World's busiest airport ready for Y2K, Atlanta Mayor Says

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Let's see if 'dis sista can get it right 'da first time: FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

World's busiest airport ready for Y2K, Atlanta mayor says

July 1, 1999

Web posted at: 12:27 p.m. EDT (1627 GMT) ATLANTA (Reuters) -- Hartsfield Atlanta International, the world's busiest passenger airport, is Y2K compliant and will function as normal on January 1, 2000, city officials said Wednesday.

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said Hartsfield will be immune to the so-called millennium bug that some say threatens to disrupt computers worldwide unless steps are taken to bring systems up to date for the date change.

"I believe that aviation history has been made," Campbell said at a news conference. "The embedded chips have been fixed, and they can accurately read the date on January 1, 2000, and beyond."

The state of the world's aviation systems has been one of ter programmers trying to fix the "millennium bug," a problem created decades ago when programmers formatted years with just two numbers.

As a result, programmers fear some computers will read the double zero representing 2000 as 1900 and cause malfunctions.

According to Atlanta officials, most of the airport's vital systems have been independently tested for Y2K, including airfield operations, airport security and airline operator security.

Most security systems were replaced with more capable computer hardware, rather than fixed, officials said. Aviation Manager Benjamin DeCosta said that more $11 million was spent on Y2K issues since mid-1998. "We have 159 systems, with 9,000 components. In western technology, everywhere you look, there is a computer chip," he said.

In 1998, Hartsfield handled more than 73 million passengers and nearly 847,000 flights, making it the busiest passenger airport in the world.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.


-- Sista In 'Da Hood (Sista@Da.Hood), July 04, 1999

Answers

'Dis Sista has no intentions of dissin' her homies - here be the link to the aforementioned article Atla nta Airpot Story

-- Sista In 'Da Hood (Sista@Da.Hood), July 04, 1999.

Actually you "dis" everyone when you use Ebonics. And furthermore the entire city of Atlanta goes unremediated because they fired their sub-contractors to do the work. Old story, somewhere on the archives. I don't feel like digging it up to convince you. Maybe someone else is feeling more charitable today and can find the article.

-- (atlanta@sucks.com), July 04, 1999.

"City misses mark on computer bug" (Atlanta)

http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/1999/05/16/y2k_atlanta.html

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), July 04, 1999.


The article about Hartsfield Atlanta International is good news for Atlanta--no doubt about it. Let's hope that fuel stays available and affordable next year.

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), July 04, 1999.

Also see the thread...

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0011yK

"Georgia officials urge having 3- to 5-day water and food supply"

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), July 04, 1999.



who _believes_ the mayor about the airport?

-- h (h@h.h), July 04, 1999.

h,

I have no trouble believing that there is a compliant airport somewhere as of July 1999. But this quote from the above article...

"I believe that aviation history has been made," Campbell said at a news conference. "The embedded chips have been fixed, and they can accurately read the date on January 1, 2000, and beyond."

...concerns me. Aviation history has been made? Does that imply that at this moment there is only one compliant airport in the U.S.?

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), July 04, 1999.


I thought "embedded chips" were NOT a problem--anywhere!

Hrumph...

-- -=- (tic@toc.boom), July 04, 1999.


After considered study of the the "Sista" posts (must've taken all of a minute) I have concluded that Poole has possibly had a sex change operation, become black and moved from Birmingham to Atlanta.

Or he's changed his tactics to try and disrupt with more pure disgust (the racist pandering of the Ebonic-filled posts) than his old style of posts contained. He must have spent the last week or so a Doc Paulie's School For Yourdon Disrupters.

Now, how long before he posts a commentary on his site or Der Bunker decrying the racist overtones of the posters on this "Y2K-KKK sight" and uses the "Sista" posts as example of someone being racially insensitive by mocking blacks as they post here?

WW I've wondered where he's been for the past week or two!

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), July 04, 1999.


Please check out : www.accessatlanta.com front page ,date July 1st,99 also in the paper Pages C1- C4 about Hartsfield airport is planning. The articles in C1-C4 are in the Local news section. I have the paper in front of me, saving it for info because Atlanta is a bitch to drive thru at any hour, much less during Y2K situations. There is an article on page C5 which states info about Cherokee County Agency Passes Y2K drill. Apparently the employees of the County Fire and Emergency Mangagement Agency changed the date in the counties computer-aided dispatch system,which lets emergency dispatchers see the name of the caller, they changed the dates well into the year 2000. They said they encountered no problems.... read it and weep !!!

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), July 04, 1999.


For what it is worth, a former co-worker left to work on Y2K remediation at Hartsfield. When Campbell made his speech, I e-mailed him about the statement. They are not finished. Just more crap from Campbell and Co. in Atlanta.

-- Dian (bdp@accessunited.com), July 05, 1999.

Clinton has made sure Mena is compliant - needs his mainline uninterrupted (for a while at least)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), July 05, 1999.

Last update I read was that Cherokee County had nothing budgetted for y2K testing or remediation. (Cherokee County is north of Cobb County, shares a border with north Fulton County. City of Atlanta in Fulton County - so they are both close by us.)

Their police are not satisfied with status of radios and police coverage, nor with other county services like fire and 911 as far as "up-to-date" facilities. Seems Cherokee reuses (recycles) many left-overs from richer areas, so it could be that they tested a "pre-non-compliant system. The 386's and older computers it uses may or may not work next year.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 06, 1999.


Look at NothWest Airline's remediation and testing for its hub at Detroit Airport. Those reports and degree of testing I'd trust.

Atlanta? No. Not until all the airlines complete their own testing. On the positive side, when the City of Atlanta cancelled its Y2K survey and sued the company over failure to pay kickbacks to the right group, the city at least had the sense to continue remediation at the airport!

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 06, 1999.


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