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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?,
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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
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via phone or internet. U se a neighbor’s phone, pay phone or other alternative.
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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.
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longer to repair because any dow ned pow er lines m ust be cleared before crews can safely enter the work area.
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autom atically be credited for lost service.
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and repairs to area radio and television stations and new spapers.
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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
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