Actually, two questions. 1-What is the difference between Y2K ready and Y2K compliant? 2-I heard that electric utilities depend on the phone system to operate, and that Bonneville Power Administration here in Washington state is not testing its links to the phone system for Y2K compliance because it's too hard to do the test. What do you know about this issue?

-- Anonymous, February 19, 1999

Answers

Regarding the testing of the phone system. My company had planned to test the phone system over a weekend awhile back. Since the vendor indicated that the system was Y2K compliant, we contacted them for ideas on how to test. We were told to NOT roll the dates because we would not be able to get the system back to current time. They suggested we come to their office and do out testing on their test system. Of course we declined, because it is not identical to our environment and would not prove much to us. We are still investigating our options on this one.

Understand that just because we cannot test the system does not mean that the phone system is not Y2K compliant. It does mean that we will not know for sure until it's too late to be proactive in addressing the issue.

-- Anonymous, February 20, 1999

In reverse order: 2) BPA's Y2K program can be investigated online at http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/gi/y2k/Y2K.html, including the opportunity to directly submit questions to their Y2K team. 1) Different people and organizations use these terms to mean different things. The Y2K project I work on defines them as follows. Y2K Compliant - Computer systems or applications that accurately process date/time data (including but not limited to: calculating, comparing, and sequencing) from, into and between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the years 1999 and 2000, and leap year calcuations. Y2K Ready - A computer system or application that has been determined to be suitable for continued use into the year 2000 even though the computer system or application is not fully Y2K compliant.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 1999