Y2K: What's being done before new millennium

A screen saver on a computer in the Clark County Commission chambers silently broadcast the number Wednesday: 339 days until the year 2000.

It was a potent reminder for those who turned out Wednesday night for the first of 12 county forums to help answer the public's questions about the Y2K bug, the now-popular name for a programming glitch in older computers that could cause them to crash at the turn of the millennium.

"We want to provide an opportunity to let the public ask questions and find out what the valley's various governments are doing in preparation for the problem," County spokesman Tom Warden said. "We believe that it is very important for us to help Southern Nevada residents to understand and cope with the issues."

The potential Y2K problem stems from the way computers are programmed. In an effort to save memory in earlier years when it was expensive, programmers set computers to use a year's final two digits when recording dates. For example, 99 means 1999. The concern is that when computers read 00, they will interpret the number to mean the year 1900, causing computers to shut down or spit out wrong information.

So now agencies, businesses and other organizations that rely on computers are rushing to reprogram them to recognize the years of the new millennium and declare themselves "Y2K compliant."

A panel of five spokesmen from the county, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson answered questions Wednesday about the possible shutdown of local computer systems.

"We are taking a prudent, cautious attitude about the problem so that we make sure we are ready," Las Vegas Department of Technology spokesman Joseph Marcella said.

All of the local governments have been planning for the possible problem for several years, and are all predicting Y2K compliance before the new year.

Wednesday's meeting drew a crowd of about 25 people to the County Government Center, but many more saw the forum broadcast live on cable Channel 4.

The next forum is scheduled Feb. 22.

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