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 by Christie Cowles Illustrations by Michael J. Lattimer
Millennium Madness: Journalism junior Mark Ward is counting on computer failure and midnight mayhem to help him accomplish his New Year's plans this year. He says he wants to ring in the year 2000 by ringing up his credit card debt, in hopes that at the stroke of midnight the Y2K bug will wipe out his credit card company's records. "I'm going to pay for everyone's Christmas presents with my credit card and jack up my cards as much as I can," Ward says half-jokingly. If the companies' records disappear, Ward figures he never will have to pick up the tab for the Christmas presents and other credit card debts he's piled up. "If it doesn't happen, then oh well," Ward says.
Speech pathology senior Valerie Crawford-Herrera isn't quite as optimistic. She and her mother usually travel to Panama to spend the New Year with family. But Y2K has put an, ahem, Millennium Bug in their travel plans, even though the Federal Aviation Administration gave an all's-clear to January 1 air travel. "We can't be with our family in Panama this year for fear of the airports and the whole mess that there might be," she says. "We're going to do something different in Florida that's within driving distance." Y2K. Never in the history of modern civilization was a bug so infamous. It evokes everything from fear to apathy worldwide, travels across the seas, and speaks every language. It might as well have even its own commercial.
The MB is in places you never thought it could reach. But what is it exactly? Back in the 1960s, computer programmers designed programs with the year represented as a two-digit, rather than a four-digit number. So computers assume the first two digits of the year are 19. Now, when the year turns from 1999 to 2000, computers will not recognize "00" as older. They will assume it is 1900 instead. What's the big deal about computers thinking it is 1900 instead of 2000? Does it really matter what year the computer thinks it is? Yes and no. Programs and operations that don't require a date to function will not be affected. These include cars' and airplanes' non-dated computer functions, most elevator operating systems and the general functioning of your home PC. In other words, most likely your car still will start, airplanes will not fall out of the sky, elevators will not come crashing down and you still can write your term paper on your computer. (Darn, there goes your foolproof excuse for not turning in that English paper on time.) When the date turns, and is recognized by computers as 1900 instead of 2000, software and microchips that use dates in their calculations could fail or compute inaccurate information. Because dates often are used to determine whether a person should receive - or not receive - something, problems may occur. Credit card bills and tax refunds may not be sent; voting privileges and (gasp!) alcohol purchases may be curbed if computer records fail to show an accurate date or a person's true age. The peculiar thing about the MB, however, is even when one thinks it has been squashed, it still may come back to haunt people. Even when programmers and others think they have fixed the coding that may cause glitches in the system, there is no way to tell for sure if the bugs are eliminated until the date flips over, and (whew!) 2000 is here. For these reasons, the MB is no ordinary gee-this-bug-is-so-annoying-just-squash-it-on-a-summer-afternoon kind of bug. This bug is bound and determined to kick up some dirt and cause some trouble. Former UF Assistant Provost, Gene Hemp, who coordinated Y2K efforts at UF, says we cannot know exactly what will happen until Century Tower chimes 12 and the first hour of the New Year arrives.
Yes, the bug may make a few last gasps for breath, but the months and years exterminators, such as Robin Marrin, UF's information systems Y2K coordinator, are hoping the New Year will prove the time they have spent combating the MB was time well spent. "As far as life in general, I think there's going to be a few glitches, it's hopefully not going to be catastrophic--I don't anticipate any significant problems," Marrin says. "(But) it certainly isn't a hoax. I haven't spent the last three years of my life doing nothing." UF President John Lombardi says he believes life at UF will resume as normal after the turn of the century, because of the university's preparation efforts. "We think Y2K will likely be anticlimactic and pretty boring, but we could be wrong if others outside the university don't do what we have done inside," Lombardi wrote in an e-mail. The red coats are coming, the red coats are coming… Gaineville Sun business editor Charles Boisseau said in an article he wrote concerning Y2K, that doomsayers have thought up all kinds of crazy predictions. "They fear that on Jan. 1, 2000, or shortly thereafter, the electricity grid will go dead. Food distributions systems will crash and grocery shelves will go bare within days," Boisseau wrote. "(Doomsayers think) businesses will fail, banks will suffer as people panic and withdraw money, and the stock market will plummet. Looting will begin."
"While I don't doubt that there will be some trouble, I don't think the actual tangible effects will be that bad," Wiant says. "I think the most damage will come from those idiots and panic-mongers who are planning, even hoping for the worst." "My worst Y2K nightmare is that a bunch of zealots will start looting and rioting because they 'think' that the country is in anarchy. God forbid the power goes out anywhere," he says. Other students subscribe to the it's the end of the world as we know, and I feel fine philosophy. This bug is nothing more than a mere nuisance, a pest to be swatted away. Jennifer DeVaughn, an Elementary Education sophomore, says she is not too bugged about Y2K. "I really don't think anything that extreme is going to happen, I think it's going to be a normal New Year's Eve," DeVaughn says. "I think people are freaking out. There might be some temporary problems, but they're going to be fixed immediately and not cause a major world crisis. "ATMs might shut down, the power might go out, but they know it's going to happen and people are ready for it," DeVaughn says. "If everybody starts to freak out, it's going to be worse than it really is," she says.
"People predicting the end of the world are a bunch of idiots. I'm not going to be one of those people crawling into a bunker to protect myself," he says referring to people known as "survivalists" that are preparing for the worst possible scenario. Party like it's 1999… Students already are making plans for this momentous New Year's Eve. Nursing sophomore Missy Dunbar says she is not worried about all the millennium hype and will be out with her friends on New Year's Eve. "Just because it's the year 2000, doesn't mean I'm going to sit at home," Dunbar says. "I'm going to go out and have a good time, and we'll see what happens when it hits midnight." President Lombardi says he plans to be out partying himself at a Gator football celebration on New Year's Eve. "So far I've done all New Year's Eves at the Bowl Game site, and I expect the Y2K year will be the same," Lombardi says. Computer electrical engineering junior Seth Koehler says he is not worried about Y2K, although he thinks some people should worry. "For New Year's, I'll probably be out having a good time, but I think some people and companies might have to worry (if they haven't made preparations)," Koehler says. "Maybe (the MB is) a good wakeup call for our own shortsightedness, because we as humans are very shortsighted."
Other people are worried that the banks are going to crash. Larry Scott, president of Campus USA Federal Credit Union, says people shouldn't panic that their records and money will disappear. "Computers are not going to crash. Cash will be available. Hours will be extended," Scott wrote in an e-mail. "We have estimated the cash needs for our membership pursuant to this event." Scott says his employees are trained to answer members' Y2K questions, and the bank is scheduled to be open 24 hours during the Y2K weekend. Since UF and Gainesville-area businesses have been exterminating the bug for several years, the greater problem may be psychological than technological. Apocolypse now? As for the religious organizations and groups around Gainesville, each of these groups' representatives expressed the need for calm about the year 2000.
"I don't see the cataclysmic end to everything that some people are saying," Spangler says. "I have enough faith in God that I'm not giving myself bleeding ulcers about it." "There's more important things to worry about than what might happen or could happen," Spangler says. Savyasci Das, the Hare Krishna president, says he also is not concerned about the new millennium. "I think there's a lot of speculation, and I don't lead my life on speculation," Das says. If a major catastrophe does strike and the food supply temporarily is put on hold, people should not worry, he says. The Hare Krishnas' still will be there. People still can come to the Plaza of the Americas for lunch, Y2come what may. Rev. John D. Gillespie, a priest at St. Augustine Catholic Church, says people are confusing the technological and psychological aspects of Y2K. "People are blending two things that are at the opposite ends of the spectrum," Gillespie says. "Computers may not know how to click over (to the year 2000), but that has nothing to do with anything religious." People should stop trying to predict when the end of the world will come, because he says, according to scriptures, "Jesus says he does not know when the end is coming, only the Father knows." It is only logical for people to question and fear the unknown. Trying to come up with answers to an unforeseeable future and panicking about the gloom and doom that may or may not happen, is potentially dangerous. "Y2K has become a white sheet hung on the wall onto which we are projecting all of our worries," Gillespie says. He says if it was not the computers, people would use something else as their reasoning for the world ending, such as world famine, depletion of the ozone layer and even the European money system changing to a single currency. After the turn of the century when the world doesn't end, "none of the anxiety will disappear, it will simply get shifted to another event," Gillespie says. "People are willing to grab onto anything to back up their prediction of doom." |
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As far as storing up supplies for the New Year, he says, "I'm going to buy some extra canned foods. I'm gonna do it just in case -- you gotta cover your butt. I'm probably just going to be stuck with a bunch of canned chili, but you never know." 
The Millennium Bug, coming soon to a computer near you.
"We've identified the problem, and they've got resources to solve the problem," Hemp says. "None of us will know until after the first of the year whether the changes we've made will work."
Computer engineering senior Ken Wiant says he is more concerned about the psychological aspects of Y2K than the technological problems.
Civil Engineering senior Bobby Jamieson says people should stop panicking about the 2000 being the end of the world.
Baptist Student Union pastor Dr. Otto M. Spangler, who also is the UF sports teams' chaplain, says he is not worried about the turn of the century.