Show MONDAY: TIME & TECHNOLOGY TUESDAY: OUTDOORS & Zht Salt akt Sribime RECREATION break : t THURSDAYJanuary 1 1998 LANDERS Will ATMs stop working bank accounts disappear MJ COMICS Section C TV Dae 31 1939: Almost all ccmpuiers use the same dating system Tosavo precious computer memory micro chips were programmed in the 1 960s to read only the last two digits of the year and assume the prefix 19 At the stroke of midnight Bsnk vault door: Microchip embedded e door wtrstfi Vital national computer operations responsible for the Air Traffic Control system are at high risk of system failure at the turn of the century because of poor management by the Department of Transportation That's the bleak assessment of the Office of Manageg ment and Budget which recently sent a report to Congress on how federal agencies are handestined to dling the Year 2000 computer gbtch become the most costly vexing and time consuming problem in the brief history of the information age With just two years remaining the Y2K problem as it's known has become a major concern for government and private industry with reports that it may cause Pentagon weapons to malfunction the Internal Revenue Service to improperly process taxes and nuclear plant security to fail For an issue about which there are many alarmists and doomsayers the most sober assessment of the Year 2000 computer problem is that attention will be paid to the most critical systems in the scramble to rewrite some 180 billion lines of code But as a USA Today survey of federal agencies and all 50 state governments makes clear failures are likely to occur in some key areas Even more failures are likely in systems of lesser importance Some systems are going to collapse completely and some will be immune and we wont know which ones are which until it happens" says computer scientist Peter Neumann of SRI International a nonprofit think i tank The USA Today survey found: Federal officials concede they wont be fable to examine and repair every system the military alone may have more than 1 million desktop computers But officials say they are committed to repairing or replacing Vital equipment K State officials say they will be able to fix only their most critical systems Two reasons for the crunch: tight - 1 labor budgets andjSee sought-afte- r The widelfhecepted goal is to have all the work done -in time for a full year of testing Government wont make it We can pretty much unequivocally say that no as the new century begins the chip - and much of the aoftware they run -- will refuse to accept that the year 2000 follows 1999 and assume that it Is wide-rangin- chaos if we KIZSKO BZ2Z TELEPHOME Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan omm Revising software code For the world's business systems to work more than 200 million lines of computer code per day need to be renovated tested and made Xephon found 70 operational A survey by it percent of businesses worldwide still use the data software One In four companies had no plans to ensure their suppliers were addressing the Millennium problem Boeing which has been revising code since 1 993 - estimates it still has about 165 million lines of code to review before December 1998 two-dig- - Computer programs such as airline reservations systems and banking look a year ahead This means that Jan 1 1 999 will actually cause the first Year 2000 dates to be registered meaning the Millennium Bug may sinks s year earlier than expected v 3a Catting fteip Yar 2000 information ComtnSm Information OatreS Year 2000 Support Centre rmfTJ?wwwcofHfNrwo cajfcV2khim Year 2000 dates causing perfectly good food to be considered past the sell There has already been one case when an automated warehouse threw out a consignment of Marks & Spencers corned beef when it misread the das and assumed the tins had been on the shelf for 95 years y-date CREDIT CARD manufacturers avoid issung cards with expiration dates of 00 and beyond because many card readers and cash machines don't understand Year 2000 dates Stash some spare cash under the mattress i go dead invoicing is unlikely to ba sftseted although some customers may get billed for c phone cat! lasting 100 years Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday The age problem Computers hit by the Millennium Bug will not be able to add dates correctly For example consider how a computer in Year 2000 would calculate the age of someone born in 1965 Normal urrent it computer 2000 1900 year Will it Bug-h- computer affect your PC? THE MILITARY NEWS - 1 NUCLEAR and conventional power stations may find themselves shut down as computer chips believe that equipment is woefully in need of required maintenance Or systems may believe it is a different day of the week and put out the wrong output for demand C GRAPHIC NEWS Sourcm Yew 2000 HonroHnn Cantor Tasfcforo 2000 CCTA Cafeha Consoling BY LISA CARRICABIRU THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The clock is ticking to be sure But Utah government technology specialists do not anticipate major computer meltdowns when the clock turns past mids night to Jan 1 2000 In anticipation of the new millennium the state several years ago began assessing the numerous computers that make government run to detect which may be most Year seriously affected by the 2000 problem Also referred to as the millennium virus the problem essentially is a programming glitch that unless it is fixed will keep some computers from recognizing the turn of the century causing applications to fail It also stands to affect alarms sprinklers elevators and virtually any system embedded with computer technology Assessments are ongoing due to the problems complexity said Dave Fletcher Utah Department of Administrative Services deputy director So far the state has turned up 390 critical systems that may need revisions like one Major computer programs that maintains the states financial-accountinhave been repaired system and are being tested Fletcher said The Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS) already has repaired systems dealing with unemployment insurance benefits and job placement added Dee Snowball director of the DWS Office of Information Technology It is testing repairs to the system that e claims such as manages Medicaid and child-car- e benefits and food stamp payments But he and Fletcher say much work remains Some repairs to systems may have to wait until after the year 2000 arrives they said To help the compliance effort along the state is requesting the 19b8 Utah Legislature set aside $4 9 million for Year 2000 fixes he said It so far has received $4 9 million in legislative allocations That compares to an estimated $70 to $100 million Arizona is spending to achieve compliance for state government systems Our accomplishments to date have occurred within existing budgets and with limited resources Fletcher said Utah also is pondering safety nets to protect it from potential litigation related to the problem said Leon Miller director Utah Division of Information Technology Miller is a member of the states Information Technology Commission an advisory group to the Legislature He wants the commission to recommend that Utah adopt its own version of Nevada legislation that grants government immunity to Year 2000 problem-relatelawsuits Miller said the purpose of such legislation is to save taxpayers the costs of frivolous litigation It is not to protect state officials who have not done their jobs But Miller added such a bill is unlikely during this session as the commission con sidered Nevada's law too broad The state needs more time to draft a fair proposal he said less-critic- MICROCHIPS in hospital equipment ranging from machines blood-ban- k dating systems and patient-recor- d databases may fail Hospital waiting lists could become chaotic if software controlling these lists cannot handle Year 2000 dates computer glitch? public-assistanc- GRAPHIC PENStolli payments Social Security ' benefits end government tax accounts could be disrupted And some private pension schemes may not be ready Some benefit payments may be late for the year 2000 g Time and date functions load from a BIOS chip when they are first turned on Some BIOS chips are OK Some can be corrected with software but some may need to be p1- 'osor'jW) SCANNERS misread 3 '"f Monday replaced Operating System Some older operating systems may not be Year 2000 compliant Software: Some programs cannot handle Year 2000 dates This can be solved by upgrading to a new version in the next year or two The year before problem di Gw'tsr hrtpj'www year 2CC0eomf Probably the best suklmg pomt wrSi exsettent background Infoorukton end inks toother sources 1900 1 Saturday 2 Sunday 3 Monday 4 Tuesday 5 Wednesday Jane Thursday Jan 7 Friday switching systems and other functions may crash disrupting Sees! and stance dialing iong-Office phone may dont fix the Bug C-- 2 January t1900 Data -- Millennium FAMILY & SCIENCE USA TODAY See 2000 Page & HEALTH ZUCKERMAN nd ANTHONY DEBARRQS ' FRIDAY HOME & GARDEN Will Utah be ready planes fall from the sky? BY REVIEWS FOOD WEDNESDAY d Childhood Obesity: Problem Is Growing But Solutions Are Not BY JULIE MARQUIS LOS ANGELES TOMBS Patricia Verdago got used to being the biggest kid in class her round figure dwarfing her classmates even in kindergarten She learned to take it when the other kids called her and other names shed rather not repeat She fatso quietly sat as storekeeper during kickball at school though she loves to play the game frame her knees With 220 pounds on her couldn't take the punishment She was gaming an avercolage of 10 pounds a month when they broke under the burden of her body Now really lapsed sometimes leans on a cane the third-grade- r d father merely menShe winces when her tions the daily doses of insulin he takes to control his diabetes but she knows the needles she dreads may become a fixture in her own life Doctors say she's poised on the edge of disease herself These extra posuds often a source of shame and inconvenience have Become a serious - and scary health problem I dont want diabetes because Ill have to get shots she said her eyes filling with tears It's hard" to watch said Jerry Verdugo 36 gazing tenderly at his daughter from across their Los Angeles-arc- a Imng room You go through it-- r you dont want your child to go through it American children fare this ordeal in rising num LOS ANGELES 280-poun- ? i V v IT I 7 are obese bers About 11 percent of 6- - to and twice that number are overweight Thats up from 5 percent who were obese and 15 percent who were overweight in the 1960s Far from just a cosmetic problem obesity is considered by some experts to be one of the greatest medical nsks faced by American children today Besides diabetes short- - and long-terconsequences may include orthopedic problems premature puberty respiratory complications hypertension heart disease and certain and sonot to mention reduced cancers cioeconomic achievement It is an impending time bomb said Naomi Neufeld a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California Los Angeles Its not going to kill them tomorrow health it affects but in terms of a threat to long-termore children than any other disease For aH its impact on young lives childhood obesity is only beginning to be understood Though weight gain among U S youngsters spans age categories economic classes and ethnic groups it may have different causes depending on each factor And it eludes the standard adult solutions of crash diets and prescription pills because a child's questionable even m grown-up- s growing body needs balanced nutrition to thrive In general however experts believe that there are some common causes among the young- - poor nutrition education paltry opportunities for exercise too much self-estee- m See OBESE KIDS Page JLtl 5IA 7 POOR COPICi - C-- 3 Patricia Verdugo and other overweight children take a class called Kidshape Sy S1R E AX: ?8ISON er of w a i he UNio n at UCLA |