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PUBLISHER'S LETTER Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.) Technical Staff John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Robert Flynn Rick Walters Reader Services Ann Jenkinson Advertising Manager Brendon Sheridan Phone (03) 9720 9198 Mobile 0416 009 217 Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Garry Cratt, VK2YBX Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed John Hill Mike Sheriff, B.Sc, VK2YFK Ross Tester Philip Watson, MIREE, VK2ZPW Bob Young SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. A.C.N. 003 205 490. All material copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Macquarie Print, Dubbo, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $54 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see the subscription page in this issue. Editorial & advertising offices: Unit 34, 1-3 Jubilee Avenue, Warrie­ wood, NSW 2102. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9979 5644. Fax (02) 9979 6503. ISSN 1030-2662 and maximum * Recommended price only. 2  Silicon Chip The millennium bug – a lot of fuss over nothing How many articles have you seen in the press over recent months about the “Millennium Bug”? Bit of a worry, isn’t it? Supposedly, if you believe the most lurid of the stories, when the time and date clocks over on January 1st, 2000, there will be all sorts of dire consequences: computers will crash, pensioners and other social welfare recipients won’t get their cheques, planes will fall out of the sky, trains will come to a halt, banks will close their doors because they won’t be able to take transactions and so on . . . Well, to my mind it’s a lot of piffle. Sure there is some old Cobol-based accountancy and other software which does present a problem because of the requirement for a 2-digit year date. Some credit cards which were issued with a 2001 expiry date have had to be recalled and reissued with a 1999 expiry date. And some computers with older BIOS do present a problem but by now they’re getting on for ten years or more so they are pretty well obsolete. The truth is that the vast majority of large organisations have had to face this problem years ago. For example, banks, finance and insurance companies have long been dealing with repayment and premium schedules which stretch well into the next century. How could banks have granted 10, 15, 20 or 25-year loan terms if they hadn’t done all their projections? Just walk into your local bank and see if they can’t give you a repayment schedule for the whole term of your mortgage. You can bet they can. Even large government bureaucracies such as the Taxation Office can be expected to have done all their homework years ago so don’t worry about them not being able to send out assessments in the year 2000 and beyond. Nor should you bank on the police department not being able to send out fines or security firms not being able to monitor premises with the advent of the millennium. Things will continue as normal. Nor can I imagine a scenario whereby airline or train scheduling or other crucial systems come to complete stop because of the date. Yes, some systems might fall over but wholesale chaos does not seem likely. A more realistic assessment is that if a company or organisation is using a computer system and software which is more than ten years old, then there might be a problem. But it is fairly easy to simulate this. All that you have to do is to change the date, reboot the computer system and run the suspect software. If it does not fall over, then you don’t have a problem. Or am I missing something more insidious here? I don’t think so. I think that some companies stand to make quite a lot of money from consultancy work and seminars on the so-called “millennium bug”. Good luck to them. But let’s hope that they don’t get rich at the expense of you, me and other taxpayers. Leo Simpson