Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1999)
. . .At* » « JAN. 6, 1999 Page A3 <Thc P ort lattò (Otroenw The Year 2000 Bug May Start Biting in 1999 N EW Y O R K -T he year 1999 kicks o ff a nail-biting tim e for A m erican techno-w izards in the financial sec tor. A part from the feared arrival o f the m illennium bug, they w ill be crossing their fingers and hope their com puter system s can handle tech nical challenges including the birth o f a single E uropean currency, the D ow Jones Industrial A verage hit ting 10,000, and the start o f the 2000 nightm are — in 1999. W hile te ch n o lo g y co n su lta n ts agree the y ear 2000 problem (Y2K ) poses the biggest challenge, Lou M arcoccio, Y 2K research director at the C o n n e cticu t c o n su ltin g firm G artner Group, warns technical prob lem s w ill start popping up in 1999 because som e com panies start their fiscal year 2000 during the upcom ing year. For the U.S. governm ent, fiscal 2000 starts O ct. 1,1999. " O n ly 8 % o fa ll Y 2K failures are going to happen during the m illen nium rollover. N inety-tw o percent o f all o f the failures w ill happen over the entire years o f 1999, 2000 and 2001 and th e y ’re going to be pretty eq u a lly d istrib u te d d u rin g those three y ea rs,” M arcoccio said. This so-called m illennium bug oc curs w hen com puters w hich save dates in double digits m isread ” 0 0 ,” perhaps interpreting it as 1900 in stead o f 2000, and then shut dow n, or w orse, spew out erroneous data. A nalysts point out that there are a lot o f potential problem dates d u r ing 1999 w hich m ay cause com put ers to m alfunction, such as Sept. 9, 1999 (9/9/99). T he fact that the year 2000 is a leap year also adds yet another dim ension to the problem , they said. A century change has not been a leap year since 1600. Jim Brady, ch ie f technologist at M atriDigm Corp, in California, said, " T h e interesting thing is that be cause 1900 was not a leap year, some program m ers concluded that 2000 w as also not a leap year...T he result is that som e com puters think that Feb. 2 9 ,2 0 0 0 does not exist. ’ ’ T e c h n o lo g y s p e c ia lis ts a lso noted that w ith extensive efforts involved in the Y 2K issue, other com puter problem areas m ay have not gotten enough attention in the U nited States, such as preparing system s for the D ow Jones Indus trial A verage(D JL A )topping 10,000 for the first tim e next year. T he D ow index took 16 years to m ove from 1,000 to 2,000 betw een 1972 and 1987. But afterithit8,000on July 16, 1997, it took less than nine m onths to surpass 9,000, on A pril 6, 1998. It peeked at 9,374.27 on Nov. 23. ‘ ’O f p articular concern are co m puterized trading system s, w hich m ake autom ated dec isions b ased on the value o f the D JIA ,” said A ndy K yte, an an aly st w ith the G artner G roup, in a report. I f large financial services o rg an i zations have system s that m onitor the m arket, those system s could per ceive the m ove to 10,000 as a prec ipi- tous drop to 0 and im m ediately take autom ated action aim ed at p ro tect ing the financial interest o f its inves tors, K yte said. B obby C am eron, an analyst at Forrester R esearch in M assachu setts, said problem s could crop up in the system o f a large co m p an y ’s treasury departm ent used to m an age its portfolio, or in the investing section o f a bank, o r at a brokerage firm. Cleveland High School Student Chosen as a recipient of the Ron Herndon Scholarship award A p rilla R o g e rs , a s e n io r at C leveland H igh School, w as one o f th r e e r e c ip ie n t s o f T h e R o n H erndon Scholarship A w ard. The aw ard w as p resented at T he Black U nited Fund o f O re g o n ’s C om m u nity U nity B anquet at the P ortland H ilton, the recipients w ere chosen bases on their w ritten expression, academ ic achievem ent, participa tion in school activities and com m unity involvem ent. A p rilla’s es say on bettering a com m unity was "w ell thought out” and had to be 200 w ords or m ore. In addition to her w riting ability, she has been actively involved in the P roject Plus Program at PSU u nder the d irec tion o f Inez F reem an and M ark Turner, w ho also have been involved w ith h er academ ic career at C leve land. A prilla plans to attend one o f three colleges, PSU , T he U niver sity o f O regon or p ossibly S pelm an U niversity. She says she plans to visit M exico and Japan to learn m ore about the culture o f the tw o countries and learn to speak the languages m ore fluently than she already does, especially since she has taken Japanese for three years and S panish for 5 years. She plans to take G erm an w hen she enters Aprilla Rogers college. W hen I asked A prilla who have been som e o f the m ost influ ential in her life, she said her Social Studies teacher, Mr. M cK enna b e cause he alw ays gave her encourag ing w ords. She also accredits her stepm other and her father w ho al w ays m otivated h er to do h er very best in all things, and that her father also taught her not to be angry w ith anyone w hen they do you w rong, but to pray for them . She says he w ould talk to her about situations before they happened ju st to pro tect her. A p rilla is no stran g er to hard w ork, she has been w o rking full and part-tim e since the age o f 15. H er h obbies are m usic, w ritin g p o etry, acting an d M exican dance. In ad d itio n to h e r h obbies she reads an average o f 4 books a m onth. A p rilla has a h eartfelt need to save the ch ild ren o f the co m m u n ity and the w orld. She b egun show ing how m uch she cares by sp o n so rin g an A frican ch ild from U ganda fo r the past year and plans to ad o p t oth er h u rtin g and need y ch ild ren in the future. A p rilla ’s ad vice to o th er young peo p le is to set goals for them selves, be independent and not d ependent, b eliev e in y o u rself, and ab o v e all, b eliev e in God. She says she has paid atten tio n to p o sitiv e and n eg ativ e situ atio n s that have happ en ed in h er life and m ade ch o ices an d the rig h t d ec i sions not to let the n eg ativ e things influence her life. A ccep tin g this S cholarship A w ard is on e o f the m ost p o sitiv e things that has h ap pened in h er life. W e, T he R o g e rs’ Fam ily, are thankful and very proud o f A p rilla for b eing ch o sen for this aw ard. ” W hat physically happens when you try to load a num ber bigger than y o u ’ve provided for in a program is you get a failure condition — the program sto p s,” he said. O ther analysts said the Dow at 10,000 will create problem s for only a handful o f com panies and that the larger brokerage houses have co m pleted preparations. D uncan K ing, a spokesm an for the U.S. stock m arket regulatory agency, the Securities and Exchange Com m ission (SE C ), said the SEC has com pleted an inquiry into a p o ten tial 10,000 Dow hiccup and * ’ found that there w ould be very m inim al changes, very m inim al problem s. ’ ’ C a m e ro n ag re es. ” T h e D ow 10,000 is related to the year 2000 problem , but it isn ’t as n asty ,” he said. A spokesm an for the N ew York Stock E xchange also said it does not expect any break in trading associ ated w ith the index m oving past 10,000. T he other m ajo r softw are chal lenge for the financial sector in volves the debut o f the single E uro pean currency, the euro, from Jan. 1, Financial Sector Especially Concerned V ARE WE READY?, * W yy nt 2 1999. Com puters which now convert the U.S. dollar in terms o f other Euro pean currencies, such as the German mark, have to be changed to calculate in terms o f the euro. It has been reported that the top 100 financ lal services companies will spend some 10 billion dollars on the euro conversion. The Gartner Group put the figure at 100billion dollars. This cost is on top. o f the 300-600 billion dollars worldwide which will be spent on the information technology for fixing the year2000problem, Gartner Group said. The com pany expects die amount spent globally to hit 1 to 2 trillion dollars if all aspects o f the Y2K problem — technology, business costs and pos sible litigation costs — are included. O n a scale o f one to 100, Cameron at Forres ter Research said, the Y 2 K prob lem may be ranked at 100, the euro challenge at 50, and the Dow 10,000 scare at ” 1 or 2 .” But all people involved agreed there will be no w ay to know if systems are ready to deal with the various situa tions unul each has actually been con fronted. HUD Awards Local Agencies $3 M illion to Assist Oregon O regon State C oordinator Tom C u sack had great new s for O regon and SW W ashington today, with announcem ent o f m ore than $3 m il lion in H UD funding to local hous ing agencies to assist: low -incom e people w ith disabili ties children o f fam ilies facing a hous ing crisis adults w ith the goal o f indepen dence from w elfare T hese dollars com e to our states for M ainstream H ousing w hich will provide 575 housing vouchers to people w ith disabilities. This in crease in vouchers for rent assis tance is the largest for any group in at least 5 years. Fam ily U nification Program , a jo in t effort by the H ousing A uthor ity ofY amhill County and the Yamhill Branch o f SOSCF will bring 60 hous ing v vouchers and services to chil dren facing a housing crisis. These may be hom eless, som etim es b at tered w om en and children w ho have fled dom estic violence, or living in building units for children. Family Self-Sufficiency Program H U D ’s prim ary vehicle to help resi dents o f assisted housing m ove from w elfare to work. FSS prom otes local stra te g ie s to en a b le fam ilies to achieve econom ic independence. C oordinated j o t training, counsel ing, other social services, and a spe cial escrow account built from a fam ily ’s increasing incom e are pro gram com ponents Funding is tar geted p rincipally to agencies serv- ing rural areas. This funding will D O UBLE the num ber o f H U D funding o f se lf suf ficiency coordinators in rural Oregon and will therefore support the prior ity o f the G overnor K itzhaber for econom ic developm ent in rural ar eas o f our state. A gencies serving the follow ing counties w ere aw arded one o r m ore grants: O R E G O N — Baker, B enton, C lack am as, C latso p , C o lu m b ia , Crook D eschutes, D ouglas, Grant, H arn ey , H o o d R iv er, Ja c k so n , Jefferson, Lincoln, Linn M alheur, M a rio n , M u ltn o m a h , S h erm an , Tillamook, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, Wheeler, Y amhill SW W A S H IN G T O N - Clark, Klickitat, Skamania W IN T E R STORM TIPS FROM U S WEST 1. I f y o u r p h o n e goes o u t d u e to w e a th e r, c o n ta c t U S W E S T re p a ir serv ice s soon as possible. Contact us via phone or internet. U se a neighbor’s phone, pay phone or other alternative. 2. C h e c k y o u r p h ones. Be c e rta in you have a t least one p h o n e w ith a co rd to th e h an d set. Cordless phones need electric pow er from the w all to operate. Because U S W EST phone lines carry their ow n pow er, you will likely have phone service even if your electricity is out. 3. I f bein g re a c h e d a t all tim es is c ritic a l to y o u r fam ily o r em p lo y er, co n sid er b ein g p re p a re d w ith a second w ay to re a c h you via a p a g e r o r w ireless phone. 4. D o n ’t to u c h d o w n ed u tility lines. C a ll r e p a ir service! If your phone serv ice is not w orking and you find lines on the ground due to w ind or falling tress lim bs, do not attem pt to m ove them. D ow ned lines could be electric lines or phone lines that have com e in contact w ith electric lines. 5. S afety firs t fo r b o th you a n d th e r e p a ir crew s. M ajor telephone cables that have been dam aged m ay take longer to repair because any dow ned pow er lines m ust be cleared before crews can safely enter the work area. 6. R e p a ir fo r y o u r p h o n e service is in d iv id u al to y o u r p h o n e line - even w h en tro u b le is fa r fro m yo u . \ our phone num ber is unique to you because o f a dedicated pair o f wires that runs betw een your location and the U S W EST sw itching center. W hen a cable is cut or dam aged, it’s m ore than putting the two ends back together. Each pair o f w ires inside the cable m ust be individually spliced. 7. C r e d it on y o u r bill is a u to m a tic . If your phone service is out for m ore than 24 hours, your bill will autom atically be credited for lost service. 8. S tay in to u c h w ith local sto rm new s. U S W EST will issue regular updates on the status o f storm dam age and repairs to area radio and television stations and new spapers. 9. R e p a ir te lep h o n e n u m b e rs a r e listed in th e fro n t o f th e U S W E ST Dex W h ite Pages Hone Service: 1-800-573-1311 Business Service: 1 -8 0 0 -9 5 4 -1 Z 11 Just think. Your son is b rig h t, h e a lth y a n d h e a d e d fo r college one day You love the direction your career has taken. You're doing a lot of the things you planned and even a few you didn't Living life to the fullest is easy when you have family behind y o u American Family Insurance. Call and talk to one o f our helpful, friendly agents. You'll find out w h y were consistently rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best the insurance rating authority Then, go on. Dream Plan. W hat you do next is up to you and w e ll be here to help you Website: www.uswest.com Click on Customer Service u have family behind you. dförifa/n/y ¿f'w ni d /o u r ßa ni i / y a n d > ^ riendá - . -.i All Your Protection Under One Roof. American Family Mutual Insurance Company and Subsidiaries Madison. Wisconsin 537*3 0001 www amtam com