Auld Lang Sigh

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The bug still casts a shadow over foreign travel, particularly where travelers have doubts about regional preparedness; U.S. diplomatic personnel are leaving some countries, including Russia. A Cambodian tour operator blames fears of "being stuck at the airport" for open rooms at the luxury Grand Hotel D'Angkor, near the temple of Angkor Wat (it had claimed to be booked for months). Major airlines dismiss suggestions of millennial danger, though most are cutting back flights on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 because of low demand; Virgin Atlantic will suspend flights altogether for about 24 hours.

The Y2K bug may turn out to be less of a problem than Y2K nuts. To alert local law-enforcement officials about the potential for terrorism, the FBI started the Megiddo Project (from the word Armageddon, which in Hebrew means Hill of Megiddo). Attempting to draw on lessons from the Oklahoma City and Africa bombings, the Megiddo report warns that political extremism, religious millenarianism and new-world-order paranoia could merge disastrously--abetted by Y2K computer hysteria, concerning as it does the ultimate worldwide system. (As any good conspiracy theorist knows, the U.N. will use the Y2K crisis as a pretext to conquer the world.) In Israel, the stage set for Revelation, officials are on the alert for Christians seeking to precipitate doomsday by staging attacks or mass suicides; three groups have been deported or barred from the country.

For many folks, the party of the millennium will be pooped not because they will be heading for the hills but because they will be punching the clock. Not only caterers and musicians but also cops, doctors, bankers, engineers, FBI agents and others are being tapped for Y2K OT.

If you're a software professional, chances are your Auld Lang Syne was stifled long ago. Technical-support staff and engineers in Microsoft's product-support services, for instance, get no vacation in December or January. The unfortunate Microserfs will be allowed to make a modicum of whoopee, bringing their families to an on-the-job party with a disk jockey. (No chance of a midnight smooch from Bill Gates, though. He's spending the night at home with his family.) And while tech companies say they're generally confident that they have resolved serious problems in their products, they may not be the only geeks who have been writing code in anticipation of New Year's. "There are people out there who are looking for publicity, and they know they're going to get publicity with a virus," says Vincent Weafer, director of the Symantec Antivirus Research Center in Santa Monica, Calif., which will be fully staffed on New Year's Eve.