Before the University can make its way to the 21st century, a group of computer programmers, technicians and administrators are trying to solve the last great problem of this century.
That's because in the world of computers and micro-chips, you can't get to the next century without solving the "Year 2000 Problem."
Teams of University employees have been hard at work tryingÑ in many cases for years Ñ to avert the problems posed by the Year 2000 Problem, also known as the "millennium bug" or simply "Y2K."
And with 13 months to go, coordinators believe they are on schedule to fix problems in the critical systems throughout campus, although they still have a lot to do.
"Right now we're on target," said Ken Thorn, the director of data management for Administrative Information Systems (AIS).
Jeanne Smythe, the director for computing policy for Academic Technology and Networks (ATN), said that much of the work that remains must be done by the various departments. As the Year 2000 program officer, Smythe hopes to get everyone on campus working to identify, and then solve, potential "Y2K" problems.
"The academic side is still building awareness," Smythe said. "Some departments are in great shape, others aren't."
To help University employees identify potential problems, ATN has created a Y2K web site that describes what potential problems exist, who to call in each department to get help, shareware that can be down-loaded to test computers for problems and other helpful information. The web site can be accessed at http://help.unc.edu/y2k
Each employee is encouraged to visit the web site and consider what Y2K problems they might have, be it in the PC on their desk, the data they use in research or the equipment used in their laboratory.
"Departments have a significant role to play as do individual researchers and instructors," Smythe said. "They know what systems are critical and what problems may exist with their equipment."
And just to make sure everyone knows exactly how much time is left, site has a clock counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until midnight, Jan. 1, 2000. After Thanksgiving, less than 400 days will remain.
Source of the problem
The problem posed by the year 2000 stems from the way programmers recorded dates in the internal clocks of computers and microchips and in software and data.
In the early days of computing, limited space and high expenses put a premium on writing tight computer code. To save valuable computer memory, programmers listed dates by only the last two digits, with the "19" being assumed.
Given the fast advances in computers, programmers in the 60s, 70s and even the 80s assumed their code would be extinct by the time 2000 rolled around. They thought newer chips and programs would replace their work.
But in many cases, microchips from years ago still function within equipment in labs or offices. And many old computer software programs kept the old code from successful programs and added extra features by adding extra code. That means that when Jan. 1, 2000, comes around, computers will read the date as "00" and think "1900," causing problems ranging from faulty calculations of data to machines simply shutting down.
Adding to the problem is that even when the computer itself is "Year 2000 compliant," a lot of software running on the computer may use two-digit numbers for dates. Thus when 2000 roles around, computer programs could miscalculate anything involving a date.
For example, before work began on the University's administrative mainframe computer, the year 2000 would have caused massive numbers of paperwork errors. Since the computer would have understood the current year to be 1900, any computer programs calculating the amount of interest due on a bank account, the number of years a worker has been employed or the number of years a student has been enrolled would have been wrong, Thorn said.
AIS started working nearly three years ago to make sure all the University's administrative computer programs were ready for the year 2000, Thorn said. The main problem was making sure all the computer programs used four-digit dates.
That means computer staffers must examine the code in every program and identify anything that looks like a year. Once all programs demanding dates are identified, the staff must determine if it is a two- or four-digit year. Finally, programmers must go back and recode all two-digit dates.
"It's not difficult to do, but it's laborious," Thorn said. "You just have to buckle down and do it. A silver bullet doesn't exist."
Adding to the difficulty is that computer programs don't always have easy to find labels such as "year."
Getting an accurate assessment of the Year 2000 problem may be the greatest difficulty for anyone trying to solve it.
Donna Harrison, of management services for the North Carolina Health Care System, said the team addressing Y2K issues has spent months trying to establish an inventory of equipment that needs to be tested.
"When we started out we were very conservative and put down everything we could think of that might have a date," Harrison said. "By talking to people that knew the equipment we quickly realized we could drop things, so the list is getting smaller and smaller."
What to do?
Employees can help solve Year 2000 problems by doing a few simple things.
"The main thing users of computer applications can do to help is any time they are required to enter a year, enter it as four digits," Thorn said. "If the computer doesn't accept a four-digit date, they have a problem."
"If they find a problem, they should call whomever supports their computer," Thorn said. "Everyone should get used to entering years as four-digit numbers."
Smythe urges each employee to learn who the computer support staff is in their department and to check the Y2K web site for their department's contact person on Year 2000 issues. These are the people who can help identify and fix potential problems.
In addition to identifying the network of support people, Smythe has held informal meetings with various departments to try and answer questions about Y2K. She said she expects to have more such discussions.
"We want to be more systematic about answering questions on where to look, how to know if there's a problem," Smythe said.
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