For those of you who want the universe nice and neat, there is a year of agonized worrying ahead. For those to whom Chaos is the god they pray, a year of gleeful anticipation unmatched since the childhood days of awaiting Christmas or birthday gifts is now underway. For those of us somewhere in between, its time to wait and see.

No matter what category you are in, there are several days throughout 1999 when the Millennium Bug is expected to rear its ugly little head somewhere. Dates you should watch out for are:

• January 1 - The date any program looking more than one year ahead may run into problems.
• April 1 - The beginning of the Japanese fiscal year.
• April 9 - The 99th day of the year. This would be read as 9999 by systems that count days of the year. This, combined with April 1, could prove disastrous for cherry blossom viewing parties being held by data processing departments.
• August 2 - On this date the counter on the US Navy's satellite-based Global Positioning System, better known as GPS, resets to zero. Sure to be an interesting time for travelers.
• September 9 - Like April 9, this is another date chosen by ancient programmers wanting to find a way to mark the end of time (IF DATE="9999" GOTO=?!?!?!?).
• October 1 - On this date, the fiscal year for the US Government begins. If you live in Japan and collect a US Government pension... well, you could always go back to teaching English.
• December 30 & 31 - A great time to NOT be in the operations side of the computer anything. Sure to be 48 hours of non-stop non-boredom.

It should also be noted that on the first day of every month something, somewhere will probably go Year 2000 wrong. Try to make the best of it. In the words of Jim Morrison: NOBODY GETS OUT OF HERE ALIVE! That rule also seems to apply to computers.

In spite of all of the media reports that Y2K might result in the end of civilization, don't believe it. In the late part of 1998, I began to discover that more companies in Japan were on track to being Y2K compliant by the end of this year than was originally thought. More details later.

Will Y2K seriously affect Japan? Time (what little of it remains) will tell.

Computer-based video editing

In previous columns, I have covered the best software used for audio editing and production (CoolEdit and CoolEdit Pro, downloadable at http://www.syntrillium.com/). However, recently some of you have been asking about professional quality video editing and production systems.

I checked in with several professional video producers in Tokyo to find out what was really being used, as opposed to what advertisement and bought-and-paid-for news stories were saying. The professional's choice in Tokyo for video editing is: Media 100 at http://www.media100.com.

Although there is a version that runs under Windows, Mac is the platform of choice among TV and in-house production facilities I visited. The hardware and software system handles everything from concept to final production. It also interfaces with several other systems. One seasoned director told me that it is simply the best.

The software is only available in English at this time, and there are no plans to port it to Japanese anytime soon. However, Japanese-language manuals are available and can be had from Media 100's local distributor: Image and Measurement, Inc. (tel 03-3365-3641, fax 03-3365-3646). The company also has a (Japanese only) website at http://www.imi-jp.com.

MiniDisks made for adults

While we're on the subject of multi-media, I'm happy to say I can finally answer the question of what is the best MiniDisk recorder and player. Well, maybe. Although it is not yet on the market (expected to hit the streets late first quarter/early second quarter 1999), the Marantz PMD650 promises to be the MiniDisk recorder for those doing serious multimedia field production. I recently got to play with a prototype unit and just loved it! Those of you seriously into multimedia for a living will probably find it an indispensable piece of equipment by this time next year.

Informed sources tell me the retail price in Japan will be in the area of ¥200,000. Not cheap but, unlike most MiniDisk units currently on the market, it is NOT a toy.

Happy New Year!

Thomas Caldwell is a freelance journalist working and living in Tokyo. He can be reached at caldwell@gol.com.

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