Will a Y2K Bug Blow Up in Your Face?

As the clock ticked ever closer to 2000, Jim Reid, a document control supervisor from Florida, had a simple question: Would his two-year-old NEC Ready computer fall victim to the millennium bug? First he checked NEC's Web site but found no mention of his specific PC. Then he sent an e-mail to the company's technical support department and received a terse and rather distressing response: "We do not have a BIOS that will make your computer Y2K compliant. We regret any inconvenience this may cause."

That's when Reid panicked. "Do I throw my machine in the garbage on January 1?" he asked. As it turns out, his situation is less dire than NEC's first message implied. His model PC hasn't been tested for Y2K compliance, so NEC has yet to decide on a fix. (The technician who answered his first query evidently wasn't aware of this.) In the worst case, he'll have to manually reset the computer's internal date on January 1, 2000. He won't, as he once worried, have to toss out his $3000 PC.

Reid's uncertainty about his computer illustrates the Y2K problem's potential to strike fear in the hearts of computer users everywhere. With all the press surrounding the issue and the countless gloom-and-doom predictions of an end to life--computing and otherwise--as we know it, tensions are running high.

Some panic is inevitable, given the scope of the problem. But solid information, plus a commitment by vendors to help customers through the maze of compatibility issues, can go a long way toward stabilizing this volatile issue.