From Information Week {for educational purposes only}

March 15, 1999, Issue: 725 Section: Top Of The Week

Updates On Y2K Status

It's hard to stay current on the year 2000 status of software and hardware products. Between November and January, the status changed for 417 products, and significant updates were made for another 1,000, says Infoliant Corp., which has a database on year 2000 product compliance. Infoliant said last week that 188 products lost their compliant status, while 128 noncompliant products were made compliant. More than 67% of the 30,000 products in the database are considered compliant.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), March 14, 1999

Answers

URL http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?IWK19990315S0021

Sorry

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), March 14, 1999.

Link

Two comments. 1) More products LOST compliant status than gained it. 2) 67% with 9.5 months to go. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 14, 1999.

Note that 33% of the noncompliant products have to be fixed and shipped to customers and installed and checked out; all in nine and one half months. Could be a miscarriage coming.

-- Tomcat (tomcat62@aol.com), March 14, 1999.

Tomcat;

Oh no not miscarriage just when the Whitehouse got a little bit pregnant a few days ago.

Please recind your notion soon.

Thanks,

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 14, 1999.

Sysman -

This also indicates that 188 products were tested 'again" by the consumers - who found that they failed - *after* their company already certified and released them for use as "compliant".

Doesn't indicate the real degree of two very, very troubling trends:

Testing is very slipshod by the venders.

Certified Compliant by the vender doesn't mean it will really work when you as a customer really need it.

Second though - 1000 updates changes in two and one half months (over Christmas) and 417 changes - butweren't we told only last summer that this Y2K thing was only "affecting a few customized maniframe programs" running COBOL applications?

Turn up the pessimisum scale one notch.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 14, 1999.

I hear ya Robert. COBOL huh. Our shop is about 60% ASSEMBLY & we're in deep dodo. If the guys that make a living SELLING software can't do it, how is the average data center doing? Care to discuss the testing issue with embedded systems? Maybe 2 notches. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 14, 1999.