State unfazed as Y2K looms

Agencies aggressive in knocking out bugs

May 27, 1999

BY KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS

LANSING -- On George Boersma's computer, the seconds are literally ticking away toward the dawn of the new millennium.

Boersma is the man in charge of making sure all of the computers, computer chips and computer software used in Michigan state government still work the way they should on Jan. 1, 2000.

And just to remind himself that time is ticking by, his screen saver shows a countdown. Time remaining Thursday: 218 days, give or take a few hours, minutes and seconds.

"With Y2K, the date is certain; you can't move it," said Boersma, deputy director and chief information officer of the state Department of Management and Budget.

The work Michigan state government has done since mid-1996 on making itself Year 2000 compliant has left relatively little unfinished. Boersma said 98 percent of the state's critical systems are now fixed and tested, while about 84 percent of less important systems are ready to go, with more being done every day.

Government Technology, a publication focused on government issues, lists Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Florida as the four states farthest along in dealing with the Y2K bug.

"We've been really aggressive in making sure this will work after January 1, 2000," Boersma said Wednesday.

The Y2K bug is a problem for some older computers, computer chips and software programs programmed with only the last two digits of the year. Unless they're fixed, they may think the year 2000 is the year 1900 and malfunction.

An audit released Tuesday by the Michigan auditor general's office found little to quibble with in how well the state has prepared, other than saying state agencies need to report to the Emergency Management Division whether the government and private entities they oversee have fixed their Y2K problems.

-- Norm (nwo@hotmail.com), May 27, 1999

Answers

Good - they started in 1996 too, so what happened to DC? Atlanta? New York? Chicago? Los Angelos?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 27, 1999.

Does this mean only 4 of 50 are done (8%) are furthest along (not even done yet!) with only 100 working days left in the year?

And I thought you were only sending good news! Damn....now I'm scared.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 27, 1999.