*** WILL BE MAINTAINED AFTER 1999 WHILE EFFECTS MAY CONTINUE TO APPEAR *** *** Consensus appears to be that uk.tech.y2k should continue, at least *** *** into the Financial Year that started on 2000-04-06; and perhaps up *** *** until the Next Millennium is properly running (6) (b), or the next *** *** Financial Year. *** *** A draft Rationale & Charter for the conversion of uk.tech.y2k to *** *** uk.tech.comp is maintained (comment is requested) at *** *** *** *** As interest is greatly diminished, I am, from 2000-03-11, renaming *** *** the full mini-FAQ from y2k-mfaq.txt to y2k_mfaq.txt, and reducing *** *** the robo-posted file y2k-mfaq.txt to a mere rump, with link to the *** *** full one at . *** A YEAR-2000 MINI-FAQ FOR UK including news:uk.tech.y2k Rationale and Charter UK.TECH.Y2K is a UK TECHNICAL newsgroup (c) JR.Stockton@physics.org or www.merlyn.demon.co.uk >= 2000-11-03 Outline : (0) This FAQ : (a) FAQ rationale. (b) Copying. (c) Disclaimer. (1) The Group : (a) Need for Newsgroup. (b) Actual Newsgroup Charter. (c) Newsgroup usage. (d) Moderation? (e) Charter Review? (f) News:uk.*. (g) Origin of "Y2k". (2) The Main Problem : (a) Cause - two digit years in records. (b) Circumstances : (i) Dates. (ii) Computers. (iii) Embedded. (iv) Food Expiry. (v) New Systems. (c) Effects : (i) General. (ii) C tm_year. (iii) Make. (iv) Also affected. (v) Remediation. (vi) Non-Y2k. (d) Remedies : (i) YYYY. (ii) Windowing - Fixed, Sliding. (iii) 28-year setback or setahead. (iv) Day Count. (v) Field Packing. (vi) Encapsulation. (vii) Precautions. (viii) Performance. (e) Consequences. (f) Personal Preparations. (g) Professional Preparations. (h) Industrial Preparations. (i) HMG's Efforts - leaflets, references. (j) Recovery - technical tips. (k) Insurance. (l) Holidays. (m) Rollover monitoring. (n) Rollover happenings. (3) The Other Problems : (a) 2000-02-29,30. (b) 2000-366, 2001. (c) 1900-02-29. (d) Marker dates. (e) Testing. (f) Field Order. (g) PC-specific : (i) Two Clocks. (ii) Date Rollovers; NTP. (iii) Time Dilation; CMOS; boot-fail. (iv) Patches. (h) Upgrades. (i) 2001. (4) Y2k and the Euro. (5) UK Socio-Economic : (a) UK Jobs, Rates. (b) UK Business. (c) UK Legal. (d) UK Parliamentary. (e) UK Work. (f) UK Societal Effects. (6) Coda : (a) Other problem dates. (b) The Millennium. (7) Further Reading : (a) Local Web Sites : (i) Personal. (ii) Corporate. (iii) HMG. (iv) uty2k. (b) European Web/News. (c) UN/World. (d) Foreign Web/News. (e) Non-Net sources - books, magazines, whatever. This contains JRS's personal opinions (many taken from others), somewhat ratified by agreed regular posting to u.t.y2k. Parts marked NEW (meaning new or substantially changed) may not have been so checked yet (lesser changes not marked); I will leave these markings for a month or more. (0) (a) This FAQ gives some brief introductory answers to what may be the most common practical technical questions. Other, longer, FAQs are available elsewhere (see Sec.7). (0) (b) For up-to-dateness, I do not permit the wording of this FAQ to be copied on the Net, in whole or in substantial part, except for "fair comment" extracts. I do not permit the page to be copied, except : (i) to news:uk.tech.y2k, as agreed and arranged; (ii) for standard transparent cacheing and proper mirroring; (iii) temporarily by agreement, for citation in print or equivalent, in order to reduce load on my site at Demon; (iv) as described in my . I may agree to limited copying within organisations; all copies must cite my master URL. Links to and citations of this page or of any mirrors are welcome. Automated access abuses source bandwidth. (0) (c) This document represents the situation as I myself see it, in the light of information received; I can accept no responsibility for any consequences of its being read, or for the accuracy of anything within it. Sec (1) (a) ")" quotes that in the Call For Votes & the Result. Sec (1) (b) ">" quotes Charter in CFV, Result, & UK Archives. (1) (a) Rationale for news:uk.tech.y2k (retensed) ) The newsgroup became dominated ) by US politics, salaries, and survivalism; and was therefore ) insufficiently useful to the UK technical community. This is a new ) newsgroup for UK-related posters to discuss relevant technical Y2k ) matters. The introduction of the Euro affects Y2k programming and ) introduces related problems. (* Since that, news:comp.software.year-2000.tech has been formed *) (1) (b) A copy of the Actual Charter of (Definitive is at ) : > Group for the UK-centric discussion of all aspects and possible > solutions of the Year 2000 problem, especially in relation to Computers > and all electronic/electrical equipment utilising date related ic's. > > The group will permit discussion of the euro/EMU where it > affects/interfaces with Y2K work as well as also handling discussion on > programming for the introduction of the Eurocurrency. > > No advertising allowed, Off topic subjects to include job announcements > > Binary postings are expressly forbidden. All postings to be in plain > text. Other material - such as word processor or HTML formats, > binaries, executable and/or zipped files, etc. - may be cited and placed > on Web or FTP sites. > The newsgroup will not be moderated, however, off topic postings > including unwelcome ads, will be warned off/reported to their > postmaster/ISP. (1) (c) The following are not appropriate for posting in u.t.y2k : non-UK languages, HTML, multiparts, base-64 encoding, binaries, fiction, graphics, sounds, VCards, WP formats; ECP/EMP; Web pages or Tutorials (give a URL instead); advertisements; "$" sums, American and other foreign politics, poetry, survivalism, religion, finance, employment, law; unverified legend; chiliasm; the old Cobol-Y2k-cryosleep-Y10k joke, the Year-0 joke, the 100GB burger joke, the Januark joke, Jesus' DoB, and suchlike. Posters on US topics should use news:us.*. Please keep crossposting, whether or not original, to a minimum, and to truly technical newsgroups only; and please honour also all other UseNet and news:uk.* conventions, on quoting, signatures, not duplicating, not demanding mail replies, and so on (Note 5). Off-topic questions, trolls, and adverts, should not be answered in News. Relevance to UK & topic should be explicit. Demands for E-mail replies are deprecated. Foreign interference in group management is strongly deprecated. Do not "Gateway" either to or from the newsgroup. (1) (d) The newsgroup should not need human moderation, but robomoderation to apply agreed requirements on binaries, HTML, crossposting, ... may become needed if the group is misused. It would be well for UKers to include UK in header, body, or signature, to avoid mistakes. Give relevant affiliations; anonymous posters are deprecated. (1) (e) The Charter can now be amended. If this is proposed, some points for consideration are : Relations with news:uk.legal & news:c.s.y2k.tech, Robo-Posts (cf. Sneakpeek), Celebrations (Dome, etc.), ...; bar US non-tech; Cross-posting; and otherwise as (c), (d) above. (1) (f) For more on our hierarchy news:uk.*, see news:uk.answers and news:uk.net.news.*, and . (1) (g) In "Y2k", "Y" stands for "Year" and "k" for "kilo" from the Greek "khilioi" meaning "thousand". (2) (a) It has been common, in computers large and small and also in embedded processors within control gear, in processing, in storage, and in input/output, for the Year to be handled as two decimal digits, which is simple and satisfactory while everything remains within the range 1900-1999. But if '00' is used to represent 2000, and so on, then, if the programming does not allow properly for this, the consequences may be severe. Computers and embedded systems of all sizes will be affected; PCs are a minor, though conspicuous, part of the problem. (2) (b) (i) : Any activity involving dates after 1999 is at risk. Manufacturing, government, and utilities may be affected. Systems are interdependent. Problems will begin to arise before 2000 (the "Jo Anne Effect"), and will continue to appear for some years after (Note 3). Away from the GMT TZ, UTC-based systems change away from local midnight. (2) (b) (ii) : In computers as such, this includes : forward planning, JIT, sell-by and expiry/purge dates, finance, taxes, wages, pensions, billing, booking, entertainment, control, school and medical records, communications, retailing, transport, and all kinds of scheduling. Many standards (X12, EDIFACT, VDA, OFTP, etc.) for electronic commerce data now specify 2-digit year fields, but this is changing. (2) (b) (iii) : In embedded systems, this includes : process control, retailing, smart-cards, communications, medical, entertainment, transport, maintenance dates, and scheduling - lifts, traffic lights, motorway tolls ... (more "embedded" in date2000.htm, later?). (2) (b) (iv) Ambiguous food expiry date formats - MMM YY or MMM DD, &c.? ISTM that UK law requires DMY order; but some suppliers do not comply. In 4Q99, ambiguity appeared diminishingly. (2) (b) (v) A system acquired after 1999 may yet need a check for 19xx compliance, if it may be used with "historic" data. Indeed, perhaps all systems should be checked for needed 19xx compliance in 2000. (2) (c) (i) Specifically, there will be errors in comparison, in sorting, and in arithmetic. Year data may also be truncated, overflow into an adjacent field or, in output, cause field expansion. Strange things may happen to the apparent date. Day of Week may be wrong. The program, or system, may either crash or operate incorrectly. (2) (c) (ii) Cory Hamasaki : (Re C library) 'tm_year currently contains a two digit year, "98" for 1998. Its formal definition is "years since 1900" but I have seen programmers use it as if it's defined as "two digit year" within the century. The problem is, both ways work until Y2k. Then code must use the correct definition. Java, Perl, etc. can inherit this'. Dates like '19100', '190' and '2100' may appear in 2000. (2) (c) (iii) The Make or Link Edit function in a compile/link system is at risk, and can either be or invoke Old Code. Remember also any Audit trail dates. (2) (c) (iv) Also affected : such as Fax machine dating, VCRs, ... - anything that knows the full date. (2) (c) (v) Today may not be late to start; but tomorrow will be. Ensure all new work is compliant. All sorts of fresh errors will be introduced while programs are being updated. (2) (c) (vi) Non-Y2k: Date-triggered, & other, viruses or frauds. DOS losing whole days when inactive. Duff PC RTC (Real-Time Clock) battery. (2) (d) (i) The safe, cleanest solution is to use full years throughout, while allowing intelligent windowing for the actual keying-in of dates. The internal representation of the year may be four decimal digits, a sixteen-bit word, or whatever is adequate for future millennia. Take care when expanding existing "special" YY dates. (2) (d) (ii) The stored year may be windowed, by assuming that it must be no more than 99 years after a base year such as 1920, 1950 or 1980. The base year may be fixed; or it may be defined as a sliding offset from the current year. This technique requires prudent programming; it does not require extra data storage, but clearly it can be or become unsafe. Spreadsheets and databases use it, diversely and often injudiciously. It should not be used for data exchange; but, if you must, rewindow. (2) (d) (iii) The stored year can be set back (or ahead) by a constant offset of 28 (or 56) years, which will make each year's calendar match the correct one (A PC's DOS clock cannot be set before 1980, but ahead does not fix 'tm_year' errors); beware of expiry dates. This approach is probably unwise for data processing; it may be acceptable for embedded control gear, for which variable setback on March 1st can also help. On a PC, years 2000-2007 can be matched (bar -02-29) by irregular years in 1980-1999; and 50% of their Easters can match as well. See links from ; 1993 matches 1999, 1994 & 1995 match 2000 (bar -02-29), 1990 matches 2001. (2) (d) (iv) Another approach is to use internally just a simple Day Count, converting for I/O. Define the base date carefully; JD changes at noon GMT, but MJD changes at midnight; COBOL has a Relative Integer Date. Code in . (2) (d) (v) : "Field packing" - without expansion, YY fields can be redefined for more than 100 values, in binary or part-hex. Validation and arithmetic change; sorting need not. Can work up to end 2005 (9F), 2025 (9Z), 2059 (F9), 2065 (FF), or 2675 (ZZ) etc., without changing pre-2000 data. (2) (d) (vi) : "insulation" - 'splitting a business into pre-y2k and post-y2k parts, letting the post-y2k part run with unaltered software, and transferring accounts from pre-y2k to post-y2k as if they were the creation of new accounts post-y2k'. (2) (d) (vii) As well as validating human-input date data, carefully check all imported date data, especially from systems not under your control. And check your system's set date, especially around 01/01, 02/29, 12/31. Have as little activity as possible at the rollover; turn off if possible. (2) (d) (viii) Code with heavy date use (sorting) could run slower when remediated; this could impact schedules. (2) (e) Consequences : Many have no idea, as usual. Some, particularly in America, believe that Y2k represents 'The End Of The World As We Know It', and expect civil disaster. Some believe that there may be a few real problems on and soon after The Day, but that they personally will scarcely be affected. Some believe that the normal running of the U.K. will be significantly affected, but that the majority of the population will cope successfully, as in 1939, or 1940/41, or 1947, or 1986, come what may elsewhere. See (2) (n) ; ask again in 2000Q2. (2) (f) Personal preparations are probably prudent, whatever you expect to happen; mains services could fail. A modest set is given in , but others advise more; and note HMG recommendations. Have a spare PC CMOS/RTC battery handy! Don't rely unnecessarily on everything working perfectly (at any time!) (2) (g) IT staff should already be aware; and expecting overtime, leave refusal, holiday working as Y2k nears. Directors and employees should confirm that their businesses are preparing, both in fixing their systems and in planning for the failures of others. Consultants and others should be very careful about insurance and professional liability, and need qualified advice. Quality Audit should check Y2k. Remember corporate IT systems, corporate personal systems, and also user-programmed material such as spreadsheets. (2) (h) Industries, and others, should ensure that a maximum of equipment is readily available for use at the start of 2000, to cover for failures; readiness depending on application. Staff may be called in. Firms reliant on JIT supply should plan for supply failures, with independent sources. (2) (i) HMG's efforts? The last PM appointed Robin Guernier as Man i/c, running the private-sector Taskforce 2000, which continues. This PM started the public-sector Action 2000 campaign, headed by Donald Cruickshank (ex OfTel boss) for one day a week. Gwynneth Flower is now the Director of Action 2000. Cabinet committees Misc4 & Misc4(P) are looking at national contingency planning. And, there's a CCTA Web Site. And the PM has spoken. <--- I don't know how accurate some of that is : RSVP. For training, try the IT NTO web site at http://www.itnto.org.uk/ ? HMG have produced leaflets - some references from that of Oct 1999 : http://www.bug2000.co.uk/ Action2000 http://domestic.bug2000.co.uk/ " http://business.bug2000.co.uk/ " http://international.bug2000.co.uk/ " http://www.bug2000.co.uk/get_help/software_index.shtml http://www.open.gov.uk/year2000 http://www.y2ktelco.co.uk/ TelCos http://www.water.org.uk/ Water http://www.electricity.org.uk/ Electricity http://www.mcagency.org.uk/ HM Coastguard http://www.police.uk/report.html Police http://www.fire-uk.org/millennium Fire Service http://www.visitbritain.com/ BTA http://www.millennium.gov.uk/ Commission http://www.dome2000.co.uk/ Dome http://www.millenniumparties.com/ http://www.fco.gov.uk/travel FCO - countries http://www.year2000travel.org.uk/ http://www.abi.org.uk Insurers http://www.mod.uk/policy/y2k/faq.htm MoD http://www.apacs.org.uk/ BACS payroll http://www.winter.nhs.uk/ NHS (2) (j) (Recovery - technical tips) RSVP. Reprocess copies of backups. Be prepared to simplify. Stand-alone systems - consider date setback. (2) (k) Do not assume that insurance will cover predictable Y2k-related problems; check your position - policies, exclusions, and amendments. (2) (l) As I recall, in the UK we always have a Bank Holiday on the first non-weekend day of the year, and the Scots expect another. These will be Mon 2000-01-03 & Tue 2000-01-04. Also, Fri 1999-12-31 will be a UK Bank Holiday (confirmed by HMG, 1998-06-03). But emergency services should be fully manned, and others may be called on to work. See for some other places. (2) (m) Rollover monitoring - sites include these & links therefrom : http://www.millennium-centre.gov.uk/ http://www.millennium-centre.gov.uk/links.htm http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/millennium/blueroom.htm http://www.iy2kcc.org/ http://www.ironic.com/y2k/now.html http://www.y2k.govt.nz/media/index.html http://www.watchnz.govt.nz http://www.y2k.govt.nz http://www.y2kaustralia.gov.au/ http://www.un.org/News/ http://europa.eu.int/iy2kcc/summary_chart_az.html http://europa.eu.int/iy2kcc/countries.html (2) (n) Rollover happenings : Apparently no reports of widespread or significant UK infrastructure failures; a brief problem with HSBC EFTPOS, for example. A number of reports of deformed years (i.e. not 00 or 2000) presented for human reading. Many cries from PC users unprepared for 1980-01-04, or with the bad Award BIOS. UK first business days seem generally free of major, but not of minor, problems. Elsewhere, nothing major yet seen, but problems fave been surfacing with the ill-prepared. (3) (a) (Notes 2, 3) There will be a February 29th in 2000 (as decreed in about 45 BC, and not altered by the Papal Bull or the Calendar Act); yet some people still do not expect it. There will be no February 30th. These are essential test dates. Every fourth year is Leap in 1901..2099. (3) (b) There will therefore be a 366th day ending the Year 2000. As in 1996, failure to allow for this may have serious results. There may be other problems as 2000 becomes 2001 . (3) (c) There was no 1900-02-29 in the West, except for Lotus 1-2-3 and compatible systems. Britain and the colonies did have 1700-02-29. See MSU in (7) (d). (3) (d) (Note 3) Input validators may reject years 00, 99 or higher. Marker entries such as 99-9-9 and 99-12-31 may be intended as "never", and cause errors with data of or after those dates. Markers may sort incorrectly. Output formats may exceed/resize fields. (3) (e) Setting the date forward/backward for testing may have adverse consequences; at worst, it may be impossible to reset it. Licenced software may not run or may expire; forward-dated records may be generated and 'older' ones may be purged. Processing centres need to test on logically-isolated systems. However, it is probably usually safe to test a PC by booting into DOS from a clean SYSed floppy, and running no applications; otherwise, have a complete tested back-up. As far as possible, test using the same procedure as will be followed during real rollover. (3) (f) Whenever the date is used in numerical form, the logical field order, MS..LS, should be used; it is a good habit to maintain. This means the ISO-8601 8-digit order 'YYYY MM DD' or 'YYYY DDD', with the time, if present, following in 24-hour form. Leading zeroes must not be suppressed. Do not specify CCYY. Day-counts may be better, with a well-defined start such as MJD 0 (AD 1858-11-17). Specify and check compliance on all acquisitions. (3) (g) (i) There are only two timekeepers in a standard PC: the RTC which runs permanently, battery-backed, from a 32 kHz crystal; and the OS clock which is in software and incremented at 18.2 Hz from a timer circuit driven by a different crystal. Each of these can be read in various ways; see my program int_test. (3) (g) (ii) On many DOS/Windows PCs, after 1999 ends the OS clock will flopback to early 1980 at first boot in 2000; almost always, it will be sufficient to re-enter the full date once in 2000 - the DOS command DATE may need YYYY. A few cannot be so corrected ; some will auto-correct. One trick is to boot off an 'empty' DOS system floppy (or a Win95 one with AUTOEXEC.BAT holding DATE). Win98 should be OK, but can err if started in the last minute of any year. But - on first use of anything after 1999, CHECK THE DATE. The NTP theory was that it is good to wait a full day after 1999. Only its authors, at most, believed it. (3) (g) (iii) After 1999, in some instances, a PC OS clock may sometimes time-jump during startup ("Time Dilation"); a BIOS design flaw (Note 1), for which tools exist. CMOS RAM may be corrupted; have full backups on floppy. Booting might fail, pre- or post- POST. My int_test.pas may find TD. (3) (g) (iv) For compliant Windows File Managers, see my date2000.htm#WFM. (3) (h) Because of Y2k, many systems will be updated in 1999-2000. Upgrades introduce new errors, independent of Y2k. (3) (i) Some Y2k-fix bodges (inc. by MS?) may only work correctly in 2000, failing in 2001 ff. (4) It will be necessary to ensure that financial systems can handle both the Year 2000 and the introductions of the Euro (Note 4) and of Scots taxation, etc. This will increase the amount of work to be done. It seems wise to implement these changes non-independently; indeed, given the timescales, that may be essential or inevitable. General discussion of the financial changes is not on-topic in uk.tech.y2k. (5) (a) UK Jobs, Rates - too dynamic for me to FAQ - see (RSVP). (5) (b) UK Business - not for me to FAQ - see (RSVP). DTI's BAS2000 Audit scheme for SMEs. (5) (c) UK Legal - not for me to FAQ - see (RSVP). IMHO, the topic should suit news:uk.legal better than uty2k. Ignore all foreign legal advice on the Net, bar EU. (5) (d) UK Parliamentary - not for me to FAQ - see (RSVP). The Y2K Millennium Conformity Bill has been discussed, and its text can be found at (Other good ref URLs? RSVP). (5) (e) UK Work - many professionals will be called on to work extra time; many people will want extra leave. (5) (f) UK Societal Effects. These are off-topic for the group; see for example discussion list uk-y2k-action@egroups.com , and the Community Action Network site . Big parties may become dangerous. (6) (a) The Year 2000 should give the only calendar-based problems for many years. But other problems are due at specific Critical Dates (Note 3). Among them : Global Positioning System (GPS) week number rolled over from 1023 to 0000 on 21-22 August 1999; many UK telephones will be renumbered, Easter 2000; the clock on some Macintosh computers cannot be set after 2019; NTP needs fixing by 2036; 32-bit UNIX (inter alia) will have an overflow problem in 2038. (6) (b) The Third Millennium and the Twenty-First Century each start on 2001-01-01, since AD nominally started at AD 1. The foolish will plan to celebrate 2000-01-01, the cunning both dates. (7) Further reading is essential. Very many articles, of all sorts, are available. The following is but a small selection, containing many more links. Further suggestions? (a) UK Web/News Sites : (i) Personal Dave Eastabrook, Elmbronze Ltd, Year 2000 Consultant : a Scottish site, with Ian Galpin - date/time standard, links : Stephen Tonkin - "What is ISO 8601?" : This mini-FAQ is ; see also ff., & links, etc. (ii) Corporate Taskforce 2000 See re TECs. Technology Management Ltd re Y2k Audit ? BSI: DISC PD2000-1:1998 IEE: links page. (iii) HMG CCTA : (Action 2000) Cabinet committees : Central Information Technology Unit (Cabinet Office) : (iv) and , our own group. (b) European Web/News (c) UN Web/News (d) Other Web/News International Y2K Status Centre . Newsgroups : , , and others. Pam Hystad's smallish FAQ, in news:c.s.y2k and at R J Sandler's big FAQ Kevin Martin's csy2kt site Cinderella MiniFAQ Microsoft FAQ Dallas Semiconductor TechBrief 8 USIA : Perl 19$year : , , ? MSU - Common Y2k failures: (e) Non-Net sources Books, magazines, newspapers, whatever. ISO-8601. BYTE: Jul 1998 pp.52-62. Personal Computer World: Feb 1998, pp.208-220; "Hands On", Apr 1999 ff. Notes: 1 : Time Dilation (Crouch-Echlin Effect) - Refs : Jace Crouch : , Mike Echlin : , Dave Eastabrook (FAQ; supplies C-E's TD Tools to EMEA) : . Me : & pas-time.htm#DblSet. 2 : Leap := (Yr mod 4 = 0) xor (Yr mod 100 = 0) xor (Yr mod 400 = 0) ; Leap := (Yr and 3) = 0 (binary) covers 1901-2099 ; The Calendar FAQ : 3 : Critical Dates : 4 : The Euro : refers. 5 : See, for example, , , FYI28/RFC1855, Son-of-RFC1036, , etc. Coda : IMHO, the UK needed a **short**, regularly-posted Y2k FAQ (including the Charter of the group), with short answers to the most common questions and pointers for the rest. This would best have been undertaken by someone professionally involved; but no offers appeared. I saw no need for a new long FAQ, as there was already enough to point to. Moreover, sometimes had Pam Hystad's Smallish FAQ. I intend to maintain this document in plain text on my Web site (which has related pages); but as I have not been prepared to undertake the *regular* posting of a FAQ to News from my machine, it has been robo-copied from there at 05:56 each Sunday and later (05:45 Monday nominal) robo-posted to News by Adrian Wontroba's system at Stade Computers Ltd, UK. NEW 2000-08-20 : The moderator of news:comp.software.year-2000.tech has for some while ceased to show any signs of existence. E&OE. Copyright (c) 1998-date J R Stockton. All Rights Reserved. Replies to - -- Dr J R Stockton, Surrey, UK. www.merlyn.demon.co.uk or JR.Stockton@physics.org FAQqish topics inc. Y2k, acronyms, links.