by Beverly Rosenbaum
While much of the world anticipates the problems associated with the Year 2000, another similar problem may be going virtually unnoticed. As the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) approaches the 10,000 point mark, it has become clear that many systems cannot handle a five-digit average. The misinterpretation of that average in computer-based trading systems could have devastating results.
The Gartner Group Inc., a worldwide research firm in Stamford, Conn., recently issued an advisory on the problem, aimed at companies making extensive business use of the DJIA. Many IT professionals feel that organizations dealing with stock data should address this issue with the same fervor as the Year 2000 Problem.
When most financial services companies developed their information systems, the programmers allotted only a four-digit numeric field for the DJIA. Many systems will therefore read the extra digit incorrectly, dropping the first or last digit. If the average rises to 10,000, programs may misinterpret the number as 1,000 or 0,000 and malfunction in a manner akin to the year-2000 problem, according to Andy Kyte, an analyst at the Gartner Group.
Since the DJIA closed at 9192.66 on May 4, 1998, this problem can occur at any time. Commonly referred to as DJ10K, this glitch has the potential to crash systems, as many automated trading operations are programmed to suspend trading if the DJIA falls by a preset amount, to prevent “panic” trading.
Although the DJIA problem will affect fewer systems than the year-2000 problem, the kinds of systems affected are critical to the economy.
Despite its potentially large impact, the DJIA glitch has not occurred to most financial services companies, according to industry analysts. Locating the DJIA fields should be easy, but fixing the problem could be more complex. Unlike year-2000 patches in which programmers use a “windowing” technique to avoid expanding date fields, DJIA-10,000 programmers must actually expand every affected field to five digits.
Complaint Dept.
Intel’s recently released Celeron systems were barely out the door before industry complaints about poor performance forced a change in product strategy. The low-cost 266-MHz processor had only 32 KB of level 1 cache on the CPU chip and no Level 2 cache. Constant use of slower main memory by the processor drove performance down 20 to 30 percent, making the 266 perform more like a 166 MMX. As a result of what appears to be market pressure, Intel has announced that it will ship faster Celeron chips with 128 KB of Level 2 cache sooner than planned. The 300-MHz Celeron chips will be released in the third quarter instead of at the end of 1998, and the 333-MHz version will be available in the fourth quarter rather than during the first half of 1999.
New Improved RegClean
The Microsoft utility that cleans up problems with Windows Registry files has been updated. Apparently the last version would no longer run after Internet Explorer 4.0 was installed, and was removed from the Microsoft website last December. RegClean 4.1a is now available, and is compatible with both Windows NT and 95. Older versions of RegClean (3.0 and 4.0) also inadvertently removed Registry keys needed by Automation functions of components of Microsoft Office 97, producing errors such as “OLE automation error.” According to InfoWorld columnist Brian Livingston, a free Microsoft utility called ldisp.exe will restore those needed keys. You can read about it and download the utility at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q165/8/61.asp. Version 4.1a of RegClean and an explanation can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q147/7/69.asp.
Another utility, RegMaid, is designed to clean up invalid registry entries caused by deleting OLE projects created with Visual C++ and Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), and a description and link to download that file is at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q156/0/78.asp.
Office 99
The Beta release of Microsoft’s next Office Suite for Windows should appear this summer, but the final product probably won’t be ready until early next year. It is expected to incorporate more web features, including web output that can be viewed in any browser, described with a new acronym — WYSIWEB (What You See Is What Everyone Browses). The HTML file format can be selected as the default. The intelligence of Office will also be enhanced, with an adaptive interface that learns the user’s preferences.
In the meantime, a second service package for Office 97 will be released this summer. Included are the Excel 97 Auto-Recalculation Patch and a Powerpoint 97 file that correctly formats dates when saving a presentation in Powerpoint 4.0 format. The new release requires the installation of SR-1, which was made available in the summer of 1997.
Earlier this year Microsoft released Office 98 Macintosh Edition, repackaged to offer a “true Macintosh appearance and behavior” along with integrated Web-based collaboration tools. The Office 98 Macintosh Edition also supports Macintosh drag-and-drop functionality, the QuickTime streaming audio and video technology, and includes new versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Intuit - Apple Agreement
After first issuing a statement that it would not develop any future versions of Quicken for the Macintosh, Intuit has had a change of heart. Intuit announced that it will develop a new version of Quicken for the Macintosh, currently scheduled for the second half of 1999. Additionally, Intuit and Apple jointly announced that they will work together to develop new personal finance opportunities for Macintosh users on the web through Intuits personal finance Web site, Quicken.com. Finally, Apple announced that it will include Quicken Deluxe 98 software and a link to Quicken.com on its new consumer desktop computer, iMac. Apple officials believe Quicken.com will play a critical role in revolutionizing how Macintosh users will manage their finances - from tracking their investments to making confident financial decisions in important areas like taxes, mortgages, insurance, and small business.
Beverly Rosenbaum is a HAL-PC member who can be contacted at brosen@hal-pc.org.
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