The good news, according to the FCC, is that television viewing won't be interrupted by the Y2K problem. The bad news, according to the rest of us, is that television viewing won't be interrupted by the Y2K problem.
Yep, as we wade through the waning months of 1999, Y2K hysteria is mounting, spurred on by every con man, crackpot, and huckster who, up to now, has been peddling Ginsu knives, beachfront property, and Internet stocks. Don't believe me? Take a look at http://www.y2-kash.com/, which squawks, "Don't say Doomsday, say Payday!!" or the Y2K: Disaster 2000 Millennium Survival Guide, a pulp rag that can't decide whether it's an in-your-face Mother Earth News or kinder, gentler Soldier of Fortune. With articles ranging from "Countdown to Chaos!" and "Y2K Crime Alert!" to "The Gun for all Reasons" and "Wood Stoves: Reliable Heat Y2K Can't Stop!" (Phew! All those exclamation marks wear me out!), and ads hawking everything from gun accessories to a year's supply of Texas chili (thanks, but I'll stick to starvation), the magazine speaks to fear rather than fact, chaos rather than cooperation.
It's drivel such as this, in fact, that's more worrisome than Y2K disruptions. University of Texas historian Howard Miller, for instance, fears that sensational media disinformation will intensify over the coming months and panic will result. The International Association of Emergency Managers concurs, recently telling the U.S. House of Representatives that panic could outweigh the impact of any breakdowns in basic services.
Of course, my local bank isn't inspiring much confidence either. In a recent letter, the bank bragged that "We will be prepared to conduct business as usual on January 1, 2000." Gee, considering that January 1 is a holiday with no business conducted...well, you understand my concern.
So, assuming the worst at the end of the year, where can we go to escape Y2K chaos? My money's on Protection, Kansas -- "America's first Y2K protected community." Granted, protecting Protection, population 560, isn't the biggest job in the world. But say what you will, Protection's 200-plus computers are Y2K safe, and the town sure knows how to throw a party. Not that being protected is new to Protection. In 1957, the town became the first in America to be protected from polio. Amidst the hubbub of parades, bands, rodeo performers, and stunt cars, residents received Salk polio vaccine inoculations. Picking up where Jonas Salk and the Foundation for Infantile Paralysis left off, @Backup (http://www .backup.com/), an online data management company, launched "Project Protection," providing free online backup of commercial, municipal, and personal data for an entire year. In honor of the event, we packed up and headed cross country for peace of mind, free barbecue, and a chance to see environmental artist Stan Herd's (http://www.stanherd.com/) latest crop art -- a 650-foot-long "view from above" work of art growing in the middle of a Kansas wheat field. And we weren't disappointed. The barbecue was great, and Herd's rendition of the @Backup logo is, as you can see, amazing.
There was, of course, the obligatory message from the sponsor, @Backup in this case. Unlike most of what you hear about Y2K these days, @Backup vice president Melinda King didn't try to scare the local population into hiding in storm cellars come December 31. Much of what she had to say, as you might expect, involved the virtues of backing up data.
If you stop and think about it, backing up is perhaps the easiest and most straightforward protection for potential Y2K problems. (Even my bank has figured this out, saying in the aforementioned letter that "backup records could be used to identify and correct errors...due to a year 2000 computer problem.") @Backup's shtick is "online" backup, whereby changes on your hard disk (new files or modified portions of existing files) are automatically uploaded (direct modem or via the Internet), encrypted, and stored at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. @Backup isn't alone in this market. Others in the online backup biz include Intel with its AnswerExpress service (http://www.answerexpress.com/) and the Triangle Research Group's Saf-T-Net (http://www.trgcomm.com/). All three are similar in price (about $30/month) and provide services such as CD-ROM archives. Feature comparisons aside, what there is no question about is that @Backup and Protection put on the best parties. You gotta love that barbecue.
Jonathan Erickson
editor-in-chief
jerickson@ddj.com