On the cusp of the changeover to 2000, there's uncertainty, unease, fear and even a certain thrill about whether the Year 2000 bug, known as Y2K, is going to cause technological disaster and destruction.

I've checked out my computer for Y2K problems through free downloaded programmes from the Internet and surprise, surprise my Hitachi MX150 laptop, which has had every conceivable disaster happen to it passes all the tests. I hope the various software does as well. Still, I'm keeping my laptop turned off during the date changeover as a further precaution as most experts advise.

I'm also heading for the hills, celebrating New Year's in the countryside at a small farmhouse in France near the Spanish border in the Pyrenees. I must admit I'm not doing so because I'm one of those disaster specialists who's going to cower in a cave for fear of a nuclear disaster as computers go haywire. Instead I simply got a nice invite from a friend from Bermuda to his place in the sun. Still...The Y2K problem, also known as the millennium bug, refers to a programming shortcut code writers used in the early days of computers to shorten dates down to two digits, such as "99'' for 1999.

Computer systems that are not fixed may mistake the year 2000 for the year 1900 and may cease to function or cause havoc, like deleting your bank account, or shutting down an electrical plant -- so the theory goes.

Most experts believe serious damage from the bug will be minimal. Some estimate the money spent so far on fixing the bug at between $1 trillion and $2 trillion. That's more than the combined market capitalisation of the top ten Fortune 500 companies, according to CNET News.com.

Worldwide leaders are kind of stuck with advising their populace to take a balanced view -- take precautions but don't panic. What a dilemma! Thus you have Premier Jennifer Smith encouraging Bermudians to make sure they have sufficient cash and food stocks on hand, just in case, for the New Year, while at the same time urging everyone not to panic so as not to cause a run on cash at the banks or the supermarkets.

Hey, a little paranoia is a good thing. I'd rather wake up laughing about how foolish I was about taking precautions, than scrabbling around if the bug does bite.

Here's a global roundup of some of the precautions and craziness and glitches surrounding the bug: The US and the UK are putting extra police forces on alert for possible terrorist attacks on New Year's Eve and for possible panic from residents in New York and London. New York city government has replaced 10,000 computers and has purchased 50,000 new ones since 1996 in an effort to get compliant.

Almost every government has set up contingency plans and emergency centres, including Bermuda.

Russian missile specialists are in the US and the US has sent a similar team to Russia as part of an operation to ensure none of the two countries' 4,400 nuclear missiles are fired in error at the end of the century due to computer crashes caused by the bug.

The teams will start their joint watch on December 27, working shifts around the clock for three weeks.

The European Commission will have experts in nuclear safety, financial markets and telecommunications working on New Year's Eve and beyond to monitor any computer-related problems in the European Union arising from the millennium date change.

A handful of officials with expertise in sensitive sectors will staff the centre continuously from December 31 to January 5.

British and Russian defence ministries have assured the public that "there is no risk of an accidental missile launch as a result of the Year 2000 date change or any other computer failure''.

Wells Fargo & Co. mailed 13,000 certificate-of-deposit renewal notices with the year 1900 printed on them. The notices told customers that their certificates would expire on January 1900 instead of January 2000.

About 6,000 customers in Bellevue, Washington received water and sewer bills printed with a due date of 2 January, 1900. Officials assured customers that 100 years of late fees won't apply.

The US Federal Reserve System has added more than twice the reserves to the banking system for this year-end than it did last year in case of surging money demand in the transition to year 2000. The Bermuda Monetary Authority and the Island's three banks have also taken similar precautions.

About 2000 Philippine cult followers hiding in tunnels because they fear impending millennial doom on January 1 had to come outside when a earthquake tremor measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale occurred.

Beware of con artists phoning up claiming they need your bank account number, or credit card number, or whatever, to prevent any problems once the calendar flips.

Perhaps the biggest cost in the Y2K tally may be from lawsuits. Some companies are suing their insurers to recover the costs of making computer systems Y2K compliant, basing their cases on an arcane maritime practice, according to A.M. Best.

If after all this you're still interested in Y2K news on the Internet go to news.cnet.com and click on the Year 2000 report or www.year2000.com or at ZDNET at www.zdnet.com /zdnn /special /y2k.html.

For a free test for your computer go to www.symantec.com /sabu/n2000/index.html. For a whole raft of downloads to check your computer go to www.zdnet.com/enterprise /zdy2k/downloads. For those with Microsoft products try www.microsoft.com /technet /year2k /pca/pca.htm.

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. Contact Ahmed at ahmedelamin yhotmail.com or (01133) 467012599.