Try this simple test in front of non-believers

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Next time you have a discussion about y2k and meet with ignorance and disbelief among those you're talking to, try this in front of them.

Set your computer date to Dec. 31, 1999....and your computer time to 11:58 PM. Then shut your computer down normally. Start it up again about 3 mins. later and check the date, you may be surprised. When I did it on my 1995 IBM Aptiva running Win95 the date came up as Jan. 4, 1980

This will freak them out.

Rod

-- Rod (rod_harmon@usa.net), May 26, 1998

Answers

I performed this test in the summer of 1996 for the head of engineering at a former employer. He looked at the erroneous result and said "This is very interesting, but we have almost 4 years." I have known about the Y2K problem since 1978, and was distressed about his casualness.

-- David Wallace (DavidCWallace@Hotmail.com), May 26, 1998.

I did this test for my family. The result was 1980. No one cared.

-- Annie (anniegaff@mailexcite.com), May 27, 1998.

My experiments show anything below a 486DX is out in the cold. Most Pentium,586,686 systems are ok, harware wise. With the 486 systems you just have to run the test and find out. Of course even if the BIOS is ok with 2000, some software, ie older spreadsheets etc. may not be.

thanks, Dan

http://members.tripod.com/~thepcguru/changes.html

-- Dan R Goodnight (thepcguru@hotmail.com), May 30, 1998.


Compaq is being sued because computers they have sold are not compliant as claimed by Compaq. This includes the current pentiums. In this case the system clock is the problem as I understood the article.

-- Rebecca Kutcher (kutcher@pionet.net), May 30, 1998.

I have a Mac so no one would care.

just got a Mac Classic II free from macworks. I really wanted to get an iMac - it's perfect for my college's dorms - but why would I pay 1299 when it has a 600 day lifespan in worst case?

just disparaging thoughts, Ken

-- Ken (k150@yahoo.com), May 31, 1998.



On the contrary, the MacOS (and the underlying Apple hardware) are outstanding Y2K platforms. I've rolled my 8500's clock forward many times, and had no troubles except cc:Mail rolling over to 1944 (which didn't even upset the mail server).

And the iMac is probably the best educational computer ever built, by anyone. (Speaking as a former college student and middle school teacher, but also as a programmer and system admin for Solaris, WinNT, and NextStep).

-- Mark Zieg (mzieg@orlandosentinel.com), June 01, 1998.


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