We should have known that the year 2000 would happen sooner or later. Although the U.S. federal government is providing funding for Y2K-related issues as "emergency" funding, it really should have come as no surprise to us that the year after 1999 would be 2000. But, apparently we just never bothered to do the math.

Computer programmers have, in our humble opinion, received some unwarranted negative publicity about the infamous "Y2K bug". Certainly, many programmers designed software that was not year 2000-compliant unintentionally. In many other cases, however, the design was a conscious decision, a trade-off between the inconvenience and time required to enter a 4-digit year versus the realization that dates would not be calculated correctly. Let's face it, the real solution is to require 4-digit years (at least until the year 10,000).

Well, this tip is not really about solving the Y2K problem. It is, instead, about what we as home- and personal-computer users can do to be ready for 01/01/00.

Things To Do

1. Analyze your software. Do you have software that is date-sensitive? Do you have software that performs date calculations, such as subtracting one date from another or calculating a day of the week based on the date? Certainly, businesses need to be extremely thorough in this step. If you have mission critical systems which are date-sensitive, if the operation and success of your business depends on this software, then you need to pay appropriate attention to the possibility that you will have to close your doors at the dawn of the new millennium because your computers are not computing.

   The average home user probably need not be terribly concerned about most Y2K issues because the average home user probably does not run any critical systems. Note, however, that there are obviously exceptions to this, and your job is to determine if you are an exception. Do you have any software the loss of which would seriously adversely affect you? If so, pay close attention to that software.

   Note also that there are plenty of components other than your personal computer which might have Y2K-related problems. Again, businesses need to pay close attention to this. Many devices perform date-related maintenance self-checks; if the self-checking calculation indicates that the device has not been maintained properly, the device might not work. Elevators are frequently given as an example here; if the elevator "thinks" it has not been maintained as scheduled, it may be programmed to cease operations. Bank vaults are sometimes programmed to open on only certain days of the week. If the bank vault's program is not Y2K-compliant, the doors will not open on Monday, January 3, 2000 (note, however, that the money would hopefully still be tucked safely inside the vault).

   At home, your biggest concern may be your VCR. Not much of a problem compared to a locked bank vault.
   
   

2. Back up. No, we don't mean scroll back up the page, or click on your web browser's Back button. We mean make a backup copy of your crucial files. You don't need to back up your entire hard drive (although, if it's not too much trouble, that would be nice), but you should at least back up all the data files that you could not recover otherwise.

   This might be a good time to give some thought to your organizational strategy that you use on your hard drive. For backup purposes, it is really convenient to have all your ever-changing data files stored in one group of directories. The figure to the right shows the main directories (folders) on the C: drive on this computer. Note that one of the directories (folders) is named data.
   

   This figure shows the subdirectories under the data directory, one subdirectory for WordPerfect documents, one for spreadsheets, one for Powerpoint files. This directory structure makes it easy to back up all data files by backing up the main data directory.

   It is generally not necessary to back up your entire hard drive, because you can always re-install programs from your original disks or CDs (what do you mean, you don't still have the original disks and CDs?). But you should have a strategy for backing up your data files, because there is probably no way to get them back if you lose them.

   Better safe than sorry. Some time in late December, back up your hard drive.
   
   

3. Make sure your software is up-to-date. Some of the non-compliant software that you have may have patches (fixes) available to solve the compliance problem. Even if your software doesn't have a Y2K problem, if there is an update to the software, wouldn't it make sense to install the software?

   Go to the web site http://www.catchup.com and download a copy of the Catch-Up software. This site provides a free service which will scan for updates to the software that you have installed (see their main page in the figure below).
   
   

   
   This great program will scan your hard drive and make a list of your software (see the figure below).
   
   
   It will then link to the catchup.com web site and perform a search for software updates. The figure below shows sample output of such a search, complete with information about version numbers and dates, as well as easy links for update downloads.
   
   
   
4. Update your anti-virus software and virus definitions. Use CatchUp to make sure your anti-virus software is updated, and then use your anti-virus software to make sure your definition file is as current as is possible. If you do not have a good anti-virus program, get one! Top-notch anti-virus software is almost free these days (we actually got Norton Anti-Virus for free at CompUSA, then got another copy for free with a new computer, and then got another copy for free with a tax preparation program; surely we are germ-free now!).

   On December 31, download the latest virus definition list. It's hard to get into the mind of a virus writer, but if I were a virus writer, I think I would set my newest creation to hit at the first reboot after the stroke of the millennium, creating maximal havoc in the mind of the user -- is it a Y2K bug, is it a virus, what is it?.
   
   

5. Turn off your computer on December 31 and don't turn it back on for a while. Relax, enjoy the millennium celebration. Chances are this will be the only millennium celebration you will ever have the opportunity to celebrate, so don't compute through it.
   
   
6. When you do finally turn your computer back in in the year 2000, update your virus definition list.