STORY:
9-9-99 Watch Underway

Officials worldwide watching and waiting for possible computer date problems

Government officials and businesses worldwide are monitoring possible disasters around the world stemming from a date problem related to the computer Y2K glitch. Few computer problems are expected, but government officials and industry groups plan to use Thursday Sept 9, 1999 or 9-9-99 for a millennium trial run.

The fear is that some computers may translate Sept. 9, 1999, as a "9999" stop-program command. Although few Y2K advisers expect major problems such as widespread electrical outages, no one is ruling out the possibility of smaller disruptions.

"It's just a trial run to try to see if the connections work and whatnot," Bruce McConnell, director of the White House's Y2K Coordination Center tells the Dallas Morning News. "Hopefully about 20 countries will enter data and tell us how things are going.... I don't expect much of anything to happen."

"The reality is that 9/9/99 is one of the persistent myths of the year 2000 problem. It’s not quite a unicorn, not quite 100 percent mythical, we’ve only been able to identify two instances of 9/9/99 coding in extremely obscure systems," Andy Kyte, analyst with the U.S. information technology research company Gartner Group tells MSNBC.

The U.N.-backed International Y2K Cooperation Center, a global clearing house for millennium bug data, is using Sept. 9 to rehearse a plan to track how the world’s anti-millennium bug plans are stacking up. The center will update its web site to show the input of 170 or more national Y2K coordinators.

DATE: 09/08/99

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