•    http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/2.0/user/arda_erdogan/weeklyartistchart.xml

•    WordPress / Customize (twitter, lastfm, rss, css, jquery)

•    Portfolio (PHOTOS)

•    Resume (PDF)

•    Downloadable Multipage PDF Portfolio (for emails, web links)

•    Domain Redirect / Start paying for it

•    Design xhibit

http://themeshaper.com/modify-wordpress-themes/
http://themeshaper.com/how-to-protect-your-wordpress-theme-against-upgrades/

http://web-argument.com/accordion-image-menu-v-20/
http://www.cssreflex.com/2009/08/top-10-wordpress-codes-every-designer-should-know.html

Published 2003-03-31
Just ranting about escalation….
The objective of escalation is to bring something into higher priority and focus resources. In small business escalation is not usually an issue, there are usually only a few people to inform and everyone knows everybody. In enterprise class systems escalation becomes much more complex. Escalation is usually associated with problems but not necessarily(you can escalate good news). There are 2 sides… the escalator(person escalating a problem) and escalatee(person problem is being escalated to for investigation).  
When talking about problem escalation I find many enterprises lacking. Some have done wonderful jobs but most need work. Many shops have binders with contact lists, memos and hand written notes. Half the time is spent contacting the wrong people and often required contacts are never made. Other shops have rigid rules for escalation that often create excessive escalation. One shop I worked for used memos that would say something like…

If you have problems… 
    Call 416-999-2222 Sun-Thu between 11pm-7am. Do not ring more than 4 times! 
    Call 705-555-1212 on the weekend
    Call 416-555-2244 at all other times.
I am unavailable Mon-Fri from 6-7pm, I will call you back after 7pm if paged.    

That was just the first level support contact, then you had to contact business and suppliers that each had their own escalation… And people were wondering why escalation took 90+ minutes at times.

Escalation needs clear guidelines – Rules are inherently inflexible and escalation requires extreme flexibility. Even if your internal escalation is rigid you have no control over external escalation.

Escalation Intervals – How long do you wait for support to call back? How long do you give first level support before escalating to second level? You need an escalation matrix that considers priority and impact. Example: Critical problems need faster escalation than others. 

Does the problem need escalation? Some businesses escalate everything immediately. Although this may sound good it easily creates problems. An impact assessment should be completed before escalation is implemented. Perhaps the problem can wait to avoid costs like over-time. Others only escalate when everything crashes around them.

Once it is determined a problem should be escalated the escalation process should have structure to provide 1st, 2nd,3rd… level contacts for customer, internal support and suppliers but allow flexibility to “skip levels” as needed. Often internal support escalation is handled correctly but the ball is dropped when contacting customers and suppliers. How many times have you missed informing the right people? The escalation process must ensure ALL related contacts are informed. 

Don’t call Jim “because he knows the solution”. Call the appropriate support and inform them that Jim has the solution. This ensures that bugs are worked out quickly… no one wants to be called at 3am. Another common problem for effective escalation. If you call Jim and bypass the escalation process the real issue of having the wrong contact never gets addressed. Next week(or day) Jim will get called again. Jim is probably not going to be very happy. Escalators must follow escalation as defined to ensure bugs in the process are addressed.

Escalation process should allow a flexible contact solution. Requiring specific contact types(like pager) are limiting and should be avoided. The contact person should have the ability to maintain how they are to be contacted(home,pager,cell…) but the process should not attempt to support memos like noted above.  Since contacts have the ability to maintain their contact details they assume the responsibility for the information.

Escalation requires constant reviewing to ensure the appropriate contacts are defined. Some companies think that once their escalation is defined they are done. Wrong! Escalation constantly needs fine tuning. I have seen many great systems fail because the data became outdated. A distributed ownership model is critical to a successful implementation. Contacts own their personal information, management owns the resources. Each is responsible to ensure their data is accurate. 

Escalation requires ownership/responsibility. One of the most frequent problems I have seen is the lack of ownership when problems arise. A clear path to ownership must be maintained. Owners are responsible for the resource, they didn’t buy it! Ownership ensures at least someone is prioritizing the issue… they may not be the ones to do the work.

Escalation process must be accessible from various platforms(mainframe, PC, server, PDA…). No use having a great system that escalators can’t access. In addition it needs an API to integrate with standard business management tools like problem management.

I can go on and on about this subject… I think you get the idea so I will stop now.

Updated 2009-11-25
Most development software now codes XHTML compliant tags. There are many smart phones that require XHTML to display properly. Welcome the XML world. Was it really that bad?

Published 2003-03-31
XHTML is the evolution of HTML. The concept is simple… Make HTML documents into an XML compliant document. 

Why should I convert?
XHTML is the “new” HTML and many new devices require compliance. XHTML applies strict rules which enforces standards. XHTML can be used as XML. The only choice you have is when… this is inevitable.

Why not?
If you only intend to support PC type platforms with standard browsers there is no value in converting. Every page in your site will have to be converted with no visible improvements… How do you justify the costs. You may be able to wait until your web development tool automatically generates XHTML compliant code. If you do not intend to support PDA/Phones there is no reason to convert.

Problems….
Virtually all web tools at the moment write standard HTML. After converting documents all future HTML edits will have to be reviewed for XHTML compliance manually until your tools write XHTML. In XHTML ALL tags must have a closing tag(<p> must have </p>). In XHTML tags that do not have closing tags must end with a “/” symbol(<br> must be <br />). This includes meta tags as well..
Even if you are diligent and always provide closing tags in your HTML you will have to do many adjustments. All tables must have a TBODY tag. All tags and properties must be in lowercase. Inline CSS & Script encapsulated in comments must be in a CDATA block. These are just some of the more common issues. If you use strict XHTML, style properties only exist in CSS and will require even more adjustments. I recommend you review W3C standards for XHTML at http://www.w3c.org/

How to Convert
There is a lot more than most people think to convert DHTML to XHTML but I have found some good cheats…
There are several tools out there that will automatically convert DHTML to XHTML. I strongly recommend you use these rather than manually adjusting your HTML. You can convert the core site pages immediately then convert the rest as time permits. For tools you can use http://cgi.w3.org/cgi-bin/tidy that provides an online solution or you can download WebMatrix from http://www.asp.net/. I think Tidy provides the best implementation. There is a version of Tidy you can download and run from your PC… look on W3C site.

No matter what you decide, start writing all new documents with XHTML standards. It will save you having to re-write them later. That said you might notice this document is NOT XHTML compliant. I intend to convert  the entire demo site at one time so I am waiting till then…

Build an RSS Feed Reader with jQuery and jGFeed: New Plus Tutorial http://bit.ly/6SfWqy

Jekyll: Sites Made Simple http://bit.ly/8Rgr8m

Updated 2009-11-25
Netscape died/transitioned to Firefox and has now taken around 40-45% of desktop browser market. Firefox is fast to load pages and more standards compliant than Microsoft and it is free. Advances in technology and surprisingly the adoption of .NET for a development platform has actually helped Firefox’s adoption. This is because .NET attempts to adjust for the various other browsers on the market automatically. Keep going Firefox

Update 2002-01-07
Well it has been over a year and most sites do not support it. Even fewer users are switching to it. I have abandoned supporting it here as well. This is not good. I would like it to succeed now that they seem to have their heads on straight even though as a developer it creates a lot of headache for me.
Update 2001-02-15
Oh, Oh…. Final version has been out a while now… Many sites are not supporting it. This is not good. It looks a lot better, and really does support W3C/ECMA as much as you can expect. Is it because everyone is used to working with the previous crap they don’t want to change? Come on people, if you ever wanted Netscape to succeed now is the time to back them up!
As a developer I would like to have only one browser… simplifies things. As a user I want choice. It may be I just don’t like a particular company. Whatever, I want to choose. Besides I want to make sure people who use systems other than Windows** can still use the Internet. 

Published 2000-09-02
Netscape Navigator Version6(NN6) Preview 2 is out. What an improvement… and this is still beta. The browser fails less often. It has a smaller footprint(size), is faster and more efficient. My hat is off to Netscape. They realized they made several key mistakes with NN4 and have done an about-face. Ever since NN3 I have not supported Netscape. They continually created their own proprietary tags that made no sense. A prime example of this was the LAYER tag. At that time I realized they did not have the expertise to create a top-notch standard. They were too busy trying to keep up with IE. Things got thrown in that would have never have passed cooler heads. 

Netscape thought they could tell everyone else what to do(sound familiar). They thought everyone would follow whatever standard they put out. Were they ever wrong. That is not to say that IE has not tried the same thing(they have), IE just drove the standards committees to adopt IE standards using logical arguments.

Well with Netscape V6 NN is supporting the W3C/ECMA standards very closely. They have dropped tags that were not adopted and they have included IE tags that have got into the standards. I am finding that IE5 requires more non-standard code than NN6. IE now has to get rid of the “document.all” script tag and we are closer to a standard browser than ever before. That is not to say there aren’t coding work a rounds required….just not near as many.

I want to support Netscape’s venture in being 100% standards compliant. That is why this site was built for both NN6 and IE5. Previously I just let NN in but a lot of stuff did not work. With NN6 only some demonstrations don’t work. All the cool buttons and configuration etc. all works.

On the down side Netscape is going to alienate a lot of developers since they have removed tags like LAYER from NN6. Also it’s “simpler” client interface is not very pretty which may take some people time to adjust(if ever). The toolbars could be better. NN6 actually works better on IE sites than sites built for NN4. Hopefully developers will forgive Netscape and recognize it took a lot of guts for Netscape to do this. It was not an easy decision.

Congratulations Netscape…. Get the final version out please…. I want people off NN4.

Just how safe is your email on the net?

Not long ago I posted this entry, describing methods of protecting your email address to spam bots and promoting the method that I had proposed. Well now there has been an exciting update! We have joined with our partners RPM-Productions to bring you hosting for your Email2Pic image, providing a quick, easy and permanent location to host your image.

The new results page for Email2Pic

So now we have updated the results page and you are presented with some information, at the bottom you will notice a new button that says ‘Sent to RPM ImgDep’. This will upload the image to RPM-Productions servers so your image can be hosted for use on forums, blogs, emails etc.

The new button!

Once the button has been clicked, instantaneously you shall receive a hyperlink to your image. The image’s non-descript filename gives no clue to the text contained in the image and is highly unlikely to ever be read by spambots. Below is a sample…

Email address has been processed, converted to an image and hosted on RPM-Productions ImgDep

… And here it is!

http://rpm-productions.org/imgdep/images/1327048117.png

Give it a go! Protect your Email!

Currently, I am organising our 5th year school reunion. As my friends and me could not reach some people in the Internet, I thought, maybe I should invite them using this old-fashioned dead-tree-letter-thing (one of the greatest paradoxes for me is the fact, that we still have no paperless office). I had the choice between copying the names and addresses from an excel file into a LaTeX file by hand and then run LaTeX for each person. But is this the computer scientist way to do this? No! Of course, the computer scientist writes a script that solves the whole problem class. Of course, the CS student would use Python for this task and write the whole LaTeX code with variables for the changing parts in different files. However, the bioinformatician telling you this story was so involved in R and Sweave during his last lab course, that he totally forgot about his preference of Python. This is a shame because Sweave scripts here are a total overkill and are terrible to debug in general.

When R says: "With confidence of 95% I can give you anything you want in a very stylish and compact way, iff you know the exact function name and are willing to read the documentation of all my 1000 flags.".
Then Python responds: "I also have much to offer to you. Might be a few lines more code, but it will be fun to write it and you find every problem solved in the Internet."
I definitely prefer the latter one.

Sweave can be an extremely useful tool for creating dynamic content in a LaTeX file. It was created by LMU professor F. Leisch. One way to use Sweave is to embed your R code in a LaTeX file with
\usepackage{Sweave}
in it and the file extension .Snw. Your R code is embedded with these the following mark-up:

<<OPTION>>=
CODE
@

Here, OPTION can be empty, then Sweave returns the output of R (which is useful, when you worked with a dataset and want to trace later, what you have done). With echo=F, you suppress all output. This is useful, if you want to have a chunk, that solely does some computation. What we want for our letter writing is something like that:

<<echo=F,results=tex>>=
cat("\\begin{letter}{",fullName, "\\\\", adress1, "\\\\", adress2, "}")
cat("\\opening{", opening ,"}" )
@

The code above is an excerpt of such a sweaved letter. Note that we print out the LaTeX code and that we need to escape the backslashes.

Wrapping the script. When you want a Sweave file to be more generic, you need to do something a bit ugly: wrap it into an R script (see my example script) that iterates over lists or an xls/csv table and sets the variables for your Sweave script properly and with Sweave(file) you sweave the template, which creates the .tex file on which you run pdflatex (which should also be automated when you send many letters). It should really be easier to do this in Python, but if you know R better than Python or want to send individually faked statistic figures, then this should be the modus operandi.

Updated 2009-11-25
My how things have changed. Java appears to be going the way of OS/2, Microsoft is now .NET instead of ASP, and many unix servers are using PHP(even some Windows servers). XHTML and XML are both extensively used. Netscape is gone and replaced with Firefox. Smart phones have finally replaced WAP. DIV and SPAN tags are the predominate tags now. Many more servers are now Windows based instead of Unix. .NET is dominant in large business sites. Browsers are all over the place and then there are smart phones. I expect everything to change to video/3D over next 10 years so don’t spend too much time on this stuff At this time I prefer the following:

• .NET for server. Can be C#, VB, PHP, Python or other language but .NET handles various browser issues(mostly).
• CSS – now the standard. Actually standards are recommending all layout should be in CSS format and not included in HTML tags. 
• JavaScript – The standard for years.
• Ajax or similar – dynamic communication as well as saving bandwidth.User gets virtually instant responses.
• MySQL – for databases. Open source.
• Flash – for dynamic graphics sections.
• Look into video and 3D tools – I see most sites going to interactive video/3D instead of text.

Updated 2001-02-15
Well, if you consider that AOL is a version of Internet Explorer(IE) then IE version 4+ now controls 85%+ of the browser market. Microsoft owns 98% of the operating systems. With this combination it should make your decisions easier. Now the potential to use VBScript, ActiveX etc. is feasible on the Internet. Is XHTML or XML going to win? Not sure, probably neither. Each is the “new” language that will allow everyone to communicate together… heard that before??? CSS is here to stay. It will be improved but it is a base for layouts to come. WAP is not going away for awhile… bandwidth may change that so I would not invest too heavily but it is necessary for several sites(like stock brokers, banks…) right now. You can trash all the tables and start using DIV and Span tags. Java is actually gaining ground since more powerful computers and faster bandwidth are available. Microsoft owning everything defeats the one real benefit of Java though. There is always going to be the next language that will solve everything for us… we buy it then figure out it can’t do ???? that the other product could. These of course will be solved in the next version…;-).
A big step is Netscape’s support of standards. Now if we could get Microsoft to do the same and drop that *&*%$# document.all method we could really get grooving. It might surprise many of you to know that Netscape6 is a better standards based browser than Explorer5.5. Explorer is much more forgiving for developers where Netscape is strict.

Published 1997-09-25
For Intranet(because of it’s controlled concept) I would use Microsoft^® supported languages exclusively. These would include DHTML, CSS, Jscript with server code mostly in ASP files. Limited use of VBscript, ActiveX and JAVA. This of course won’t work if you are an OS/2 shop but will work for MAC and some Unix operating systems.

For Internet I prefer to recommend more platform independent languages at this time. Unfortunately many languages are needed to truly develop a site. Unless you use at least some of the capabilities specific to the browser you limit your potential gains.
DHTML is now a must.
JavaScript(Jscript) is best for scripting simply because both browsers support it(sort of).
Pure JAVA is best for advanced requirements but is limiting and slow(this is improving very quickly).
CGI is still my choice for server side code but only because most servers are still Unix. If you can, I recommend using other languages(VB,C++,REXX, whatever).
Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) for those with requirements for specific positioning of elements. Or at least extensive use of small tables(large ones are slow to load).
All above can support both Netscape^® and Microsoft^® browsers if designed correctly.
After all that is said, I have found you need ALL languages above to provide the client with the best solution. More importantly, how(or if) they work on different browsers.

2009-11-25
I never did get back to this and spent little time with developing Flash. It is still very popular particularly for ads and media companies. I may review the newest version to see what has changed in 10 years.

2000-10-07
I have recently been playing with Flash 5. I am not sure yet whether I love it or hate it(probably somewhere in between). Either way I am going to start to use it. Please note since I am just starting with Flash 5 some information may be inaccurate.

What is it?

In a nutshell it is an animation software and player. The player is “built in” to virtually all new browsers. It has been extended beyond that to interface with other HTML components(like JavaScript/Java…). It’s three biggest advantages are browser independence, animation, and vector graphics. If used properly it can produce a very efficient and pleasing site. 

What I like

1. Browser independence. No special code for Netscape or IE. Both browsers support Flash and newer browser versions come with Flash preinstalled. 
2. Object Oriented. Instancing can really improve your sites performance while giving you cool effects.
3. Animation. Need I say more. There is lot’s of it. Too bad it doesn’t support 3D(yet). Then it would be even more interesting. 
4. Timelines. Match up that music to the animation, create object instances each with their own timeline.
5. Vector graphics. Extremely efficient graphics method. Flash 5 allows some very nice effects.
6. Single file with at least basic protection of developers code.

What I don’t like

1. Coding view. You can only see the code for a specific object at anyone time. Would be nice to have option to see code for entire layer/scene. 
2. Proprietary coding standards. There are so many it isn’t funny. 
3. Abuse. Some people make Flash pages that are 1meg+ in size. Eventually this will be fine but right now this is abusive. 
4. Not fully robust yet. It is getting there but working “outside the box” can get tricky.  

I still have to get used to the interface and how it works. The flash tutorial and samples are invaluable for newbies. There is no question Flash 5 has a place in most web sites. Even to a point of being the entire website. There will soon be an entire section for Flash at this site. Many written by an affiliate that is a much better graphics/Flash person than I.

Updated 209-11-24
Notice no one uses the status bar for help anymore. It used to be used on almost every site. Everyone now uses the Title parameer or new custom modules that perform these yellow popups allowing very complex displays rather than the simplistic text display available with the Title parameter…some even look like the classic “balloon help”.  I suspect that these more advanced help module concepts will eventally make it into HTML standards(maybe reference a section of the page like a DIV or snippet of code as the title parm). I have been noticing that sometimes the help flashes on/off when movong over plain text that is in a SPAN with a title parameter. Quite frustrating.

Published 2000-09-02
The title parm is now available in both IE3+ and NN6+. What is it for? It provides those little pop-up help tips when you move the mouse over something. In previous NN browsers this was only available for pictures(Alt parm). This help is now available on ANY tag. For example, move your mouse over this text. Notice the pop-up help appears. Move the mouse over IE3+ or NN6+ to get a better idea of a more common usage. Another reason I supported NN6.

Title is what help should be. None of this writing to statusbar. Clients do not have to look anywhere, help hits them over the head. I had created a Form 7 process for IE3(only) that did the exact same thing before this was built in. This site is changing to exclusively Title help.

How do you do it? Simple, just put TITLE=”What you want to say” on virtually any tag.

I have more stuff on this in How To demos at my website.

Updated 2009-11-25
Iframes are everywhere now. Unfortunately they are being abused by advertisers. They are still a great solution and have provided me with numerous benefits. Still no autosizing capabilities ;(

Updated 2002-01-07
My demonstration site uses IFrames exclusively. Without them there would be no “FloatAway” toolbar. Now if they only had an automatic resizing and true transparency… Never satisfied

Published 2000-09-02
Ever use a frames design? Restrictive aren’t they? You can’t have a frame anywhere you want. A frameset document is a particular type of document. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a frame anywhere you wanted in a window. Wouldn’t it be nice to have frames that can be moved around the window at will? That is what IFrames improves on the old frames(among other things).

The biggest drawback with using IFrames was that they were only supported on IE3+. Not anymore. Netscape V6 now supports them. It is not quite as complete as IE’s version but still it is a major step forward.

Their biggest advantage is they allow a developer to create a site with multiple small windows interacting…just like many Windows applications. This is really cool and opens up the potential for a true client server model on the web.

Don’t get me wrong, frames are great. This demo site still uses frames because when making a simple 3 frame page the Frameset means you do not have to code for resizing and other weird things. I could have used IFrames, but they are not best for this particular site. I do use them on sites that need more complex interaction between many frames. 

If you have a choice and you only need to support IE and NN6 think about IFrames. There are a lot more possibilities once you use them.

I did the new design for Arrabon House. Visit: http://arrabonhouse.org/

I dont know if they have uploaded the files yet or not, but if yes… the homepage will look like one below.

Updated 2009-11-24
Well there are so many FREE choices with the capability of FrontPage it is a waste of time. Many free online hosting sites have advanced online site development utilities that include advanced modules like search, rating, breadcrumbs, themes, etc. available with just a few clicks. Even shopping carts & e-Commerce are simple drop-ins. Compelling web sites can now be created without any coding knowledge. Why would you pay for any basic web site development tool.

Update 2000-09-02
FrontPage 2000 has been out for a while now… not sure if I like it or hate it. I know that several other products have stepped ahead. Particularly when it comes to positioning and database connectivity. FrontPage 2000 seems to be trying to be middle of the road. They improved sections where there were problems(like options when publishing site) and you can open more than one web at the same time but the redesigned sucks. Opening more than 1 document at a time means you better know about Ctrl+Tab or read it somewhere in the manuals(someone actually reads those?).
In a nutshell it has some good features, it is not as good as NetObjects(or others), and it has some noticeable drawbacks if you are accustom to 98. If you have 98 don’t waste your money. If you are looking at buying one… There are now a lot of competing products. Some free ones are as good as FrontPage. See sites like CNet/ZDnet for their reviews on these products.
I currently use FrontPage2000 simply because it doesn’t reformat my code like ‘98(big problem). In addition I only use these products to draw the page. I then go to code to make things happen. The less code they produce the better for me.

Published 1998-10-17
Well it has my best recommendation……I use it! Of course I also use other tools as well. FrontPage98 is not my first choice for database driven systems.

FrontPage98 Benefits

There are so many. First off I have virtually removed all requirements to work with CGI. I know CGI is a powerful tool but it is not that easy to work with. Site administration has become a breeze. There are so many prebuilt options that used to take me days that now take me minutes(like discussion groups, forms, search, guestbook, etc.). Shared borders and navigation are what every developer wants. There are many more reasons I just haven’t listed them. With all these options it still lets me do more complex things that it does not support. Alas, nothing is perfect……see below…..

FrontPage98 Disadvantages

It doesn’t work well with complex CGI sites(like my old site). These will have to be converted. You have to work within Navigators limited design if you want to use all functions. Navigator functions do not always do what you would logically think. Shared borders do not support script in headings. Using variables in Explorer are limited to text only values. Numerous quirky problems, especially when working with Unix servers. But I think I have most of them figured out(they all have work arounds). Database functionality is very limited. I wish vendors would stop using us developers to work out their buggy software. 

FrontPage98 Summary

Buy it! It is simple enough an eight year old can build a very nice site yet capable enough to handle much more complex web site requirements. It supports a limited team work environment on it’s own but works even better with integrated tools like SourceSafe, VB6.0, Visual InterDev, and IIS 4.0. There are other contenders. If you want a lot of database design then NetObjects Fusion may be a better choice right now.

The infamous Year 2000(Y2K). It figures we techies had to come up with an acronym for it. Anyway here is some of my input into the problem.

2038 is already solved

2009-11-24
With the mainstream deployment of 64 bit hardware and operating systems ongoing now any issues with 2038 should not occur. This presumes that all 32 bit systems will be replaced in the next 29 years. Of course with our history there will probably be at least a few crtical systems still running software/hardware from 1980.  Dates will not have any problems until at least the year 10,000.  This is my last update on this issue. 

The Biggest Non-Event Ever?

2000-03-26
Well, we have completed the quarter(almost) with relatively no problems. I have heard of lot’s of reporting problems and a few systems failures but nothing that we as customers will ever notice. Every problem I have seen so far has a fairly simple solution. This has to be the biggest non-event in history of mankind. On the other hand there was an awful lot of fixing going on for years before the event.

Hopefully the Final Update

2000-01-02
Whew, we made it. With no major impacts related to Y2K I am not concerned any more. Sure there may be some problems for specific companies but they will work around them. As long as hydro and water works we will go along just fine. I have heard of some trivial problems but nothing that hasn’t been worked around. Have to question our panic in many cases though. It appears that countries that did very little Y2K preparation are not having any major problems. Will have to wait for a few weeks/months to see full results. Also, many computerized systems were shutdown over Y2K just in case. Many systems with problems were just restarted with 1971 date and things went without a hitch. I am amazed how little impact there was on the clock change. I expected at least a few countries with problems. Everyone that thought there would be no problems ended up right. Of course, if no one actually fixed any of  the problems that were there things would have been a mess for sure. A lot of work by many people helped get us by a major hurdle. Now we just have to wait for 2038 and the next major date related hurdle. That is when virtually every program currently built that uses dates will not work. We can’t even start to fix it till we get a 64 bit operating system. 

Investing?…Watch Out

1999-09-26
The US government has created legislation that allows a company that provided non-compliant Y2K systems 90 days to resolve any problems. Although this will help let’s think about this for a minute……..
Companies like IBM and Microsoft may be forced to give away a lot of free upgrades. In addition they may have extensive costs in assisting implement the upgrades. Let’s take a minor example. Windows95 is not Y2K compliant. Your company invested and put Windows95 on every desktop. You do not upgrade to new versions before Y2K. When Y2K arrives and you have problems. You could easily argue that Microsoft sold you a defective software and they must resolve this issue. Microsoft could then be held responsible to upgrade all your desktops to Y2K compliant systems. Not only provide the software but also absorb the cost of implementing the new software. It could get even worse if your PC’s have to be upgraded to run the new Y2K software. Who is responsible for that? Again you may be able to argue that you do not intend to change all your PC’s so you can run the Y2K software. Microsoft may have a difficult negotiation position. Once this gets out virtually every company with Windows95 would expect the same solution……Think it could get expensive for Microsoft? You bet.
Companies like IBM and Microsoft could go bankrupt just trying to fix this mess. I don’t think an argument that you did not upgrade would be defensible on their part. You paid a lot of money for software that should work.
Apple suddenly looks really good since they have always been Y2K compliant.
So if you are investing you may want to keep this in mind.
As for the Stock Market itself…..Don’t worry….Everything I have seen is that the NYSE and NASDAQ are 100% Y2K compliant already. 

The Latest Update….Relax…Sort of..

1999-09-18
Has anybody had any problem getting historical data from any businesses they deal with? Have you tried? If you did have problems that company is probably not ready for Y2K at all. Raise a big flag so everyone else knows. The rest of us will not have noticed anything since 1999-09-09.
Overall I think we are in pretty good shape in Canada. Our society will survive the Y2K mess. With most of the Hydro issues covered and the Banks primary systems Y2K compliant I do not expect any major catastrophe to hit us on 2000-01-01. There is still a lot to do but it only affects specific companies and not Canada.
My biggest concern at this time is over public reaction to this problem.  Let’s get real, the sky is not falling. The impact this should have on you will be minimum. There may even be an employment boom for a while. Let’s presume that many major companies had severe problems. They will revert to some form of manual methods(which require lot’s more people). This could create a huge demand for data entry and customer service people. Plus additional people to fix the problem. For that matter most jobs that have become redundant could be in demand. Just think, you got laid off 2 years ago and may be back at 2-3 times the salary.
On a business note…If you had any problems whatsoever with 1999-09-09 tell me(so I can sell your stock). You should have all critical systems fully Y2K compliant by now. Trying to fix those “other” systems is priority. The biggest problem with this whole mess is the unknown. You must have all resources available to resolve any of these unknown issues on 2000-01-01. They can’t be loaded down with tasks already. Most companies I have been involved with have created contingency plans for the loss of various systems.
More business stuff – Reports are going to be interesting in the new year. Make sure you can trust the data. Otherwise you may make some bad decisions. If your systems are true Y2K compliant this is not an issue but if you put band-aids make sure those systems provide valid reports. This is almost always forgotten about by IT. In most developments I have been involved reports are the last thing completed.

An Update….major test about to hit us

1999-07-07
Well we are about to hit our first Y2K issue that could affect many businesses. On September 9,1999 some companies may have many of their mainframe files wiped out. Why? Think about it…..99/9/9 was used by many people to specify an indefinite expiry date. The problem with this is even if you fixed the dates to reflect a 4 digit year these files will still get erased since the expiry date is still 1999/9/9. I hope someone in your company adjusted all these dates to 9999/12/31 or at least some time in the future. If not, even your backups might not save you. At the same time you might as well do the 1999/12/31 files as well. Otherwise you will have the same problem again on that date. You have about two months to make sure this is covered. Fortunately it is not that difficult.

An Update….wait for 2038

1999-02-25
Very Few Companies are Really Fixing the Problem!
Most are putting band-aids on their programs counting on them(or the program) not being there “later on”. They are being counted as Y2K compliant. This is a technicality. Many of these systems will fail, just not on 2000-01-01. We will see problems for the next 25-50 years because of the limited vision.
2038 WILL MAKE Y2K LOOK SIMPLE
You have been warned of this! Will anything be done before 2030+? Not likely. The operating system won’t be here for several more years. Then all the programs have to be adjusted. 2038 will be a real killer…..literally. All programs written for current PC systems will fail. This includes “Y2K Compliant” PC’s like Macintosh. Not just reporting wrong dates, actually crash any program that uses a date routine. It is all to do with how dates are stored(again). Technically the date is stored as a number in milliseconds. Current computers only store a number that is 32 bits. Once we hit earlier 2038 the number gets too big for the system to store. To fix this we need 64 bit systems. You know the ones that “are coming”. Only then will we be able to truly fix this mess(at least for 8,000+ years).
The Rant
Why hasn’t everyone standardized on YYYY-MM-DD date format. It is the ISO standard and has been a standard in many countries for years. No confusion and about half of the 2038 problems could be resolved before we get there. Sorting dates would not require special routines. I guess it is too logical.
If you have standardized on this format you have some vision, great job.

Some companies have stated they are Y2K compliant. Not many though….and we in Canada are better off than most countries. In my more recent evaluations I have come to the conclusion that as long as Hydro keeps working and no nuclear plants(or something of that nature) collapse we as a society will survive just fine. Some companies will be out of luck but that will only be a few large businesses.

There is an awful lot of built up spending coming. The mad dash to upgrade PC’s is here! Now who is going to install all this equipment?

Y2K – Who is Affected?

1998-08-23
Actually if you are an individual(or most small business) the impact should be minimum.   Does the date on devices really matter that much to you? I couldn’t care less as long as they still work. Besides you can usually replace devices(PC, software, VCR) pretty quickly. Although on the other hand, I won’t be flying when the clock changes. My recommendation is play it safe when the clock changes. Don’t be using any device that requires computers. These include trains, planes, cars(traffic lights), elevators, escalators, subways, to name a few. Although in most cases things will be fine do you need to take the chance for the sake of 5 minutes?  Your major problem is how the large business problems will affect you. If we get the domino effect of business failures you could be out of a job, consumer goods might not be on the shelves, that kind of thing. If the worst were to happen most governments will step in with assistance(if they can). Now if you are a mid-size to large business this is a whole different issue. Your business depends on this. You can’t go to manual methods and survive. So if  you haven’t covered every base you can think of by now…. PANIC!!!!!

Y2K Status Update

1998-08-23
I do my own unofficial poll of Y2K and Euro readiness of many major Canadian companies(and some International) through my associates and reviews. Although Canada as a whole is in good shape compared to most countries(Including the US) we still have a long way to go. I have only met two people that in private discussions truly felt their systems would be ready for Y2K and many go “Huh?” when I mention the Euro. I do not know anyone that is 100% ready. It is just now becoming obvious that you have to look outside your company as well.
A Thought… If you are lucky(rare) and are ready, your major client/supplier is probably not…..maybe you better help….to save your business.

Y2K testing anyone?

1998-08-23
There is only one way to truly ensure your company is Y2K compliant. Set ALL clocks to 11:55pm 1999-12-31(not just that old mainframe),  wait for the clock to change to 2000 then run ALL batch processing streams including daily, weekly, monthly…., test all applications, software, hardware, customizations, environment(like elevators), CHECK YOUR DATA, pray you have covered everything, set the clock back….and wait.
Now as the CIO, do you have the manpower to even prepare for test like this? Not likely.
Why “ALL” clocks? Unless you can guarantee that every PC, mini, micro, LAN, mainframe…. system is configured exactly the same for anything related to dates you don’t have much choice. It is easy for someone to configure different date formats.

Y2K ain’t over at 00:01

1998-08-23
This caught me off guard. There are some people that believe this problem is over the moment the clock changes. WRONG! This problem will be ongoing for years. There are so many bypasses being put into systems you will wonder if anything ever really got fixed. The most common bypass currently being done is assuming any two digit year earlier than some year is later than 2000. If later it is 1900.
Example:  If the year is 25 assume it is 2025 but if it is 26 it is 1926.
This may actually work for  a few systems but the  mentality that got us here in the first place is still going on………”This system will be replaced in 5 years”!    Maybe somebody should go Hmmmmmmmmmm(or actually replace the system).

Y2K is it simple?

1997-09-25
It could be if you have systems that are all built within the last couple of years. But even if your business is 100% Y2K compliant are your business partners? For most companies it is going to be much larger than most people think. It affects all computing systems from PC’s to mainframes. It is a worldwide problem.
Background:
At one time disk storage was extremely expensive($60,000+/meg). At that time the computer people informed the clients that due to additional space required to store a four digit year it would cost an additional $240,000+(in 1960’s). Plus the client would have to enter the additional two digits for dates. Guess what decision was made? You guessed it….save cost now, fix it later. Now we have the two digit year. Continue this concept with all programs, built for any computers over the last 40+ years and presto you have a major mess.
The Issues:
First myth….The information(data) is a big problem. Wrong! It is simple to convert. It does take extensive processing but can be coded very easily.
Second myth….We have till 2000-01-01 to fix all these problems. Wrong! The problem is already here and will be here after 2000-01-01. Some systems have had to handle this already(like mortgages). As we get closer to Y2K more systems are going to show errors. Not all problems are going to happen on 2000-01-01 at 00:01. Some may take a year or more before they show up. Already many temporary fixes are being employed that give an additional 10-20 years before they have problems.
Physical hardware is a problem for many old computers. The vendor may not even be in business anymore. Most PC’s previous to Pentium’s are not Y2K compliant and will not work properly on 2000-01-01.
The biggest problem is all those systems that were built to access the data. There are billions of lines of code. Again, some vendors may not be in business anymore. Through the years the source code may have been lost so the program will have to be totally rewritten. Even trying to determine which systems are affected is daunting.
The Impact:
I expect every large company will come out of this with some problems. The best prepared will not have much impact that costs the company revenue. The worst will be bankrupt very quickly. Lawsuits are going to be everywhere when damage control takes hold. Everyone will be pointing at others for their problems.
What to Do:
As of 1998-01-01 if you haven’t completed 80%+ of your conversion you are in trouble.
Get Y2K compliance contracts with all business affiliates that are critical for your business. No matter what, keep staff that have experience with your systems(you are going to need all of them)! Hire as many support and development staff as you can(you will find it isn’t easy to find good staff right now). Contract out as much as possible but keep control of the project within the company. Target critical systems first, including all associated programs. Extensive contingency planning. Plan for the unplanned. Panic!
Just a Thought:
If humanity survives past the year 9999(I think it will) think how much will have to change. It will make our current problems seem trivial.
Think of the savings that occurred because of the two digit year. Storage space, processing power, even paper was saved. Sure it is costing a fortune now but I think it did return value.
Most computing systems working today were built with the intention that they would be scrapped within five years of their installation. Many have been running for over thirty years. If a business had any other equipment that performed this way they would be thrilled. Computer software systems are just like any machinery. If they are not kept up they fall apart. They eventually need replacement even though at the moment they are working fine.

Dive Into HTML5 http://bit.ly/12aXVI

Updated 2009-11-24
Nobody talks about this technology anymore. Has been replaced by RSS.

Updated 1999-02-25
Well this technology really hasn’t been used much yet. Most of the sites mentioned below do have their own channel but it is a waste for most sites.

Published 1997-09-25
Cool, but how many sites do you want updates from that often? Big value to specific industries(like stock, weather, etc.).