The Interscan Monitor Newsletter > Volume 2, Number 5

Volume 2, Number 5

WELCOME..... Yeah, we slowed down a bit for the summer, and it's been a while, but here's the latest from the boys in Chatsworth.

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Y2K--IN GENERAL

You're seeing it everywhere. The so-called millennium bug, or the "Year 2000 problem."

Briefly, in the early days of computers, it was necessary to be very stingy about using resources. So, years were recorded with two, rather than four digits. 1983 was rendered "83" and the "19" was understood by the program.

Unfortunately, 1999 would be rendered "99" and 2000 and 1900 would BOTH be rendered "00."

Therefore, affected computers, and affected software would advance the date December 31, 1999 to January 1, 1900. Not good.

Additionally, there is a secondary problem in that some computers and software will advance the date properly, but will not recognize that 2000 is a leap year (1900 wasn't). Thus, the very valid date of February 29, 2000 will be skipped.

Leave it to Big Blue--IBM--to come up with the most concise definition of Year 2000 compliance:

"A product is Y2K ready if the product, when used in accordance with its associated documentation, is capable of correctly processing, providing and/or receiving date data within and between the 20th and 21st centuries, provided all other products (for example, software, hardware and firmware) used with the product properly exchange accurate date data with it."

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HOW DOES Y2K AFFECT INTERSCAN PRODUCTS?

For those of you who have any of our dosimeters, or one our 7000 Series Data Logging Compact Portable Analyzers, you will be pleased to hear that there is no problem. Since these units are so low tech in that they only have an ELAPSED TIME clock, not a real time clock, Y2K compliance is not an issue. The date must be set by either the computer or the user!!

Technically, if you are running between December 31, 1999 and January 1, 2000, there MAY be unknown issues with embedded EPROM firmware. However, this seems unlikely, and the thought of too many customers running over a major holiday also seems unlikely.

As far as the old DOS Arc-Max is concerned, there WILL be problems. This software is NOT Y2K compliant, and there are no plans to make it compliant.

Our plan is to upgrade these customers to our new data acquisition package, at a bargain price. Please note that even if we were to give away the new software, the old computers that are running DOS Arc-Max would still have to be upgraded, as well.

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Y2K LINKS

The Year 2000 Information Center http://www.year2000.com/

Proposed Criteria for "Century Compliance," as developed by GTE http://www.year2000.com/archive/gte-article/NFgte-compliance.html

From ZDNet--Your Y2K Survival Kit http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_2318.html

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FORMALDEHYDE--STILL ALIVE AND KICKING

A brand new formaldehyde analyzer brochure is just about ready to go to the printer. Call us for your copy. We think you'll like it.

This ubiquitous chemical with a low TLV occurs in many industries, but hats off to the forest products/pulp and paper folks for being way ahead of the pack, in that they actually monitor for it.

There ARE some supposedly competitive instruments out there, but with the exception of the old CEA wet chemical unit, the other products are merely re-labeled alcohol detectors.

There are two big problems with using an alcohol detector to measure formaldehyde--

It isn't nearly sensitive enough to pick up the sub-ppm levels required.

Formaldehyde is generally used as formalin, which is a solution of about 37% by weight of formaldehyde gas in water, with 10-15% methanol added to prevent polymerization. Think about the alcohol interference on your formaldehyde measurement. And, even if you wanted to use the methanol as a marker for formaldehyde, you couldn't, since the vapor pressures are so different.

Ergo, when you need to monitor formaldehyde, come the pros--INTERSCAN.

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WINDOWS TIPS

(Any Mac users are welcomed to send in Mac tips!!)

***Win at Freecell all the time***

You can force a win with Freecell by holding down the Ctrl, Shift, and F10 keys together. You will then get a message stating: Choose Abort to win, Retry to Lose, or Ignore to Cancel. Hit Abort and then move a card to the top. It will automatically win the game for you.

***Removing unwanted entries from Add/Remove*** Have you ever deleted a program, but are left with a non-removable entry in the Add/Remove programs list? Here's what you can do:

1. From the Start button, run Regedit
2. Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
3. Select Software
4. Select Microsoft
5. Select Windows
6. Select Current Version
7. Select Uninstall

This will give you a list of all the programs in your Add/Remove programs list. Highlight the desired (or undesired) file and select delete. This will remove the entry from the list.

***Closing all applications fast***

If you don't want to take the time to close all your applications one at a time, simply select Shutdown from the Start menu and pick the "Close all programs and log on as a different user?" option. Then just log back on as the same user.

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ETHYLENE OXIDE--REALLY BACK IN STYLE

As we reported in an earlier issue, the march back to EtO is on!! It seems that the replacement sterilants just didn't cut it.

This means that more and more hospitals are interested in getting monitoring systems, updating their existing ones, or adding data acquisition.

With well over 500 EtO systems installed, Interscan has the expertise and the experience to help.

Even if you're just THINKING about monitoring EtO, talk to Richard Shaw, our VP of sales. Ask him about getting a trade-in on your old off-brand monitor.

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Until next time, I remain

Your faithful webmaster

 P.O. Box 2496 • Chatsworth, CA 91313-2496
 TOLL FREE: (800) 458-6153 (US & Canada) • PHONE: (818) 882-2331
 FAX: (818) 341-0642 • E-MAIL: info@gasdetection.com