* CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending April 10, 1998
@ 1998-04-10 0:00 CFCSEIC
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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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