STL Time Machine Report #50 - Friday 20 August 1999 (1999-08-20) Thursday I logged on to the time machine, and peeked into CICS core to check the date: X'0100002C'. It's January 2, 2000. We're about to take back the Time Machine for internal compliance re-testing. One of the change notices that passed my desk was a patch to SAS (Statistical Analysis System) to window its current date function to 1950-2049. Hmmm. Of course, there's quite a bit of development in progress for projects that won't be implemented until March 2000 or later, but I'm not working on any of them yet. Instead I will be analyzing several hundred programs for compatibility with the High Level Assembler. Due to lockdown, none of them will be converted this year. Many of these modules are obsolete, or non-issues (CICS BMS maps), but I'll look for upgrades to 31-bit addressability conversion problems while I'm in there. Otherwise, my next big Y2k milestone is covering the dreaded 9-9-99 date. And of course, the GPS rollover occurs this Saturday. SOCIAL NOTES The recent STL Y2K'er's meeting was a bit of a disappointment. We were in the back of the bar and the Steve Dover and Steven Burkett missed us. We should have sent a runner, I really wanted to talk with them. But it was nice to see Doc Sewell (the ZEALOT) again. I dropped into Cory's chatroom recently. Barb Knox moved to New Zealand, and we ended up debating theology with Bud Hamilton. TEOTWAWKI and BITR are the competing faiths, but the evidence for either is not there, yet. It was a very interesting and polite discussion. A CONUNDRUM The first week in August I attended an offsite class on TSO/REXX taught by 'Boomer' Bakalchuck. He described an interesting date problem, one that once had PHM's in a six-hour meeting. A user enters a date into a screen: 02/31/99. Do you put the cursor on the day and put out a message that the day is invalid? Or should you put the cursor on the month and say the entire date is invalid? What if the user had intended to type 03/31/99 and fat-fingered it? How can the program know what the user intended to do? Similarly, if the user enters 02/29/99 when he meant to type 02/29/00, is the day invalid or the year? I don't know why people think programming is so simple. SIGNS, OMENS, PORTENTS Meanwhile, back in c.s.y2k, we have Nuns with Guns, the JFK jr. bombing, gas prices, the stock market, gold, the Boy Fruits of America, the 10-day MCI/Worldcom Frame Relay outage, the World Bank Payroll problem, and the Jim Lord Secret Naval Survey. Also, Harlan Smith, long-time c.s.y2k participant, died of a heart attack in early August, aged 69 years. And Don Scott left c.s.y2k because it's a hate group. Looks like the panic meter is ratcheting up. I can't wait for the rollover. Did I mention the sample sermon from the American Bankers Association? Instead of putting it in the collection plate the ABA wants your pastor preaching the safety of keeping your money in the bank. How weird can it get? As of 1999-08-20, my countdown now reads: 01 days until 1999-08-21 (GPS Rollover) 20 days until 1999-09-09 (Another date) 134 days until 2000-01-01 (Rollover, won't be long now) Previous Year 2000 Time Machine Reports are available at: http://home.att.net/~arnold.trembley/tmr.htm STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I am NOT an official corporate spokesperson. My opinions should not be held against my benevolent employer. -- Arnold Trembley http://home.att.net/~arnold.trembley/ "Y2K? Because Centuries Happen!"