14
business
march9
2010
Intruder Alert – Y2K-- IT Professionals’ Finest Hour
By Burt Tschache

Bring up the subject of Y2K and
you will likely get the widest variance in
a response set known to humanity. The
main reason for that is that unless you
are a true computer wonk or wonkette,
you probably did not understand the sig-
nificance of all the differing information
published about it, pro and con.

There was $300 billion spent
worldwide in solving a problem few un-
derstood and, unfortunately, some of the
non-compus-mentus group wrote reams
about it in the press, creating a huge aura
of fear about the entire process. They
took what could happen as what would
happen and blew it entirely out of pro-
portion. So what else is new?

How does this tie into the His-
tory of the Internet? The Internet pretty
much saved the day, allowing IT Pro-
fessionals to communicate, form user
groups and produce white papers on the
An Opinion:
subject for others to peruse. The 90’s
were when computer technology really
began large-scale integration into the in-
frastructure of the industrialized world.
Computers controlled everything from
basic services to the manufacturing sec-
tor.

The problem of the rollover
from 1999 to 2000 was in both hardware
and software. Computers have evolved
rapidly, but in the earlier days, space
was a prime consideration in everything
done on a computer. The highest consid-
eration was for the data, while computer
guidelines spelled out specifically what
could be done and how you should do it.

One of the ways to conserve
space is in the header records that in-
cluded the date in a format of mm/dd/
yy. Some very forward-thinking IT
Pro’s wondered what would happen
when 99 became 00 and the models of
that changeover caused many a wonk or
wonkette to lose sleep at a time when we
needed all the sleep that we could get.

The task was to change every
bit of code that had a two-bit year field
to a four-bit year field. Now, that does
not sound terribly daunting until you
take into account the number of comput-
ers and computer programs worldwide.
Compounding the issue was not know-
ing which program and which computer
had the two-bit date field, so essentially
everything had to be tested.

That was where The Internet
proved its worth and then some. The
world of the IT Professional was under
the microscope with the whole world
watching. How would IT react to the
biggest challenge ever faced? We all
came together as a virtual team and got
the job done! We were sold on the ne-
cessity, but many of us had a genuine or-
deal selling the process to many corpo-
rate bigwigs that had no understanding
of, nor wanted to understand, computers.
That was for the IT folks.
continued from page 3
structive activities be one possible explanation
for our high teen pregnancy rate? Better save
that question for another column.

Mountain bike enthusiasts have a his-
tory of building trails for themselves, because
there aren’t resources or agencies interested
in doing the hard work for them. For years,
mountain bike riders have formed clubs, built
their own trails and enjoyed the results of their
own hard work. With nowhere to ride, they
have created their own places. In other words,
if you don’t think there is anything to do, then
make something to do for yourself. Youth in
our community could take a page from this
book. Instead of tearing things down, maybe
try to build something up. What they need is
some guidance and good role models.

Through community volunteerism,
this town has lifted itself, made things better,
improved our image, and built its own pride.
The group Vernonia Pride is a perfect exam-
ple-- citizens who work to improve our com-
munity and who organize the “Make Vernonia
Shine Day” each year. They lead by example.

By the way, “Make Vernonia Shine
Day” is April 17th-- a chance for all of us to
lead by example.
“It targets. It tones.
It’s a total body
workout.”
–– Cheryl Burke
Two-time Champion
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With a hard deadline that every-
body understood, we began working on
saving our own company’s bacon and
then posting helpful results and even pro-
grams to assist others with their bacon-
saving processes. At times, it seemed
as if the entire IT community was one
team. It is amazing what the possibility
of an impending disaster of epic propor-
tions can do. It mobilized IT worldwide
to make sure nothing happened.

As the year began changing
over around the world, we watched ex-
pectantly, knowing we had done all we
could. There were many celebrations,
as the predicted disasters did not occur.
There were a few minor glitches, but
nothing major. The press referred to it as
a real non-event. Every IT Professional
smiled, as we knew otherwise.
Burt Tschache is the owner of B&B Com-
puting in Vernonia. He can be reached
at bnb998@msn.com or (503) 429-0817.
US Bank Now Open Earlier

The Vernonia branch of US Bank is now open earlier, ac-
cording to branch Manager, Nicole Larke. “To better serve our
customers we have changed our hours. US Bank will now open
earlier at 9:30 AM Monday through Friday. We appreciate our
customers and thank you for your business,” said Larke.
Larke Promoted to Vernonia
US Bank Manager

US Bank would like to
announce the promotion of Nicole
Larke to the Branch Manager Po-
sition at the Vernonia branch. Ni-
cole has been with US Bank since
September of 2008 as a Universal
Banker. Prior to her coming to
US Bank, Nicole was an Account
Executive in the mortgage finance
industry and has been involved in
banking and finance since starting
her career in 1990 with First Inter-
state Bank. Nicole has been very
involved in the community since
moving to Vernonia in 1999 with
her husband and family from Bay
City, Oregon. Nicole is currently
involved in the Vernonia Kiwanis
Club, is a 5-year committee member of the Vernonia Cub Scouts, and
is a graduate of the Ford Family Foundation, which is currently work-
ing on the Vernonia Community Garden Project. Community is very
important to Nicole, and she brings this attitude to her career every day.
It is through her caring for her community members, and knowledge of
finance that she strives to provide everyone with a great experience at
US Bank. We are pleased to have her as part of our management team.
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