Anticipating the “bite” of the year 2000 computer “bug,” some Ames area businesses are already working to protect their systems. But the Y2K problem may not be as disastrous as was originally thought when the problem became a public issue more than four years ago.

“Everyone who has a computer is going to have to deal with it,” said Jeff Balvanz, computer consultant for Iowa State’s Computation Center.

“The odds are good that for most people it will be more of an inconvenience rather than a disaster,” he said.

A problem will show up when the year 2000 rolls around because traditional computer software is not programmed to use all four digits when recording years.

“The basic problem is there are only two characters to represent a date,” said Albert Baker, associate professor in computer science. “Places where the problem is not caught could really wreak havoc.”

The bug will cause documents to be placed out of order and create sequencing problems.

“It’s a hugely complicated problem in all kinds of industry; there are varying degrees of Y2K compliance,” Baker said.

“The very worst scenario is a corporation that has been running the same programs [for years],” he said.

Baker said although people have been aware of the Y2K problem for about 10 years, many have only begun to pay attention to it during the past five years.

Balvanz is part of a group putting together information on the Y2K problem at ISU and how to fix it for university departments.

“Different areas will have greater impact than others, but I don’t think you’ll see a major interruption in the service here,” Balvanz said.

He said Project Vincent is compliant to year 2000, but the mainframe computer system that supports the library and some computer labs will be disposed of because of the cost involved in making the system compliant.

“For the most part, a lot of the changes in machines would have been [updated] anyway,” Balvanz said. “It’s a great excuse to get newer equipment.”

Baker said the Y2K bug should not be much of a problem for students’ personal computers as long as they are recent models and use newer applications at the system level.

Mary Greeley Medical Center, 1111 Duff Ave., has been working on conquering the Y2K bug in their medical equipment and computer software for the past two years.

“We have been working on [the Y2K problem] for a long time, and we feel very confident the work we are doing will make us very prepared for year 2000 when it comes,” said JaNelle Anderson, director of information systems at Mary Greeley Medical Center.

She said the hospital is working to get latest release of software, which will not be affected by the year 2000 bug, and the in-house computer system is worked on day-by-day.

Anderson said about 90 percent of the hospital’s current software is year 2000 compliant, and the remaining 10 percent will be replaced by summer of 1999.

“Mary Greeley will be fully prepared for the year 2000, and patient care will not be compromised in any way,” Anderson said.

Many companies feel they are on their way to having the situation under control in time for the 21st century.

“Yes, there will be problems, but we have to not try to sensationalize it either,” Baker said.

“Companies are taking care of it,” he said.

Though much thought and work has been put into making computer systems compliant, there is an expected margin of error.

“The problem is so big and so pervasive. If the question is ‘Will there be consequences?’ the answer is definitely ‘yes,'” Baker said. “There’s no way they are going to catch them all.”

It is also nearly impossible to know exactly what will happen until the computer “doomsday” arrives.

“Many [systems] can’t be tested ahead of time because they will not be [affected] until that time,” Anderson said.