Better safe than sorry in tackling Y2K fears

As expected, there have been a fair few e-mails in the past 48 hours or so about the Y2K bug. Surprisingly, though, most are along the lines of 'Why DIDN'T we get hit?'.

There's no pleasing some people, is there? First everyone spends the better part of two years panicking about what would happen at the stroke of midnight December 31, 1999, and then they appear disappointed that everything worked fine.

The bottom line here is that depending who you talk to - daredevil computer user or a Y2K consultant - Y2K was never a problem and was over-hyped by people who stood to make a few bucks from 'fixing' the problem, or it was well and truly fixed.

Me, I'd rather be safe than sorry, and I'm very glad that the only thing that stopped working for about an hour at the dawn of 2000 was Hutchison's mobile phone network.

Word is that was because practically every mobile phone user was trying to call every other mobile phone user to wish them a happy new millennium; it had nothing to do with Y2K.

More importantly, automated teller machines still functioned fine, as did airliners, fax machines, microwaves and refrigerators . . . and the world did not end. However, the experts advise, we are not out of the woods yet and some things could still go wrong. The latest date set by the doomsayers is February 29 (yes, it's a leap year). But, apparently, if we get past that date without any serious problems, humanity is home free.

Following my recent piece about the difficulties of connecting iMacs to Cable & Wireless HKT's Ultra Line broadband Internet connection, Cynthia Leung, the company's group manager of corporate communications wrote in to clear a few things up.

According to Ms Leung, the Netvigator 1.5Mbps Ultra Line service 'is in fact available to Mac with a built-in Ethernet port from Apple running MacOS Vers.8X or above'. However, she adds, Mac users must connect service via an iTV smartbox.

The 'Access Kit for Mac OS on CD-ROM' is sent to Mac users upon subscription and includes a Mac Dialer for access to the Ultra Line service.

'However,' she writes, 'I would be pleased to let you know that according to our service roadmap, the Ultra Line service will be available to iMac with built-in Ethernet port and notebook with PCMCIA LAN card direct.' E-mail Larry Campbell at techtalkscmp.com . Questions to Tech Talk will not be answered personally. Technology Post reserves the right to edit letters.

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