what time is it 1 of october, 1999 by johnmichael patrick monty monteith

So the big day is nearly here. 90 days until we reach those legendary zeros in the year. The news stories have been aired a million times. It has been a constant topic of dinner conversations for months. Programmers have spent billions of hours sifting through lines of Cobol, Fortran, and countless other old-school programming languages re-working code to understand four digits in a year (or, at least to understand 00 to 25 will refer to 2000 to 2025). Most businesses have long since implemented their strategic plan for dealing with the year 2000, and a significant number have completed that plan. The hardware manufacturers have made a fortune replacing old non-year 2000 compliant hardware (even though a significant portion of what was replaced probably would have been fine for what it was being used for). So, all of this work has been done making all electronic equipment in the world be able to keep the right date come the first of January. So, why is it that most of this electronic equipment cannot even tell you what time it is?

Yes, you heard me right. Billions of dollars spent on computer equipment this year, and virtually none of it can keep time for squat. Oh, sure, when 2000 rolls around, it will have the right date. Of course, it will probably think 2000 rolled around a few minutes early or a few minutes late.

Cool new computer. Great graphics. Fast processor. Nifty CDROM. Accurate date. Bad time.

Think I am kidding? Have not noticed a problem with your computer keeping accurate time? I would say that maybe you are one of the lucky few, but that is highly unlikely. It is far more likely that you have never noticed.

Most of the computer equipment being shipped by manufacturers today will not keep accurate time. Fact of life. Given a couple of months, the clock on the system will either shift a few minutes ahead or a few minutes behind. I have seen this problem on systems manufactured by Dell, Compaq, Apple, and Gateway. In fact, I have not seen a hardware manufacturer immune to this problem.

Have you noticed this on your computer? Synchronize the time on your computer and a clock in the house, and over the next month watch the time on the two systems slowly move further apart. It is not your imagination. That expensive high tech hunk-a-junk can not keep time.

Well, what is a few minutes in the whole scheme of things anyway? So, I might look like a fool as I run outside in my jammies clanking my pans a few minutes late on New Years? The neighbors already think I am crazy anyway. Is that reason enough to get all worked up about computer clocks? If you do not depend on accurate time, probably not. On the other hand, if you use the time on your computer regularly, or if you are sharing files with folks, or using your system as a server, or doing any number of other time stamp important items, than actually it is a huge deal. In fact, in many ways, inaccurate time stamping can be more disruptive in day-to-day I.S. operations than having the wrong year.

For example, what if you are doing network security, and someone breaks in to your server? The log file showing the time will be inaccurate, making tracking the issues surrounding it more difficult. Or, what if you have multiple people working on the same project together? If one system is ten minutes ahead, another ten behind, and so on this is going to cause major difficulties in keeping everyone on the same page. How about banks that are tracking transactions? Or getting up-to-the-minute information on the Net? Or creating a web page and tracking hits in a log?

Yes. In some ways this is a bigger issue than the ‘year 2000 bug’.

So, if you are like me, you are sitting there wondering how the hell a super modern piece of high tech machinery like a new Pentium III Dell or G4 Mac could be sold if it would not keep at least as accurate time as a two-dollar wristwatch. Well, frankly, it is because the technology in a two-dollar wristwatch is considerably better at keeping accurate time than a three thousand dollar computer. Admittedly, it is possible to adjust the settings on a computer to make it more accurate, correcting discrepancies if it runs too fast or too slow. But, that two dollar wristwatch does not require hours of adjustment to keep it accurate, so why should a big expensive computer? And considering most people do not know how to make these rather technical adjustments, usually this problem goes uncorrected.

The issue actually has been a big problem at my place of employment where re-setting the time on our servers is a regular occurrence. Whether they are brand new systems, or ridiculously old, they all have difficulty keeping time. I often wondered why this problem has not made any news. I suspect the reason the press has not jumped on it is because the issue is not quite as fun to report as the year 2000 problem. The year 2000 date issue is all going to happen on a single day, so it is easily reportable, and everyone can enjoy waiting for the world collapse on that single moment (although, as you now know, that moment may be separated by a few minutes for each computer). Much of the shouting has been made by programmers who have had to correct these year tracking issues, and since there is nobody working on the time problem, there is nobody to make noise about it. The time tracking problem is an ongoing annoyance rather than a one time problem. There is no single date to watch the bug happen. But since the press is ignoring it, and customers do not seem to mind the aggravation, manufacturers are not doing a damn thing to correct the problem.

So I guess for the time being I am going to be running outside in my jammies at the wrong time. Perhaps a few minutes early, perhaps a few late. Or, perhaps, I will remember to set the clock on my computer a day or two before the big moment. Better yet, maybe I will be smart enough to use a different clock than the one on my computer. I think it is just wonderfully amusing that here we are on the first of October, 1999, only ninety days away from mass hysteria and global destruction due to year calculation problems, with billions of dollars being spent to fix it, and we cannot even manufacture a computer that can keep time. Modern technology. You gotta love it.