CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending April 10, 1998

CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending April 10, 1998

[CFCSEIC]

Center for Computer Systems Engineering News Briefs
Week Ending:   April 10, 1998

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CONTENTS:
OPM CHANGES RULES TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN Y2K PROGRAMMERS
GPS:  WILL YOU BE LOST IN SPACE? 
GAME PITS PLAYERS AGAINST Y2K MONSTER
 
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OPM CHANGES RULES TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN Y2K PROGRAMMERS

Topic:  Y2k

According to an article in the Apr. 6 edition of Federal Computer Week, 
the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has announced that it would let 
agencies supplement the salaries of programmers working on Y2k projects, and 
waive rules that limit salaries of retired programmers who return to 
government work.  Programmers who are doing work that is considered 
necessary to avert threats to life or property, including monetary 
losses, would be eligible for "premium pay".  Agencies who obtain OPM 
permission would be able to hire back retirees for programming jobs at 
full pay.  OPM's new policy is designed to attract and retain programmers 
familiar with COBOL and FORTRAN.  According to a Senate Governmental 
Affairs Committee aide, lawmakers are hoping that the agencies will use 
the "flexibilities" offered by the new policy to help address the Y2k 
problem.  Olga Grkavac, a Sr. V.P. with the Information Technology 
Association of America's System Integration Division, believes that OPM's 
decision sends "a powerful message that a potential emergency is at 
hand", but feels "this move may be too little too late."  According to 
OPM, the new policy for hiring retirees applies only to retired civilian 
workers or regular military officers, not to military enlisted personnel 
or reserve officers.

Source:   Nicole Lewis and Elana Varon, Federal Computer Week, Apr. 6, 
1998, p. 1  
http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1998/0406/fcw-fronty2kwork-4-6-1998.html

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GPS:   WILL YOU BE LOST IN SPACE?

Topic:  Y2k

Over the past few years, millions of global positioning system (GPS) 
receivers have been sold to sportsmen, geologists, archeologists, the 
military, taxi cab drivers, and others who want to, or need to, know 
where they are at any given time.  A time differential is required to 
fine-tune rough triangulations when determining exact locations, and GPS 
distributes time information as part of the algorithm that lets the GPS 
receiver pinpoint location.  Since GPS time data is available throughout 
much of the world, other applications, such as financial computers. 
piggyback on GPS time/date information for a variety of purposes.  Every 
millisecond, thousands of computers take time calibrations from GPS 
broadcasts and use them to calculate interest on huge short-term 
electronic-funds transactions.  In the GPS signal standard, dates use 13 
bits to represent a time-unit offset from a conventional epoch date 
consisting of two fields (epoch + offset).  GPS time receivers that have 
been programmed to update the epoch field will experience little or no 
trouble.  However, receivers that have this information burned into 
programmable read-only memory (PROMs) will likely fail because on, or 
about, August 22, 1999, the date value will overflow this 13-bit type as 
satellites broadcast a new epoch.  These hardcoded epoch time subsystems 
will think the calendar has been reset to the epoch in 1980.  In short, 
any system that hardcodes the GPS epoch, and is sensitive to the fact 
that "1980" is not "1999", will fail.  This is only one type of problem 
faced by GPSs.  The problem is compounded by the fact that it is almost 
impossible to construct valid GPS test cases to see what will happen at 
the year 2000.  According to GPS experts, the future (time) states of the 
system depend on physical values, such as orbital elements and 
gravitational forces, which can only be accurately determined within 
approximately three months of the year 2000.

Source:  Jonathan Erickson, "Fear and Loathing on the Y2k Trail", Dr. 
Dobb's Journal, May 1998, v23, n5, p. 6  http://www.ddj.com


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GAME PITS PLAYERS AGAINST Y2K MONSTER

Topic:   Y2k

Remember the text-based dragon-chasing adventure games of the 1980s?  
Future Media's text-based game, Uh-Oh, brings back those adventures of 
yesteryear, only this time the monster you are chasing is the Y2k 
software crisis.  Uh-oh is not only a fun, interactive adventure game, it 
is a Y2k training tool.  It puts you into realistic Y2k situations, and 
is full of Y2k information.  Uh-Oh quotes more than 50 real-life 
lawmakers, corporate officials, and information technology professionals 
on the scope of the Y2k crisis, and takes you through five phases of 
increasingly more difficult play.  It is a lot more fun than many other 
training packages, and your quest to conquer the Y2k crisis begins in the 
same way that most of you start your day -- sitting in a cubicle surrounded 
by unfinished paperwork.  You can download a trial version of the game 
free at http://www.successinformation.com/game.htm.  

Source:  John Breeden II, "Fixing date codes is no game, but one can 
help you prepare", Government Computer News, Mar.16, 1998, v17, n6, p.1, 
http://www.gcn.com.

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