Russian Air Traffic Control only half Y2K-ready

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This report appeared today in the Danish financial newspaper 'Boersen' (my translation).

RUSSIAN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL ONLY HALF Y2K-READY: Only about half of Russia's Air Traffic Control sysytems have been certified error-free in connection with possible complications arising from the date change to Jan 1, 2000.

That's what a top official in the Russian Air Transport industry has just told the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass.

Generally Russia has lagged far behind the West in thorough testing of computer systems for possible Y2K problems. But, according to the American news agency Associated press, officials in many areas insist that nothing will go wrong, if only because Russia is less dependent on computers than more developed countries.

The official plan, according to the head of the Russian Federal Air Traffic Control Service, Vladimir Andreyev, is that the country's Air Control will be fully ready for New Year's Eve.

Russian Air Traffic Control uses around 14,000 computers to guide planes through Russian air-space, including flights from the Western countries to South-east Asia. Of these about 2,470, according to Andreyev, needed updating for Y2K. But the Air Transport official claimed that half of these updates still had not been made.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), December 07, 1999

Answers

Thanks for all the work Risteard (how do you pronounce that, anyway?)

Can you clarify the translation a little, please? At the start you say "have been certified " and then at the end "updates still [have] not been made". Is the original article this unclear on their actual progress, or did something get lost in the translation?

Thanks again.

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), December 07, 1999.


...uh, so why did our State Dept. only recently tell the 10k Americans they may wanna get out? And didn't they give them a window to the 15? If so, I guess they'll be leaving via their horseless carriages.

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 07, 1999.

Translation is a tough business! I'm afraid I was a bit free with my translation, so here is a more literal attempt:

DANISH: Kun omkring 50 procent ... er testet fejlfri ...

ENGLISH: Only around 50 per cent ... have been tested fault-free ...

DANISH: ... mangler halvdelen af disse opdateringer endnu at blive gennnemfoert.

ENGLISH: ... half of these updates still remain to be completed.

Perhaps someone can find an English report on this.

My name is the Gaelic version of 'Richard' and is pronounced 'Ris- chard'; just insert an 's' before the 'ch'.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), December 07, 1999.


Ah, no worries. I had already assumed that the source was being imprecise - no surprises there. :(

Kudos on using the gaelic version of your name. I don't often do that with mine, but, heck Y2K is a time of changes. :)

-- Cailean Mac Donald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), December 07, 1999.


ENGLISH: Only around 50 per cent ... have been tested fault-free.

One interpretation could be that of 2X lines of code, X lines had no date issues. Nothing has been fixed.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 07, 1999.



Mssr.Mac Thomais,

Thanks you for the comprehensive intl. information!! Duly appreciated.

-- d----- (dciinc@aol.com), December 07, 1999.


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