From Kitco discussion group (gold forum) - interesting if error in NZ caused shutdown in Georgia.

Got this message from a friend of mine this morning. Anyone else heard anything? Of course this could be from some thing else and Sears is just being presidential and putting other problems off on the 9999 excuse. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Keith, According to Michael ( who called me last night astounded at how the dominoe effect had stopped his little corner of commerce ) .....the Sears crossdock computers crashed yesterday. The explanation he got from Georgia was that an affiliate in New Zealand succumbed to the 9999 shut down. They rolled over at 6:00 our time on the 8th. This started a chain reaction up the network to the big inventory programs in Georgia, which also terminated. Hence, we have no product to sell in our store this weekend, as it is all sitting on docks around the country waiting for the bills of lading to be generated. A true example of how anybody could be blindsided by a glitch in a computer on the other side of the globe. Mary

-- carey smith (csmith@innotrac.com), September 09, 1999

Answers

Naw...this couldn't happen. They said it couldn't happen. Can't they just go manual? Nothing is that connected, right? It's all just a hoax. They'll just reboot.

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 09, 1999.

IF true... wonder if it would EVER hit the newspapers?

Humm... New Zealand.

;-D

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 09, 1999.

very interesting.... thanks for the post Carey Stash

-- Stash (stashin@yahoo.com), September 09, 1999.

Any further info on this????????????????????

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), September 09, 1999.

The fact that we have heard almost nothing about the 'nines' problem is enough to show that it was just another bogus date. Just like the FY 2000 rollover date of July 1, and other dates.

If companies are having problems, and manage to 'cover it up', the net effect is that it wasn't that important in the first place.

I suppose there is only one date that is really left.. We'll see soon.

Bryce

-- Bryce (bryce@seanet.com), September 09, 1999.

I certainly have no info on Sears, but a problem with an inventory system occurred in Detroit today. WDIV (NBC affiliate) covered the story, and it seemed to be confirmed as a "dreaded nine's" issue. The story might be on the station's Web site. Also today on the same station, a report that the Detroit water department has problems. Seems the city has an auditor, or has contracted with same. Again, details may be on the station's Web site.

Linkmeister? Diane?

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), September 09, 1999.

Sears doesn't have stores in New Zealnd and company HQ in Hoffman Estates has no knowledge of this. Sounds like Internet rumor to me. Sears only has stores in the US and its stores in Georgia haven't publicly reported problems.

-- Joshua Hallford (jhallford@bridge.com), September 10, 1999.

Well well well. Cruising around the Net this morning, we're seeing all sorts of reports beginning to trickle in that appear to point to 9/9/99 problems and huffy denials. The number of glitches/failures being reported is definitely MORE than normal (there are always systems creaking 'n crashing).

An example:
http://macfixit.com/

FRI: September 10, 1999
Quicken 98 and online banking failures on 9/9/99:
Update: Problem is with CheckFree server; fix is coming

. Dave Kupiec reports that Quicken Deluxe 98 (including the latest R5 update, which was supposed to fix this potential problem) started crashing on September 9, when trying to connect to his online banking service.
Robert DeLaurenti, Ronald Guest and Werner Weiss confirm. A check of newsgroups found many other similar reports. Windows users of Quicken appear not to be affected. Is this the first sign that the 9/9/99 doomsday has arrived?

Update: Two readers (Chess Edwards and David Freeland) have received confirmation that the problem is a server issue with CheckFree, not a software bug.
CheckFree hopes to have the problem fixed by later today - or by Monday at the latest. A call to this CheckFree tech support number (630-692-3000) now starts with a message about this problem.
The message implies that the problem also affects Quicken 2000.

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Yep, if you surf newsgroups and techie discussion boards, you'll see a lot of perplexed frustration this morning.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 10, 1999.

http://discuss.info.apple.com/boards/imac.nsf/ccb088a1de6aac738525631c 0067846b/71f710a359c12084862567e8000ac0c0?OpenDocument

Subject: Re: quicken Deluxe 98
Posted: Thursday, 9/9/99 8:57 PM CDT

When I try to download my bank account info with Quicken it boots me out of the program. No error messages, no other symptoms. It worked this morning. Now it doesn't. Nothing happened in between. Has anyone else had this problem? Everything else seems to work fine. Even Quicken worked fine this morning?!?
Frank
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Same thing just happened to me. Very strange. Debbie
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MacFixit has a paragraph on this today,
http://macfixit.com/
Seems it has happened to more than a few. I still wonder are things still not working today?
roger
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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 10, 1999.

Quicken 98 Failed on 9/9/99
Friday, 9/10/99 8:39 PM CDT

I know this isn't specifically an iMac related problem, but since the software did come bundled with my system, I'm posting here to see if anyone else has the same problems.

Basically when downloading account details from my bank online, the Quicken 98 R5 program just quits. No error messages, no nothing. It all happened mysteriously yesterday ... 9/9/99. I'm certain its not related, but you never know.

Anyway ... checking out Quicken's site ... they admited that there is a "temporary" problem and that fix is on its way. Just curious if any fellow iMac-ers are having this problem too.

Thanks,
J
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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 10, 1999.

"Sears doesn't have stores in New Zealnd and company HQ in Hoffman Estates has no knowledge of this. Sounds like Internet rumor to me. Sears only has stores in the US and its stores in Georgia haven't publicly reported problems. " Joshua Hallford

Well Joshua, I have a residence in both the US and Canada, and I shop at Sears Canada with my U.S. Sears Roebuck card when I go there. I don't know wether Sears has stores in NZ, but you yourself sure don't have your facts straight on this one.

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), September 10, 1999.

For the Quicken users in the crowd:

I too have had sporadic problems downloading my account information with Quicken but I'm pretty sure it isn't a 9/9/99 problem since I first had the problem on August 27th.

My bank told me it was a problem in Quicken, and given the vague and incomplete answers I got from Intuit I tend to believe them. Furthermore, it turns out that Intuit and not the individual banks are running the servers and processes that conduct the download trasactions. My bank blamed the problem on Intuit's servers being down and/or defective. Intuit would neither confirm nor deny this as a problem.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), September 11, 1999.

Thanks, Paul! It is so cool when posters complete the picture and get at the truth. Too bad the Forum isn't funded MegaMillions as the real ICCC ;^)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 11, 1999.