Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - The last of the Y2K concerns surfaces today

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Tuesday, February 29, 2000

The last of the Y2K concerns surfaces today
County, city and CPL officials express confidence their computers are ready for Feb. 29
By Jennifer Stump
Caller-Times

After months of Y2K warnings, the end is here.
   Today is the final Y2K countdown date, as local companies and government agencies watch their computer systems for possible Leap Day glitches.
   But after making it through Jan. 1 with no major malfunctions, officials say they don't expect any problems from the extra day tacked onto the end of February.
   "Generally there's nothing to get too concerned about," said Mike Biddle, Nueces County's director of data processing. "It's not going to cause too much of a problem. We did most of our testing back when we did the other Y2K stuff."
   Computer analysts have watched certain dates throughout the past year to make sure computer software and hardware could handle the transition to the Year 2000.
   The concern for today was that computer programmers may have forgotten Leap Year rules, said Jack Gribben, spokesman with the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion in Washington, D.C.
   This is the first Leap Day in 400 years to start a century.
   "It is a special leap year," Gribben said. "We think it's a real problem. It's certainly the case that it's not as serious as the Dec. 31 problem, though."
   Typically, years divisible by the number 4 are Leap Years, such as 1996, 1992 and 1988.
   But century years - unless they are divisible by 400 - are not Leap Years. Thus 2000 is a leap year, and so was 1600, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.
   Ogilvie Gericke, acting director of the management information systems department for the City of Corpus Christi, said the city already has done Leap Day testing.
   "We will be monitoring, but we do not anticipate any problems at all," Gericke said. "The tests we completed in December would have taken care of that problem."
   Central Power and Light Co. will keep extra employees on call, but does not plan to expand the staff for its 24-hour operations, including the power plant, customer service and transmission and dispatch, said Jessica Mahaffey, company spokeswoman.
   "We have tested for Leap Day and we've found no reason to expect any problems," Mahaffey said. "There's a little heightened awareness. We're really not anticipating any problem and we don't have any special plans. We'll just kind of be tracking it."
   Timed to Earth's orbit
   The Leap Year system was adopted by Julius Caesar and was adjusted in 1582 by Pope Gregory XII. The rules keep the average length of the calendar year in line with the length of the Earth's orbit around the Sun - once every 364.24219 days - so that the seasons always occur during the same months each year.
   Gribben said the primary concern is that software that calculates payroll, savings interest and end-of-month billing cycles will skip Feb. 29 and go straight to March 1 today.
   "There are some companies that may not have prepared for Y2K very well and slipped through January without major problems," he said. "There could be some glitches."
   Mike Carrell, Frost Bank Regional president, said the bank completed testing for Leap Day long ago.
   "It's a date that we have had on the radar screen all along," Carrell said. "We don't anticipate anything. We know the systems were proficient for Dec. 31, so there's some level of comfort. But we do have everybody in place."
   Concern about '9999'
   The biggest concession to the final Y2K watch date, Carrell said, was restricting vacation time. No employees were allowed to take vacation days from Saturday through Wednesday, just in case, he said.
   In the past year, computer analysts have been concerned about July 1 and Oct. 1, as the beginning of the fiscal year for many companies and government agencies. There also was a fear that some computers would translate Sept. 9, 1999, as a "9999" stop-program command. A smaller drill took place on April 9, a date that was problematic because it was the 99th day of the 99th year.
   Today's Leap Day watch shouldn't be much of a concern for the owners of personal computers, but people should double-check their bank statements and bills for February, Gribben said.
   "It's a good idea always to keep a close eye on your statements and financial documents that you might be receiving in the mail," Gribben said. "Just to make sure."


Staff writer Jennifer Stump can be reached at 886-3778 or by e-mail at stumpj@caller.com

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