APPLE has canned the ill-starred Newton and the Mac鈥檚 share of the computer
market keeps falling. But Mac users remain a devoted bunch. One asked recently
why we keep talking about the millennium bug as if it affects all computers. It
doesn鈥檛, he says, because Macs will all automatically roll over from 1999 to
2000.
Anxious not to disseminate any false claims, we checked this out with
Apple.
Yes it鈥檚 true, Apple informed us, because the Mac operating system uses
32-bit code to clock seconds. This makes Macs safe until the year 2040.
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In a briefing note, Apple suggests a simple check to see whether a Windows PC
can cope. Set the date to just before midnight on New Year鈥檚 Eve 1999, switch
off for a few minutes, and then switch on again. 鈥淚f it displays anything except
January 1, 2000,鈥� says Apple, 鈥減erhaps you should replace your PC with a
惭补肠颈苍迟辞蝉丑.鈥�
As Feedback has long ago warned, this check is very dangerous. If the PC is
millennium-compliant, and thus thinks we are now in the year 2000, it may
automatically decide that files currently stored as a safety precaution against
accidental deletion are two years old and thus cannot possibly be needed
anymore. So it will remove them permanently. The PC may also delete all entries
from a diary, thinking that next week鈥檚 lunch appointment is actually two years
out of date.
Does Apple not know this, or is the helpful tip on Millennium compliance
actually a clever ruse to turn PC users into Mac users?
MANY companies that don鈥檛 use Macs are spending huge sums of money to ensure
that their computers will be unaffected by the millennium bug and will function
as normal when 2000 dawns. But what do you do if you haven鈥檛 got mega bucks to
spend?
One answer is to bury your head in the sand and hope nothing will happen. But
if you take this course of action you will need some excuses, which is where
help is at hand. Check out the website called 鈥淭he 50 reasons why you are
ignoring the year 2000 problem鈥� (http://www.microfocus.com/year2000/y2kfifty.htm)
for inspiration.
Excuses range from, 鈥淚t鈥檚 on a Saturday and Monday鈥檚 a holiday鈥攚e鈥檒l
have plenty of time over the weekend鈥� to 鈥淚 believe in the tooth fairy鈥�.
Clearly, a useful site.
TALKING of dates has Bill Gates got inside information on Armageddon?
We only ask because Microsoft Outlook 97 allows diary entries up to Tuesday
31 August 4500鈥攂ut not after that. Has someone tipped Gates off that the
world will end on 1 September of that year?
BACK IN THE PRESENT Peter Rose writes to ask a very pertinent question. As
Feedback can verify from a recent health and safety training exercise at New
杏吧原创, official advice is unanimous that you should always walk calmly
in the event of a fire and never run.
So why do all fire exit signs, as approved by Brussels under European
Commission health and safety regulations, show a little green man running
frantically through a doorway?
AS READERS undoubtedly know, insects are by far the most important form of
life on Earth, outnumbering almost everything else and certainly outweighing all
the other animals in sheer biomass.
Yet they lack an adjective. There is no agreed word in common usage in
English meaning 鈥渋nsect-like鈥�, the equivalent, say, of 鈥渕ammalian鈥� or
鈥渂补肠迟别谤颈补濒鈥�.
Entomologists have been complaining about this on the Internet, and one
recently came up with three possible choices: 鈥渋nsectan鈥�, which is found in some
dictionaries, but seldom used; 鈥渋nsectile鈥�, which is also rare; and, finally,
鈥渋nsectuous鈥�, which the scientist who found it in a dictionary described as
鈥渋rrelevant to this discussion but perversely amusing鈥�.
He also suggested that 鈥渋nsectoid鈥� ought to, but does not, exist. What do
readers think?
THE REASONS given to commuters by rail companies for why the train is delayed
have achieved legendary status. Now it seems that airlines are trying to get in
on the act.
A flight from the New Chitose Airport in northern Japan was recently
cancelled because of a bee in the cockpit. The insect was found on board the
Japan Airlines jet and managed to elude its captors for so long that worried
officials cancelled the flight for fear that the bee might create havoc among
passengers or cause an allergic reaction in anyone it stung. Passengers were
reassigned to another flight.
It was, no doubt, the wrong type of bee.
IF YOU are having trouble sleeping, you may have been tempted by Sleep Aid
tablets. The pamphlet which accompanies the tablets says that they are used to
help relieve temporary sleep disturbance.
Just the job. But be warned, Sleep Aid, like most drugs, has side effects.
These include 鈥渘ightmares, sleep disturbances and restlessness鈥�. Erm鈥�
MEANWHILE, Christopher Hope was disappointed by the warning he spotted on a
gallon container of the laboratory disinfectant Hibitane. 鈥淎void contact with
brain,鈥� it told him, thereby spoiling his plans for a fun-filled afternoon
drilling holes in his skull and pouring disinfectant into them.
FINALLY, the front cover of the A-Z of Manchester has some useful
advice for those who cannot understand what such a book might contain. In a
small banner across the corner it says: 鈥淔or area covered, see map inside.鈥�