Computer Tyme Software
and Year 2000 Bugs
We're 2000 Ready!
As far as I know it looks like all my Computer Tyme Software is year
2000 ready. I have done a lot of testing and everything seems to work.
Although I can't gaurentee that there is absolutely no bugs, there
aren't any serious bugs. Anyone who finds one should let me know and
I'll fix it quickly.
Computer Tyme Software is mostly a collection of utilities. Most of
these utilities do not deal with dates at all and therefore year 2000 is
not an issue. Y2K bugs are more prevelent in business software that has
to do date math.
Of the Computer Tyme software that does do dates, NOVSYNC has been Y2K
compliant since it was written. MarxMenu was also written Y2K compliant.
The programs D and Directory Master correctly sort files listed in date
order. D was fixed on 08-11-98 so that dates that listed as 08-11-2 now
list as 08-11-02. Whereis and Pipedir also had this cosmetic bug.
So, for those of you who need the Y2K statement. Computer Tyme Software
is just fine.
NovSync Y2K Warning
Although NovSync has always been Y2K compliant, Netware servers have
not been. Novell Netware 4.10 for example, goes nuts the moment it hits
the year 2000. The date jumps to 1988. When I reset the date it jumped
forward to 2037. If you were running NovSync version 1 it would copy the
wrong time and date to the workstation. This is clearly Novell's fault
and I'm somewhat shocked that they would put a product on the market in
the 1990's that crashes the date the instant it hits the millenuim.
Novell has fixed the problem and if you download the upgrade patches it
seems to work. Anyone running Netware should not go into the year 2000
without getting the latest patches. However, having seen what Netware
did I decided not to trust them so I modified NovSync in version 2 to
watch for date crashes and prevent the problem from being spread to the
workstations. NovSync will now ignore dates from Netware that are more
than one year off from the bootup date. I offer a free upgrade of
NovSync to anyone who is currently licensed. Just go to the shareware
section and download it.
IniTool Y2K Warning
In 1994 Computer Tyme licensed a software program to Network Associates
called IniTool which is the same program at that time as my IniTyme
utility. I do not know what version they shipped and I can not guarentee
that users of IniTool will not experiance a Y2K problem. However, I have
no reason to believe at this time that they will. Users of IniTool can
buy a license from me for IniTyme and then you will be Y2K compliant.
Network Associates no longer licenses IniTool and can't upgrade you to a
new version.
Legal Brief on Y2K
I have written a Legal Defense Brief
on the Y2K Year 2000 bug issue. This is a brief to help programmers and
software companies that might be sued over Y2K related issues.
