated (www.portinc.com,
1-800-242-3133)
claims to support 40 different so-called standards in phone plugs,
and offers kits for different parts of the world--Europe, South
America,
Asia-Pacific. Prices range from about $150 to $300. They probably
even support Iceland, in case you want to get your copy of F-Prot from
the source.
* * *
Http://www.sicko...
We all knew it, and now it's official: Internet
Addiction
Disorder has been recognized by the Canadian Medical Association
and placed on the same level as drugs, alcohol and gambling addiction
and other psychosocial perils that can cost sufferers their health,
money, relationships and jobs. If this sounds like you or someone
you know, take a look at either Netaholics Anonymous
(http://simba.safari.net/~pam/netanon/)
or the Webaholics Home Page (http://www.webaholics.com:80/). The
Catch-22,
of course, is that you need to use the Internet to access these
self-help
groups.