Got this via Dept secretary. Speaks for itself.

Hi Bob

I have just had a message from the Payroll office letting us know that there has been a major crash on the payroll run for academics. They are doing their best to manually load the salaries so that they will appear in their bank accounts tonight. Could you let the academics in your department know this and also that if they are in receipt of a VSP or any additional payment of any kind that this will not show up this fornight, but a catchup will be done next pay.

Thanks Hazel

Year 2000 Problem, Nah, payroll breaks all the time and it is April 1. It is a good example of work arounds generated by on-the-job folks.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), March 31, 1999

Answers

Hmmmmmn.

Are you (NZ academia) on an April start fiscal year?

It's now past midnight (your time) - any progress in resolving this issue? Please check your bank account (this morning - April 2) and let us know if the right amount was ever deposited, and if the press picked up on any other failures.

Nothing like hitting a government paycheck to get a bureacratic's interest real fast! If it happened elsewhere - life will be interesting indeed.

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (Cook.R@csaatl.com), April 01, 1999.

Hi Robert,

April 1 is the start of the tax year. I will report tomorrow on whether the payment was made and on any other April 1 changes/problems reported. I don't expect to hear about too much. Most will happen inside corporate walls and will not be made public.

Interestingly, the general, non academic, staff payroll system performed as expected. Maybe someone was playing an April 1 practical joke.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), April 02, 1999.

Payment made as expected.

Nothing reported in the Auckland Herald.

Will keep an eye on this one.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), April 03, 1999.

Bob,

I just found this article over at Gary North's newest links. Thought you might want to see this...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nzherald99/story.cfm?theStoryID=4751

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30/03/99 - Councils want Army help: mayor

By Keith Newman

Local body leaders are poised to call for military cover to guard against millennium computer bug fallout, warns the mayor of one of the country's largest cities.

Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey said the plea for military backup was likely to be issued at a summit meeting of the 86 territorial local authorities to be held in closed session in Wellington tomorrow.

The summit will be addressed by the Prime Minister, Jenny Shipley, and Mr Harvey predicted those present would ask the Government to put the Army on standby in case of civil unrest from prolonged computer failures.

Civil Defence will maintain a full staff in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on New Year's Eve because of the fear of isolated computer system failures in important utilities.

A special commission that the Government announced last month to stop the millennium bug wreaking havoc on public services has already raised concerns about the water supply and sewage disposal.

"The Year 2000 crisis is the greatest wake-up call you could have for the new millennium," said Mr Harvey, the Labour Party's new president.

"In Britain the Army is on standby, as it is in Ireland, France, Germany and Canada. I understand President Clinton will put the Army on standby in the US in July."

Mr Harvey said his city was one of those that had passed muster with the Auditor-General as having systems in place to deal with the computer bug, but others could expect a roasting tomorrow.

Local Government New Zealand wants the Auditor-General to identify the 19 councils that an audit of readiness deemed were putting their communities at risk.

Mr Harvey said local authorities had been meeting on the Year 2000 compliance issue since he raised it six months ago, but previously it was not even on the agenda.

"The horror in all of this is you are a victim of other people's systems," he said.

"If we don't get our computers right we won't be able to send out the rates ... The courts will be jammed for years."

Governments and everyone associated with the computer industry had known of the potential for millennium problems since 1952 but had claimed they would not happen.

The upshot was a $16 trillion global systems clean-up - money that could have been spent on the world's poor, he said.

A Defence Force spokesman, Wing Commander John Seward, said troops had been advised some months ago to consider taking holidays before December 27 in case they might be needed to support millennium "activities."

) Copyright 1999, NZ Herald

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-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), April 03, 1999.

Thanks Kevin,

I contributed some of the material for one of the speakers who was talking about local preparedness with Emergency Management Systems.

I will report the view from the other side in about a week's time when I talke with the EM people again.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), April 03, 1999.