Test in Germany shuts down power at Ministry of Justice

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Test shuts down power at German Dept of Justice

LINK for those who read German

The Berlin newspaper "tageszeitung" from Dec. 11, 1999 reports on a Y2K test conducted at the federal Department of Justice.

The workers had been asked to not use their computers from 14.00 on Friday.

Good thing, since the tests managed to shut down the power in the building. No one wants to make an official statement on the subject, since the official German policy is that
"Everything is going to be all right".

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 17, 1999

Answers

Shades of the Van Nuys, CA sewage spill!!!! (I can hear the pollies now: "Why, this is WONDERFUL news! Shows that people are testing for Y2K problems, and finding them before the deadline! Wonderful!! Well, need to go do my Christmas shopping now....")

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), December 17, 1999.

Achtung!

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), December 17, 1999.

I don't speak German, but here's the translation of the Babel Fish:

Millennium bug in the Ministry of Justice: computer simulation of the change of year led to power failure

A test run to the thousands of years change in the Federal Department of Justice ended yesterday with a failure. As several coworkers of the Ministry acknowledged, it came in the afternoon into consequence of a computer simulation to a total power failure. The coworkers had gotten the statement not to use computers starting from 14 o'clock no more. An official statement on the part of the Ministry was not to be received yesterday no more.

The Jahr-2000-Problem specified among experts Millennium bug occurs, since many older computers count only on a to two places year. They interpret the change of " 99 " on " 00 " therefore as backspace into the year 1900. For years specialists search to the appropriate weak points in the computer systems. Only on Thursday the state secretary of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Brigitte Zypries, had explained, expects the Federal Government " no relevant disturbances ".

The Babel Fish has a wonderful sense of humor, and doesn't always translate perfectly. Anyone who is fluent in German feel free to correct any errors.

Don't hold it against the virtual fish, however. It should be noted that the actual Babel Fish would translate perfectly.

As for the story itself, it can only be interpreted as a bad sign. How I hope this sad scene isn't repeated throughout Germany or Europe or Asia or any other part of the world, for that matter.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), December 17, 1999.


This one goes to the top. Can anyone improve on the "fish"?

310 hours...

-- counting down (the@hours.now), December 18, 1999.


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