Amid
all the hype about the year 2000 problem, it's easy for a home computer user
to feel overwhelmed and not know where to begin. The University has online resources
to help make your home machine Y2K compatible.
Amid
all the hype about the year 2000 problem, it's easy for a home computer user
to feel overwhelmed and not know where to begin. The University has online resources
to help make your home machine Y2K compatible.
Y2K -- or the year 2000 problem -- is a glitch caused by computer chips programmed to assume that the current century is the only century. Affected computers store year designations as two digits, instead of four, so that when the year 2000 rolls around, computers that are not Y2K compliant will misinterpret the year as 1900, instead of 2000, causing computers to malfunction or stop working altogether.
Home computer users should not be led into thinking that because their computer was purchased recently, it is free of year 2000 problems. Even though manufacturers have known about year 2000 issues for many years, some software vendors have released products with known Y2K problems as late as last year. Home computers should be checked for Y2K readiness and, in many cases, free software updates should be obtained to fix any problems.
Macintosh and iMac computers were designed from the beginning to be year 2000 ready, however, there are software issues to consider with these machines. First, the operating system date format should be checked to make sure it is using a four-digit year. Then, software applications need to be checked for Y2K readiness. Apple computers that predate the Macintosh will need to be replaced.
Unfortunately, the majority of the desktop computers today are IBM PCs or PC clones running Microsoft's Windows operating systems -- which are not year 2000 ready without free updates in the form of software downloads from the Web. If you purchased a PC within the last two years, the computer's hardware may be Y2K compliant, but the software may need to be updated. Otherwise, users need to test the PC and then check the software that is running on it.
For more information, see the accompanying help box above.
Penn State has several online resources you can use to check your home computer and links to sites that provide software updates. The first resource is available on the Penn State Year 2000 Web site at:
http://www.psu.edu/Year2000/action/intro.html. It is a white paper titled "Desktop 'Personal' Computer Preparation for the Year 2000."
There also is a step-by-step guide to the year 2000 PC fixes at:
http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/pub/year2000/PCFixes.htm.
The AT&T Foundation has given $190,000 to Penn State to support a statewide public outreach program on the Y2K computer problem. The funds will support Gov. Tom Ridge's 'Pa2K' initiative, which is being managed by Penn State.
Pa2K was started by Gov. Ridge in July 1998 to raise public awareness of the Y2K problem -- which may cause some computers to malfunction because their software won't recognize the year 2000 -- and to make planning materials accessible.
The funds received from AT&T will be used to produce a June 30 electronic town hall meeting on Y2K and to make year 2000 materials more widely available to Pennsylvanians over the next eight months.
For more information on the Y2K problem, point your Web browser to the Pa2K Web site at http://www.Pa2K.org/.