 |  |
| |
HyperMethod company, a Russian software vendor, demonstrated the German version of its HyperMethod 3.0 software suit at CEBIT show in Germany on March 18 to 24, 1999. As highlighted by the company officials, the agreement on localization of the product for the German market was done at the previous CEBIT Home expo, with the commercial German version being presented at the current show. The product is a software tool for building high-quality multimedia products, CD-ROM catalogs, presentation CD-ROMs, multimedia encyclopedias. Currently this market segment is developed to relatively low degree and dominated by very expensive suits like Macromedia Director and Authorware. This HyperMethod, which combines the low cost with intuitively apparent interface and functionality of the professional toolkits, is well positioned to attract the attention of many users. The company also says that during the current CEBIT show it got plenty of proposals on localization of HyperMethod suit in other languages, including French, Italian and Greek. ================== Russian company warns about the first critical date in 1999 Russian company Stins Coman made a warning related to the first of the anticipated Y2K-related problems. April 9, 1999 is the first of the critical date. The matter is that many documents created in computer systems 20 or 30 years ago and intended to be stored forever were formally marked as "Expires 9999", i.e. on the 99-th day of 1999. At that time, April 9, 1999, meant virtually the same as eternity. Currently the day is coming, with about two dozens of other critical dates following it. The millennium problem is one of the key fields of Stins Coman activity in 1999. The company was accredited as a certification center and a testing laboratory on December 1, 1998. On January 22, 1999, the company become the eighth Russian Competence Center on Problem 2000. While being preparing for this accreditation, the company has developed the methodology of solving the Y2K problem. Studies of potential Year 2000 hazards for computer systems are being carried out in Russia since April 1996. In August 1997, the government of Russian Federation ordered the Ministry of Science, Federal Security Service and External Reconnaissance Service to prepare a report on Problem 2000. The document was submitted to the government in September 1997. During 1998, the governmental decree "On Problem 2000" and Technical Recommendations by Goskomsvayz (the Governmental Committee on Communications and Informatics) were issued. According to the latter documents, Russian companies and organizations are obliged to confirm the Y2K readiness of their hardware and software facilities with special certificates. The certificate is being issued by special bodies authorized by the state, and is based on the results of testing. Testing for Y2K compatibility may be done by laboratories which also should have special accreditation. Analysis of Y2K readiness of IT systems, planning their upgrade and performing the job is done by the official Competence Centers. According to estimates done by Goskomsvyaz experts, complete solution of the millennium problem in Russia will approximately take US$ 2 to 3 billion. Source: InfoArt News Agency
