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[For Fair Use: Educational/Research Purposes Only]

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D.C. tells a nervous Congress it will be Y2K ready

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - It is cutting it close, but the nation's capital will have its Year 2000 computer bug glitches fixed just in time for the new year, city officials told Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

``We'll be running hard to the end,'' said Linda Argo, spokesperson for the city's office of technology, summarizing a report her office sent to a U.S. House panel that oversees District of Columbia operations.

Washington, D.C. -- declared on the edge of bankruptcy in 1995 -- only began debugging hundreds of computer systems that run traffic lights, fire and emergency services, drinking water purification and other ``critical'' services 17 months ago.

But while one of the latest starters in U.S. cities' Y2K fix-up race, the District of Columbia has caught up fast -- in part because of millions of dollars in aid from Capitol Hill.

Rep. Tom Davis, the Virginia Republican who chairs the House Government Reform subpanel on D.C., is keeping his fingers crossed, spokesman David Marin said in a telephone interview.

``At this point, we've done all the oversight we can do -- we've asked all the questions we can ask,'' Marin said.

``My boss thinks you are not going to see any sort of cataclysmic things like they've been showing on TV movies lately, but there will be some glitches,'' he said.

But Argo said according to new figures, 90 percent of the 232 computer systems that the city considers critical to its smooth operation are Y2K-compatible. The means they have been adjusted, tested and returned to service, she said.

Technical snafus in the remaining 10 percent have been fixed, but those systems have yet to be tested or returned to service, she said.

Ninety-nine percent will be returned by December 15 and the final one percent by December 31, Argo said.

``We're probably light years ahead of where a lot of municipalities are,'' Argo said.

She added that backup plans are in place in case any of the systems that have been updated still fail on January 1.

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Just in time...still a few glitches though...

That depends on the meaning of the word, glitches. Right?

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-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), December 01, 1999

Answers

It is truly amazing what the DC bureaucrats have accomplished in the last 17 months (in a city that barely keeps up with the potholes)! I've been in the IT business for almost 30 years and have yet to see a major IT project come in on time and functioning correctly the first time out of the box. Why should Y2K be any different? It is not possible that they jammed in the new code and tested every system end to end.

-- fatanddumb (fatdumb@nd.happy), December 01, 1999.

I wonder if Linda Argo made little flippy motions with her hankie when she said this?

One prep this woman needs: Smelling salts!

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), December 01, 1999.

Does anyone recall just a few months ago the "60 Minutes" interview with this woman and the other VIPs...who said it would NOT be ready in time?????

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), December 01, 1999.

Hey They are ready I can prove it!!! Why didn't you see the results of the FAA test done for the press. They had one airplane controlled for four hours and nothing hap- pened. Of course they did only use one computer and there are normally at least 222 computer systems talking to each other. Also they used only two radar units and the rest of the planes over a thousand in the air what was going on with them and who was watching?

Oh and they also ran several tests before they let the press in. Complete success.

Not one reporter asked a single question and nothing was critiqued. The test was likened to a used car lot with 222 cars sitting on it. The salesman selects one car and puts on the lights, starts the car hits the horn and rolls the automatic windows up and down. There you go all our cars work perfectly!

-- Susan Barrett (sue59@bellsouth.net), December 01, 1999.