United States Set To Rate Others' Y2K Readiness

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United States Set To Rate Others' Y2K Readiness By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States soon will start reporting on other countries' readiness for the 2000 computer glitch without fear or favor, President Clinton's top aide on the issue said Monday.

The U.S. assessments, to be available starting no later than Oct. 1, will let the chips fall where they may because of obligations to U.S. travelers, among others, said John Koskinen, responsible for coordinating efforts to ensure a smooth federal transition.

``We're managing this problem into the first months of the year 2000 so it doesn't do us any good to in fact understate the issue in advance,'' he said in an interview with Reuters. ``We have an obligation to be as candid and clear with the public as we can.''

The information on potential date-related disruption will be released by the State Department as part of its country-by-country consular advisories. Those notices are updated regularly to warn of political, natural and other perceived dangers.

In countries that are ill-prepared, the so-called millennium bug could conceivably disrupt utilities, telecommunications, transportation, banking and other vital services. Any such woes likely would spill over borders, disrupting trade and travel.

At issue are fears that some computers -- as well as microchips in everything from elevators to traffic lights to power plants -- may be boggled by dates starting with Jan. 1, 2000. Because of a programmers' shortcut, the year 2000 could be misread as 1900, causing systems to crash or spew bad data.

Koskinen, who heads the President's Council on Year 2000 conversion, said the United States and most other industrial powers were on track to a relatively glitch-free date change because of their huge efforts to rewrite computer code and prepare backup plans for possible breakdowns.

He said the risk of infrastructure failures was greatest in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where he said governments began addressing the problem much later.

Asked whether Washington will sound an alarm without regard to foreign policy considerations, Koskinen said the State Department ``has a history that, if it's appropriate, of either suggesting that people should not travel to a country or if they travel, they should be aware of the following serious problems...''

The State Department said on Jan. 29 that U.S. citizens should be aware of the potential for disruption to services ''and factor that into their overall travel plans.''

U.S. federal mission-critical systems will be ready for 2000, or Y2K as it is known, said Koskinen, who spoke in a White House-adjoining office where a black plastic table clock ticked off the seconds to the date change in 172 days.

He said a planned temporary inter-agency U.S. ``Information Coordinating Center'' would get a dry run on Sept. 9 when the 9-9-99 date also could conceivably trip some systems.

The coordinating center will be fully operational to monitor the new year rollover, he said. It will function at least through Feb. 29, a Leap Year day that might pose problems for computers.

But Koskinen said he expected the shape and size of the millennium bug's fallout to be clear by two weeks into January.

-- Rickjohn (rickjohn1@yahoo.com), July 12, 1999

Answers

Woe!

Fallout will clear in two weeks ?!?!?

What is going on here - is this Koskinen's first comment regarding a 14 day problem?

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), July 12, 1999.


It's a pity some of this candidness and clarity couldn't be afforded to the true situation of the U.S. as well.

-- Candid (andclear@us.com), July 12, 1999.

Don't hold your breath. For instance, Action 2000 said that they would have named names by now of the big financial concerns that are still in jeopardy, but FSA has refused to divulge the information.

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), July 13, 1999.

Link courtesy of Mike Lang on another thread.

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), July 13, 1999.

 John K. mentions 2 weeks if your area has not met its obligations in fixing its systems.

It is in the middle of the interview.
 

Y2K Today

-- Brian (imager@home.com), July 13, 1999.



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