Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 23, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Editor Shane 6977308 email the computer Page Winnipeg free press 0r May 1995 do comic strip takes its laughs into cyberspace Canadian press Hamilton the world of Canadas first inter Active electronic cartoon has migrated to a hotter Cli Steven Toth has completed one world of weasels featuring the weasels Russell Edna ballast and chisel and a beatnik for the com Puter network and has almost finished it opens on the screen with a kind of Art deep Black and White City orbited by several one of which ferries the user into a Wacky weasel clicking on certain key objects in the scene opens doors to paths of cartoon the user can navigate through a mix of still animation and some of which Are there just for but most of which help develop character and the first adventure takes the bul Bou nosed Russell Russell through various involving flying cars and a garbage with lots of Side trips along the a photo its with byte Boston artist Harold Cohen displays original paintings created by computer and painted by a Cohen wrote the computer called which creates the paint he is preparing for an exhibit at the computer museum in dont worry about this email virus Fanti re of Norm ran to a for year 2000 wont compute unless vital changes made by John Moran the Hartford courant caution this newspaper column can infect your com Puter with a Reading further will erase All the data on your hard dont believe huh youre its a false but thousands of people have fallen for just such a which is now circulating on the internet and on the major commercial online the source of All this confusion is an official sounding warning about something called the Good times the warning says the virus is carried in electronic mail messages with the words Good times in the subject Reading the message supposedly causes the virus to attack your com Puter erasing All the data from your hard the Only Way to protect the warning and is to erase any message with Good times As the the problem there is no Way that email whether it is read or can pass on a computer email is text and simply cannot carry computer any More than text printed in a newspaper viruses can be embedded Only in software a virus in felted program can be attached to an email but the virus cannot be transmitted unless the file is downloaded and the program is run on the receiving it is also possible that certain computers can be affected by the use of codes embedded in the text of email but this is extremely and there have been no con firmed cases of this with respect to the Good times these technical details Are not Well understood by the thousands of online novices who have flooded onto the internet and commercial online so a plausible sounding hoax like the Good times virus always finds Fertile that probably accounts for Why the which was thoroughly debunked last was successfully resurrected again such hoaxes Are not at All uncommon in another resembles a Chain letter and promises to help readers make Money Gene a computer science professor at Purdue Focas observed that these online hoaxes Are in fact very much like computer the difference is that he not Are infected with which they then replicate by passing it on to other computer by Michael Ollove the Baltimore Sun crisis is unfolding in the information age because hundreds of thousands of sophisticated computer systems cannot perceive what most schoolchildren know we Are about to pass into a new left Many computer systems worldwide will be unable to perform routine calculations involving dates past they wont be Able to figure out Peoples loan repayment Bond maturity dates or licence renewal according to one unless action is 90 per cent of the programs now operating in business and government will fail by this is a True Tim based time said Howard a professor of computer science at Hunter College in new experts say a worldwide fix will occupy armies of programmers and Cost billion to the problem is that most computer systems manufactured before about 1985 use two digits rather than four when referring to for they regard the year 1985 As just the difficulty begins with the year which the computer sees As in it interprets 2000 As for an insurance company when plotting the premiums of a woman born in May calculate her age in the year 2000 not As 40 but As minus or a department of motor vehicles computer system May find itself stumped upon discovering that a Drivers licence was expiring years before it was Ever or a Banks computer May be confounded to find that a loan it issued last year would be coming due 75 years faced with such nonsensical experts Many computer programs will simply fail to produce any numbers at All virtually All post2000 Date comparisons and sorting programs would be it would essentially bring our system to a said Vaughn a supervisor of information services at Baltimore Gas and electric who is updating his company we be Able to do Billing or service our customers at without corrective 20 per cent of All programs run by businesses and government will fail this according to the Gartner a Connecticut research More than 90 per cent will fail in there int a Fortune company that Doest have this said David a Vic president with computer horizons one of a growing number of computer companies marketing year 2000 Home computer users will also be particularly if they Are operating older computers and computer experts say the existence of the year 2000 problem does not necessarily demonstrate a Lack of foresight in the computer in the Early years of computer information storage space was at a engineers saved space by using two digit numbers for years rather than four digit Caber gamblers Ante up by Bob Weber Canadian press gamblers from Asia to Europe have anted up about to play Keno and Roulette through the inter says the computer casinos Tor ont based but Warren Eugene of internet casinos wont say How much if any Money is Riding on the Eugenes which he says will allow people to Wager Money 24 hours a Day through their Home is registered on several Caribbean because it is based but available any where in the gambling regulators in the United states and can Ada Arent sure How to control to protect himself against Legal Warren says he is Transfer ring ownership of the Casino to the governments where it is his company will manage the Casino and earn a until those issues Are sorted Warren stresses the Money sent to his Caribbean registered Casino is a preregistration the Money is ostensibly to set up an but Warren suggested last week that some Are already us ing if they there is a Strong possibility for people to Gam ble he said from the largest number of the people who have preregistered Are from Taiwan and Hong he he say How Many canadians have signed the Casino has no set sign up but the average amount sent in through electronic Cash transfers has been about Warren ant gambling activists fear the games will create More 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