________________________________________________________________________________ Wired News Dressed to the 9-9-99s by James Glave 12:15 p.m. 8.Sep.99.PDT This is a Y2K test, this is only a test. And not much of one, at that. That's because Wednesday night's Energy Department Y2K dress rehearsal will be conducted on the eve of 9-9-99, an otherwise innocuous date that has stirred in some a millennial mini-frenzy. Some point to this date as a foreshadowing of the possible horrors that await the world on 1-1-00, while many computer programmers regard the string of nines as just another page on the calendar. If the power industry really wanted a nail-biter to demonstrate its millennium readiness to eager mainstream media, they would have staged the proceedings at infamous Three Mile Island, one of the nation's 20 nuclear power plants still vulnerable to Y2K. But the Energy Department instead chose to showcase the electric industry's Y2K efforts at the Bonneville Power Administration in Vancouver, Washington. "This industry-wide drill is another way to test whether local utility companies will have power after the clock strikes midnight at the end of the year," US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said. Thursday's date is significant among Y2K watchers who are concerned that 9-9-99 might be misread as 9999, which could be interpreted by older systems as an "end of file" marker. But many programmers consider Wednesday's rollover to be a non-issue, because most systems will read the month and day value as two digits, rather than one. In this version, Thursday's date would translate into machine code as 090999 -- which would not stop any process. "For the large majority of computer systems, the 9999 issue is a non-issue," said Scott Manno, a freelance programmer, database administrator, and project manager, and a 15-year IT professional. "I have a feeling [that 9-9-99] is not going to be terribly serious," added Purdue University computer science professor Gene Spafford, an expert on computer vulnerabilities. "I think we will encounter a number of unexpected problems, but I don't think any of them are going to be huge." Previous "problem dates" have passed without incident, including the once-troubling 1 January 1999, and 9 April -- the 99th day of the century's 99th year. And on 1 July, 46 states began their fiscal year 2000. None reported any computer malfunction. While these dates came and went with nary a whisper, Y2K is another matter. There is a very real chance of infrastructure disruptions as non-compliant computer systems boot up in the early days of 2000. In early August, the trade group tracking the electric utility industry's Y2K efforts told the Department of Energy that 21 of the nation's 103 commercial nuclear power reactors were not Y2K ready in critical operational and support systems. The 92-page report, "Preparing the Electric Power Systems of North America for Transition to the Year 2000," was very optimistic overall. "With more than 99 percent of mission-critical components having been tested, our findings indicate that the transition through critical Y2K dates is expected to have minimal impact on electric systems operation in North America," the report said. On Tuesday, Richardson scolded the eight major utilities that are not Y2K ready, as well as the additional 16 that have not reported their status. "With just over 100 days until the year 2000, those suppliers that haven't yet stepped up to the plate need to be especially aggressive to prepare for the rollover," Richardson said. "All power providers, regardless of their level of preparedness, must continue to test all their systems to ensure consumers that their lights will stay on into the next millennium." According to a 17 August Nuclear Energy Institute Y2K Status report, 20 nuclear power plants are still upgrading for Y2K. Included on that industry group's list is Three Mile Island, the plant that in 1979 experienced a partial core meltdown. That facility will be temporarily shut down this Friday for regular refueling and maintenance, and plant owner GPU Energy will take advantage of the downtime to upgrade a non-compliant digital turbine control system. Three Mile Island is scheduled to be back online and fully Y2K compliant on 21 October. "As with any work, there is always a possible challenge," said GPU Energy spokeswoman Adele Aboutok. "We have created a testbed and made the modifications on the testbed with the vendor." Aboutok declined to comment on why the plant has waited so long to complete its Y2K upgrades. Another plant on the list, the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant, located near Dothan, Alabama, reports that it won't be finished with its Y2K work until 16 December. On that date, a mere 15 days from zero-hour, plant operator Southern Nuclear Operating Company will bring the facility back online after a scheduled two-month shutdown. The company is scheduled to complete its last Y2K fix during that shutdown, to a system that controls steam flow to the plant's turbine generator. Southern Nuclear promises that the Y2K work will be completed on time. "We are very confident and have been through this before," spokesman Michael Jones said, referring to a recent upgrade to the same component on the plant's sibling unit. "Everything is waiting to go; there will be no lag time whatsoever." He added that the plant does not expect any 9-9-99 hiccups Wednesday evening. Still, while many see Wednesday's date as a non-issue, one expert said that the aggressive Y2K proofing may have instead exacerbated what might have otherwise proven to be an uneventful date. "While [the value] 9999 is the caboose at the end of the train -- the end of file -- a lot of people are saying it is not a problem because it would be coded as 090999," said Fred Kohun, associate dean of the school of communication and information systems at Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "But if [Y2K patching software] sees a string of numbers, a trailer record as 99, it would go through the program and try to fix it," he said. In other words, intentional end-of-file values may be converted into 1999 dates, nullifying their function. The result, he said, is that the program may not stop when the software tells it to. Still, Kohn said that any minor glitches that emerge this week will quickly be corrected. He is expecting disruptions on New Year's Eve, but is not troubled by them. "The good news is even if something goes down, the world is not going to end." http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/21637.html ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org