11/23/99 -- 4:10 PM

Despite Y2K preparations, many will be working New Year's Eve

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NEW YORK (AP) - By now, nearly every major U.S. company and organization has tested, fixed or replaced their computers to fend off the Year 2000 computer bug.

So can they just go home, spend New Year's Eve with friends and family, and then return to work after the weekend, ready to seize the millennium?

If only it were that simple. While spending to prevent Y2K computer failures may total $200 billion or more in the United States, the huge preparations only go so far. Many people will still need to toil through New Year's Eve, New Year's Day or even the entire weekend to make sure all systems remain ``go.'' Others will be on call.

The latest feedback suggests most organizations have ``reached a level where any interruptions are not likely to be totally disruptive,'' said Dale Vecchio, a research analyst at Gartner Group. ``We don't expect people to get it 100 percent fixed.'' But, he added, ``We do expect them to be prepared for failure.''

In a survey of major organizations including American Express, PepsiCo and the Federal Reserve, more than 90 percent said they have special Y2K staffing plans, according to Edward Perlin Associates, a consulting firm.

It's not just a matter of waiting for Jan. 1, 2000 to arrive in New York or Chicago or Silicon Valley. For multinational companies, midnight may strike again and again, beginning nearly a day early for those with Pacific Rim operations.

``We start with Auckland, New Zealand at 3 a.m. Pacific Coast Time on Dec. 31,'' said John Earnhardt, a spokesman for network equipment maker Cisco Systems. ``We have some type of facility in every time zone worldwide.''

Thousands of Cisco employees will be working through New Year's weekend, including hundreds at its headquarters in San Jose, Calif. The company will provide child care, cots for napping and a buffet ``so people can munch and go,'' Earnhardt said.

``We'll try to make it as comfortable as possible, but it is work, so it's not a party,'' said Earnhardt. ``I'll be there for 36 hours or more. But hey, bring on the mocha and the toothbrush.''

Nike, which also conducts business around the globe, will have a ``millennium action center'' at headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., to monitor factories in 46 countries.

Knowing the Y2K alert would ruin New Year's for many workers, Nike tried to make up for it in advance with a ``Celebrate New Year's Eve Early'' party in July, complete with a 32-piece Guy Lombardo-like orchestra, cans of Spam, toilet paper and survival kits.

``We'll also probably try to look at something to alleviate the drudgery of waiting around on New Year's Eve,'' said Vada Manager, a spokesman. ``We place a premium on fun at Nike.''

At Sprint, a command center in Gardner, Kan., will receive updates every 15 minutes from one of four units: local telephone service, long distance, wireless and corporate.

``If we get to 2 p.m. Central Time on Jan. 1 with no problems, we'll start sending people home, instead of staffing up straight through the weekend,'' said company spokesman Russ Robinson.

To make up for a New Year's work assignment, some companies are offering compensation ranging from standard overtime wages to bonus pay and additional time off.

For some people, the sacrifice of such a momentous weekend may even present a unique opportunity.

Trend Micro, a maker of anti-virus and anti-hacking software, is relocating about 50 technicians from the Philippines to its headquarters in Irvine, Calif., from Dec. 15 through Jan. 15.

``We have no idea how well the Filipino power and phone companies will be functioning, and we can't afford to have 70 or 80 engineers offline,'' said Dan Schrader, vice president of new technology for Trend Micro.

Among other perks, the recruits have been invited to bring their families along for free and will get free tickets to Disneyland for their children.

``This is a group of guys who've probably never been in the United States before,'' said Schrader.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), November 23, 1999

Answers

``.....reached a level where any interruptions are not likely to be totally disruptive.''

I love it when someone says something like this.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), November 23, 1999.

I'm with you, Hamster.

So, is it "somewhat disruptive"? "mostly disruptive"? "half"?

"Totally disruptive". This is Clintonesque speech patterns to say the least.

Jolly

-- Jollyprez (jolly@prez.com), November 23, 1999.

I wonder how many staff/programmers have the check cashed, bug out bag in the car and are half way to their hideaway before their shift starts ? Could this be somewhat "disruptive" for starters ? What about it programmers; am I close ????? Eagle

-- Hal Walker (e999eagle@freewwweb.com), November 23, 1999.

I'm a software developer. My company once wrote a large application for newspapers. If the software didn't work, they couldn't print the newspaper. So bugs were...ah...a problem, you could say.

We had a programmer who liked to program weekend evenings, while tossing down a few beers. His "beer code" was almost perfect, except he usually forgot to check for "zero" before doing a calculation. (error-checking code is no fun to write, ya know?)

As a result, when "zero happened" there would often be a "divide by zero" error, and the application would crash.

I still remember going in Monday mornings, going through his code and pasting in "If not nil (zero), then..." all over the place.

I just hope all those "extra staff" have a compiler, the source code and an intimate knowledge of how their software works. I keep imagining newspapers having "extra people at midnight" in case our software crashes! What could they do? Not. A. Thing.

-- joe (developer@prepped.com), November 23, 1999.

The fallacy here is that if there ARE problems, they will be fixed in one night. Ah ha ha ha. One night means "Push a button to reboot the computer", not "Identify, diagnose, debug, fix and test a series of fatal errors or - even worse - subtle data corruptions, manufacture several thousand new systems and roll them out to customer sites". That's weeks or months, not hours. :(

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.