Y2K, etc.

Just wanted to wish you all a happy New Year and let you know about new
up and coming things here at Mallorn.  I also wanted to report on the
status of Y2K problems for everyday users so far...

I'll start with Y2K in Australia.  AUSCERT (the Australian Computer 
Emergency Response Team) is reporting that things are pretty quiet,
although they have seen a number of Windows 98 systems roll over from
December 31, 1999 to January 2, 2000 (skipping January 1 altogether).
Resetting the date manually appears to have fixed the problem, so if
you encounter this, don't panic!  Just change the date and you should
be OK.

It also sounds as if a number of programmers have misunderstood a standard
system call, so in "correcting" software they've only ensured that
they'll fail.  :)  This will probably be most noticeable on Web sites
that use CGI scripting, and won't have any really adverse effects.

JPCERT (Japan Computer Emergency Response Team) is reporting all is well,
with all Internet, electrical, communication, transport, and medical
functions working just fine.

I'll post regular updates as I get them to

   http://www.mallorn.com/y2k.html

Year 2000 promises to be interesting.  I hope to migrate the mailing lists
from majordomo to a much easier, Web-aware mailing list package called 
Mailman ( http://www.list.org/ ).  At NCSA I've been working on development
of this software (not as a primary developer, just a contributor) and am
really pleased with its progress.

Mallorn also plans to offer a lot of new and exciting services in the
coming year.  In January we will unveil our new image gallery, consisting
of over 1500 images of perennials and woody plants that I've scanned
from my slide collection.  I've also been working with Dr. Gary Kling
in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at
the University of Illinois on a site containing nearly 8000 photographs
of over 800 species of woody plants with complete text and identifying
characteristics.  This site will be announced in January as well.

Munchkin Nursery will be going online with its revamped Year 2000 site,
including lots of cool new features including a virtual garden tour,
an online copy of the catalog, and lots of Gene's anecdotes.  :)

Heronswood will also have a revamped site, including a much-needed secure
online ordering system and a fully-browseable online version of their
standard catalog.

Look for both of these sites to be updated in the coming week (

   http://www.munchkinnursery.com/
   http://www.heronswood.com/

)

So...  That's what I've been working on, and I plan to keep busy putting
resources out there (well, until spring when I can go outside and get my
hands dirty :)

Of course, there's other projects that will show up that I just can't tell
you about yet, too.  :)

Anyhow, happy New Year to you all!  This list has been great, and I look
forward to it being even better in the next millenium (sorry, I just had
to use that word).

Chris
Ye Olde Listowner

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index