SUBJECT:

Year 2000 Countdown Alert

Last June I sent you a notice (see below) regarding the Year 2000 (Y2K)
problems in the computing and information technology business. Since
this is a campus-wide concern, we will be sending out periodic email
alerts in order to disseminate pertinent information and to sustain
awareness to this issue.

In addition to the information presented in the original notice, I
would like bring to your attention the following information:

1. Y2K problems may affect not only standard computers but also other
  electronic equipment such as:

  - Alarm and security systems
  - Automated machinery (e.g., HVAC, elevators)
  - Laboratory and test instruments
  - Medical devices
  - Telecommunication systems

  These devices may have embedded programs with date-related logic
  that might fail after 12/31/1999. We recommend that critical devices
  be identified and their vendors be contacted in order to get a written
  verification of Y2K compliance. Many vendors are likely to have Web
  sites that contain the necessary information. Examples of such sites
  are:

  Biomedical devices: http://www.y2k.gov.au/biomed
  Medical devices: http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/yr2000/ipyr2000.html
  HP instruments: http://www.tmo.hp.com/tmo/feature/English/y2k.html
  Tektronix: http://www.tek.com/Measurement/About/yr2000

2. There are many Web sites which contain useful information regarding
  Y2K issues. A keyword search on "Year 2000" would literally return
  thousands of sites. Since there is so much information, we have
  identified a few sites which may be of interest to the UCSD community:

  Apple: http://www.apple.com/macos/info/2000.html
  Borland: http://www.borland.com/devsupport/y2000
  Claris: http://www.claris.com/news/docs/year2000-c.html
  Cisco: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/752/2000
  Compaq: http://www.compaq.com/year2000
  Corel: http://www.corel.com/2000.htm
  Digital: http://ww1.digital.com/year2000
  HP: http://www.hp.com/gsy/year2000
  IBM: http://www.ibm.com/year2000
  Intel: http://support.intel.com/support/year2000
  Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/cio/articles/related_y2k_links.htm
  Novell: http://www.novell.com/p2000
  SGI: http://www.sgi.com/features/1998/jan/y2k
  Sun: http://www.sun.com/y2000
  Texas Inst.: http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/year2000
  WordPerfect: http://www.wordperfect.com/2000.htm

  Y2K General: http://www.year2000.com
  Y2K General: http://pw2.netcom.com/~helliott/00.htm
  Y2K General: http://www.support2000.com

Ken Popp of ACT (kpopp@ucsd.edu) and Abby Zubov of Internal Audit
(azubov@ucsd.edu) are available to answer questions. Specific
information regarding Y2K status of central UCSD Administrative
Computing and Telecommunication systems is available at:
http://www-act.ucsd.edu/year2000/y2kpref.html

Please let us know if you need any further information or if you
are aware of any other Y2K issues that should be communicated to
the campus community.

Elazar C. Harel Assistant Vice Chancellor, Administrative Computing & Telecommunications

P.S. The Roman Numeral designation for Year 2000 is MM. Yes, I am
  quite sure Disney already knows about it.

------

UCSD
CAMPUS NOTICE
University of California, San Diego

As you may have heard, the timely arrival of the next millennium is causing
headaches to many of us in the computing and information technology
business. The issue has become so "popular" that it now has its own
nickname (Y2K) and it sprouted many new start-up companies which specialize
in this area.

The primary exposure comes from the use of two digits instead of four
digits for year representation within computer programs, files, and
databases. For example, the year 1997 is represented as '97', the year
1999 as '99', and so on. Thus, January 1, 2000 is represented as 01/01/00
and consequently might be interpreted as January 1, 1900. This causes
programs that perform arithmetic operations, comparisons, or sorting of
date fields to yield incorrect results when manipulating dates of 2000 and
beyond.

ACT has been addressing these issues for centrally-supported administrative
computing and telecommunications systems since 1996. I am pleased to let
you know that these central systems are in relatively good shape and that
we expect to complete all changes and tests by the end of 1998.

However, the scope of the Year 2000 challenge goes far beyond ACT and it
may directly affect you and your department. Date problems can exist in
any level of hardware or software and are likely to be present in locally
supported systems on campus. For example, local spreadsheets or reports
may calculate erroneous age of people if they contain two digit year dates.

Given the decentralized nature of UCSD computing, it is not possible for any
one department to single handedly address this problem. I encourage you to
evaluate your department's exposure to Year 2000 problems and start
addressing them as soon as possible. We have produced a document that
describes the issues and presents some solutions. The document is
available at http://www-act.ucsd.edu/year2000/y2kpref.html on the Web and I
hope that you will take the time to go through it. Additionally, you may
want to take a look at the http://www.year2000.com site which has links to
many other resources.

If you need any additional information, please contact our Y2K coordinator,
Ken Popp (kpopp@ucsd.edu) or Abby Zubov of Internal Audit (azubov@ucsd.edu).

Elazar C. Harel Assistant Vice Chancellor - Administrative Computing & Telecommunications