UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, January 22, 1997
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Bug
Continued from Page 1A
John Dillard, assistant director of computing services. "It wasn't so much that they were stuned."
"It's in your home security system; it's in air control towers; it's in virtually everything you can think of," said Kay Nelson, assistant professor of information systems.
But the fact remains that when clocks chime midnight on Dec. 31, 1999, all computers will read the new date as 00 — a number that is less than 99.
The glitch that began as a way to save money will eventually force the computerized world to cough up anywhere between $300 and $600 billion in repairs. Potentially, the University of Kansas could pay $2 million.
Wrong calculations
While the University is struggling to discover the full extent of the problem, complications have already begun on campus.
For Chris Johnson, assistant director of student financial aid, the headache begins when the year
2000 is entered into his office's computer.
Any program or database that involves dates,
such as a birth or graduation date will do all the work.
tions incorrectly because of the Millennium Bug. For example, KU's computers will assume that a student graduating in 2000 actually plans to graduate in 96 years — 00 minus 96 — instead of four.
Some students' fees are paid by sponsors and they can get approval
This is already happening, as Rick Hermesch, applications program manager for computing services, discovered recently.
to have several semesters paid for at one time. When the computer was calculating how many semesters the sponsored freshmen graduating in 2000 would be at the University, it came up with 200 semesters instead of eight.
As Hermesch said, the incorrect number could have cost someone a lot of money.
Old systems, new century
Fortunately, this is only one of two known University
Keep every piece of paper you get from the University from this day on.
Because the majority of the systems are old, Dillard said, they will either have to be modified or replaced. And those that affect students most are last in line to be fixed.
programs that have had run-ins with the Millennium Bug so far. But as the year 2000 draws closer, these problems are sure to increase. What is frightening is that no one.
Hay Nelson, assistant professor of information systems
Although replacing an entire system is more costly, it makes more sense than trying to find ways around the date problem, Hermesch said. He compared the situation to the cost of buying new tires versus buying a new car. New tires will allow you to drive your old car, but you don't get anything new or exciting out of the deal.
Dillard agreed.
"I really hate the thought of changing the old systems and spending hundreds of hours getting them to work and not being able to add anything new for our clients," he said. "It just seems like such a waste."
Dillard said that two of the four main University systems, human resources and payroll and library
systems, had been or were in the process of being replaced. Accounting and
financial and student systems are next on the list.
The University has discussed a new accounting system, Dillard said. But timing is a problem.
"The administrative staff can only deal with so many things at once," he said. "They are already dealing with the new payroll system."
The most complex of systems — student systems — are being handled last, Dillard said. Student systems include more than 1300 different programs which handle information such as academic and financial aid records. Because the information in this system directly
affects students, and no one
ows when the entire system will be replaced, computer center staff is modifying small programs within the larger system.
knows when the entire
'A mammoth amount of work'
At one point, Dillard had hoped that all University systems would be replaced by the time 2000 rolled around. That prospect, however, is looking less likely every day.
"Because of the sequence, the
Dillard said his staff was in the middle of examining the 1300 student system programs to see how many would be negatively affected by the date change. It takes at least two hours to discover if a program must be modified. Then,
also run out of time to modify. Either way, it's going to be a mammoth amount of work."
just to change the date in the program takes a minimum of two hours. Testing the program to see if the modification worked can take up to six hours.
That is a lot of time and a lot of human power devoted to a single system, Dillard said. And although he was optimistic that the
If everything runs smoothly, at least 10 hours could be spent with each of the 1300 programs. That's about 13,000 hours or 6 years and three months of 40-hour work weeks.
For this reason, Nelson warned students that there was no way to know if their records would continue to reflect correct information after the date change.
"Keep every piece of paper you go from the University from this day on," she said. "Don't throw anything away. Do not assume everything will run smoothly in 2000."
For example, Nelson said,
if a student is applying to
graduate in the spring of
1999, she should get a copy of her
transcript in November of 1998.
Problems with transcripts could
begin as early as January 1999 and,
after that point, there are no guar-
antees that academic and other files
will remain uncorrupted.
Despite the dire warnings, Nelson said the University was not ignoring the Millennium Bug. The chancellor and other administrators are looking for the resources to replace or modify computer systems by the day Jan. 1, 2000 dawns, Nelson said.
Lindy Eakin, associate provost,
agreed that equiping the University
to handle the year 2000 problem
would be expensive, but said there
were no solid plans place to finance necessary adjustments.
"Buying two new systems and implementing them is not going to be cheap," he said. But, he added, "It's
University would be ready to face the millennium, he admitted that no one knew how much more work had to be done on the systems, how long it would take, or who was going to do it.
real obvious that we have to do this and we have to find the money somewhere."
No help
Although Dillard and his team are working on immunizing the University against the Millennium Bug, academic departments and schools are left to find solutions on their
It's in your home security system; it's in air control towers; it's in virtually everything you can think of
own. Jerry Niebaum, executive director of information technologies, said the Computer Center had no large-scale plan for educating the general University public about the problem, only that some workshops may be offered later this year. Unfortunately, that might be too late.
not approved to receive Stafford and Perkins loans because the computer said their graduation date of 2000 was invalid. The problem was one of the earliest encountered by the University, but it won't be the
Hay Nelson assistant professor of information systems
Because the date 2000 is already appearing in many records, Dillard said, difficulties are appearing now. Starting last year, some students were
last. And if departments decide they need outside help to modify their software, last-minute pleas for help will get little more than sympathy.
"Corporate America is soaking up that lab pool pretty fast," Dillard
said.
The most frightening thing about the year 2000 problem, he said, is that no one really knows how the date change will affect different
machines and programs. As KU's student system proves, it can take a long time to find out.
Wayne Trowbridge, manager of technical services, said that there is only one way to find out how an individual computer will respond. Reset the real time clock to a few seconds before midnight, Dec. 31, 1999. Shut the computer off and then turn it back on and see what the date says. If the machine is more than two years old, chances are its chip will not know how to handle the double zero. Even if the computer cannot handle the date change, Trowbridge said there is no need to worry about exploding machines or destroyed hard drives.
"You probably won't hurt the individual machine, but it could royally mess up your applications," he said.
Dangerous software
Software, not hardware, that won't read the year 2000 date
Won't read the year 2000 date is the biggest danger consumers will face when grappling with the Millennium Bug, Trowbridge said. And there is no way to know if your software is outfitted for the year 2000. For example, he said, IBM had a compliant product on the market in 1985 but that another one of the company's products was not changed until last year.
If you run a program that is unable to read the new date, it will corrupt all the data you already have stored and render the files useless.
"I'm just warning you that you should check your software or have someone check it for you," Trowbridge said. "If it's something you value, don't run it."
Trowbridge said that machines unable to understand the year 2000 can continue to be used, the date will simply have to be changed each time the computer is turned on. Software can be a different story, however, Trowbridge said. The good news is that most students and professors should not encounter major problems because they mainly use computers for word processing.
The millennium and the potential computer disaster are quickly approaching. Although the University continues to fumble for an answer to the problem, Trowbridge said no one should be caught by surprise on Jan. 1, 2000.
"If you don't know about the problem by the year 2000, I don't know what closet you've been in," he said.
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