[at-l] Y2K

["Richard S. Lubitz" <lubitz@alpha.fdu.edu>]

My concern about Y2K is the old unix machines that comprise the backbone
of the internet.  What happens to at-l if they go down.  Many of the 
devices that are being warned about have computers that don't care 
what the date is.  The computers in most cars that are old enough 
to worry about tell time passage by counting the engine starts.  The
diagnostic messages they give is that xx failed 23 starts ago. 
Pacemakers are one of the devices warned about but a major manufacturer
recently said that the devices have no date reference in them just time
of day at most.  Using patches as mentioned in an earlier post runs
into the problem that many "new" programs use snippets of older programs
for some functions (it is easier to pop in an existing module than to
write a new one).  a program written in 2030 may use part of a patched 
program.  

since I mentioned at-l in line 2 this is list related

Rich
* From the Appalachian Trail Mailing List |  http://www.backcountry.net  *

==============================================================================