The Y2K,
Millennium or Year 2000 Bug and Developing Countries
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Site Information
This web site has been designed by Grand River Informatics
Inc. (GRI) to help governments, companies and individual microcomputer
users in developing countries to deal with the impact of the Y2K (or
Millennium) Bug. The Y2K bug is a computer hardware and software
bug which can cause serious problems with computers or any other equipment
that uses a microchip. For example Y2K could be a problem with such things
as medical equipment, automobiles, elevators, process control equipment,
etc. The bug is caused by the inability of equipment or
software to deal with dates in the 21st Century. There are many web
sites which provide information on the Y2K problem and selected ones can
be found under "Other Links" in the site menu. It is not
our intention to duplicate these web sites, but rather to provide access
to information and tools which will help users in developing countries to
identify potential problem areas and to find other organizations which
have dealt with these problems. The site also provides links to tools and
information to help micro-computer users to ensure that their hardware and
software are Year 2000 compliant. This site will be available in seven
languages, and particular attention has been given to finding free or
inexpensive material as well as sites available in languages other than
English.
The Y2K bug can cause individual computers to fail completely or to provide inaccurate results. There is a diversity of opinion about the seriousness of the problem in different countries -- the impact is particularly difficult to assess because a failure in one system can impact on another system which itself is Y2K compliant. This web site will attempt to provide access to the best information available, but GRI takes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided (see disclaimer )
This site will be divided into the following sections:
- Developing countries -- this page provides links to other sites which have been designed specifically for or by developing countries. The page includes UN and World Bank sites as well as developing country national Y2K sites.
- Sectors -- these pages provide links to sites which deal with the Y2K problem in specific sectors. Most sites are from industrialized countries. Many provide downloadable questionnaires and other tools for assessing the potential impact of Y2K in that sector and developing Y2K strategies. Some include information on Y2K compliance for specific types of equipment. Sectors covered include : agriculture and food, chemical safety, education, finance (banking and insurance), health, legal, mining, security (police/armed forces), real estate, small business, state and municipal government, telecommunications, transportation, and utilities.
- Y2K impact -- this page provides links to a number of sites which provide analysis of the likely impact of the Y2K bug on different economies.
- Embedded chips -- this page provides links to pages which explain the general concept of problems involving embedded chips. Most of the sites relating to specific embedded chip problems are available on the different sector pages.
- Preparedness -- this page provides examples of actions taken or planned by various levels of government, companies or individuals to deal with possible problems caused by the Y2K bug.
- Microcomputer solutions -- these pages provide links to the Y2K sites of major hardware and software developers. These pages provide information on compliance and many provide software downloads to deal with Y2K problems in specific makes of hardware and software. The pages also provide hints on testing microcomputer hardware and software as well as downloadable utilities for testing certain aspects of hardware compliance.
- Other links -- this section provides links to some of the more popular Y2K sites.
The Y2K Bug
In simple terms, the bug is caused by the inability of either the hardware or the software (or both) to deal with dates after December 31, 1999 or to deal with the fact that the year 2000 is a Leap Year. Despite a common belief that the bug affects only mainframe computers programmed in COBOL, it is a threat to computers of all sizes and to many types of software.
Hardware problems are normally caused by a microcomputer's clock 1) refusing to recognize a date after 31 December 1999, 2) not recognizing 2000 is a leap year or 3) resetting itself to an earlier date in the Twentieth Century on January 1, 2000 -- this is expected to be a serious problem with some of the older microcomputers, although even some new equipment is not exempt. Software problems are caused either by the operating system not being able to deal with dates after January 1, 2000 or by problems in the software development environment or the application itself. In many cases the problem has been caused by programmers having used two-digit fields for the year in dates. When a two digit year is used, at the turn of the century the software may interpret "00" as "1900" instead of "2000". The estimated impact of this bug ranges from predictions of complete economic collapse in computer dependent economies to predictions that the problem is well in hand and that no real problems will emerge. Much of the work on the Y2K bug is taking place in North America, where the economies are presumably most vulnerable to computer failure. The potential impact on developing countries is not known.
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[ Embedded Chips | Preparedness
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