y2k stuff

From: Bill Sudbrink <bill_at_chipware.com>
Date: Wed Jan 6 10:11:34 1999

> utilities (power/water/telephone):
> Say a disconnect period is 2 consecutive months of non-payment. A
> customer pays his/her bill regularly but if the date isn't interpreted
> properly the next time the system does a check for 'disconnect
> candidates' it will not be able to find a single payment from a single
> customer within a 2 consecutive months time period prior to 01/01/00
> (1900).

Telephone... possibly a minor problem, but where I live, to disconnect
electric or water they have to send a guy in a truck to either close
the valve or pull the electric meter. If there is a glitch in the
systems of these utilities I think they will be caught before the crews
start disconnecting every customer.

> banks:
> Keeping in mind that banks routinely deactivate and -absorb- every
> account that is over x years idle (commonly 2 yrs. but every one I have
> come across has some variant of this), see how the above method applies
> to this situation.

Not legal where I live. There are regularly large multi-page ads in the
local papers listing inactive/unclaimed accounts. I think they might get
suspicious when they send their entire account list to the paper.

> vendors of perishables:
> Shipments of perishable items (food/medicine) are refused by automated
> systems that read the dates on the items as expired.

Admittedly, it's been a few years since I worked stock at Woolworth's, but
I think somebody might get the idea when an entire truckload of new stock
is rejected. My manager was always present at the loading dock when the
trucks came in.

> payroll:
> Employee doesn't have any hours during the 'new' pay period so no
> paycheck is issued. Also paychecks are issued with wrong dates and such.
> Clients aren't billed if there isn't anything in the billing period.
> etc...

Possibly a problem with direct deposit, however more and more companies
are using payroll services. The payroll service used where I work is
Y2K ready, I would imagine (since that is their primary business) that
most payroll companies are handling this.

> security access:
> I'll use my company as an example. I have full access to the office
> building between the hours of 7am - 7pm M-F by way of a keycard. If the
> wrong year is being calculated then M-F can easily be Sat-Wed., etc...

Hmmm... I've never worked in a place that strict. I have 24-7 access to my
office. My accesses are recorded, but I think that somebody could figure
out that I really did not go in to work on Jan. 4 1900.

> credit cards:
> Accounts are deactived or non-existent.

Possibly a problem. I have to Visa cards with expiration dates of "02"
which worked fine for all my Christmas shopping.

One major problem I have with the whole Y2K thing are the assumptions that:
1) computer control everything and 2) people will blindly do whatever the
computer tells them to. With the exception of "reject this credit card",
I think these assumptions are false.
Received on Wed Jan 06 1999 - 10:11:34 GMT