Looking for protection? Effective filter mechanismscalled Y2K firewallscan be found sporting six colors (although these days theyre also seen in black and white and Bondi Blue).

Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure How to Test Your Macintosh

Caution. Resetting the clock in the following tests can cause scheduling and calendar programs to malfunction, server logs to be deleted, delayed mail and post- dated payments to be sent and other unpleasant side- effects. Do not change your clock settings unless you are certain that doing so will not adversely affect any applications or data. It is always a good idea to create a backup of your hard disk prior to conducting any test.



Heres how to verify the Year 2000 capability of the Mac OS:

Shut Down Test

Open the Date & Time control panel.

Click Date Formats  in the upper left- hand panel.

Click the Show century checkbox.

Click the OK button.

Type or click on the arrows to set the current date to 12/31/99, and current time to 11:59:00 PM.

Select Shut Down from the Special menu and shut down the machine for more than one minute.

Restart the machine.

Check the current date and current time in the Date & Time control panel. It will show 1/1/00, and 12:01:05 AM (give or take a minute or two), respectively. Live Test

Open the Date & Time control panel.

Click Date Formats  in the upper left- hand panel.

Click the Show century checkbox.

Click the OK button.

Type or click on the arrows to set the current date to 12/31/99, and current time to 11:59:00 PM.

Wait for more than one minute, and watch the display update.

The current date and current time in the display will change to 1/1/2000, and 12:00:00 AM respectively. Check for Leap Year

Open the Date & Time control panel.

Click Date Formats  in the upper left- hand panel.

Click the Show century checkbox.

Click the OK button.

Type or click on the arrows to set the current date to 2/28/00, and current time to 11:59:00 PM.

Wait for more than one minute, and watch the display update.

The current date and current time in the display will change to 2/29/00, and 12:00:00 AM respectively. Year 2000 is a leap year, so this is perfectly valid. Beyond the Mac OS: Checking Applications

As a further test, exercise any application that you use which contains or manipulates date information, and verify proper operation. Also, make sure that you verify compliance of all your non- Apple- branded software. Note

The current version of the Date & Time Control Panel will only display dates up to 12/31/2019. This limitation was imposed to maintain compatibility with the General Controls Panel back in System 6. Well in advance of the year 2019, the Date & Time control panel will be revised to support dates well into the future.