Y2Care
How concerned should you really be about the Y2K bug?

Stifle that yawn, and I'll try to make this quick. We are all* weary of hearing about the little two-space boo-boo that threatens "Apocalypse Now." However, like taxes and dentist appointments, the Year 2000 Bug must be dealt with. Here's the scoop:

It's going to be OK.
Bill Cassell and Yvonne Smith of Information Technology Management Association presented "Year 2000 Personal Preparation: What Should You Do?" at FSU's "Looking to the Future" conference this fall. The gist of their advice is to treat Y2K as you would a three-day power outage, and it probably won't even come to that. They based much of their information on Gartner Group's prediction that "only 10 percent of mission-critical failures will last three days or more, and 70 percent will likely last less than 48 hours (0.8 probability)."

Good odds. So here's the plan.
Food - Buy some. Water too. Have on hand a week's worth of non-perishable stuff that can be prepared without cooking.
Heat - Should be OK. The big energy companies have a national grid-sharing arrangement in place that should ensure electricity throughout the U.S.
Medical Needs - Stock the first aid kit. Buy an extra month's prescription meds if your doctor will allow it. Plan an alternate communication method if the phone is out. If loved ones are in the hospital, stay with them. You will be a comfort to them, and the medical staff will probably have their hands full just from New Year's Eve celebrants.
Money - Set aside a little cash. (By the way, did you know only 1.7 percent of money in the world is actual cash? The rest is all electronic transactions. Amazing.) Pay critical bills ahead and save all financial records. Credit and debit cards should be fine. Leave your investments alone. Well, except maybe some of your international investments, as smaller governments around the world are not as Y2K ready as they could be. (I write this with the thought that anyone dabbling in international investments probably doesn't need Y2K advice at this late date.)
New Year's Eve '99 - Don't try to grocery shop, fill the car with gas or use the phone "just to see if it still works." Everyone else will be doing those things. Have a quiet celebration at home and get a good night's sleep. Thanks in large part to the media, public panic is now the number one Y2K problem.

Ah, the power of the press.
Happy New Year dear readers!
Christine Williams
Editor, Crimson & Gold

*For the one, possibly two, reader(s) who has/have not yet heard this definition ad nauseum, the Y2K bug is the result of computer programmers using a two-space date field for the year in computer software (i.e. MM/DD/YY). Had they used four spaces (i.e. MM/DD/YYYY), you could be reading about something else right now.