Protection Guaranteed Y2K got you running scared? Maybe you should run to Protection, Kansas-the first U.S. city to be completely Y2K compliant.
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What havoc will Y2K wreak? As the world around them ponders theramifications, the people of Protection, Kansas, don't havemuch cause for concern. Earlier this year, this remote farmingcommunity just north of the Oklahoma border became the first U.S.city to proclaim it was 100 percent protected against disk failureand pesky Y2K dilemmas.
How? The oddly but appropriately named town was picked by@Backup, a San Diego onlinedata protection and access service, to have all its PCs loaded with@Backup's software and set up for daily data backups.
Even in a struggling agricultural community such as this one, PCprotection is important, notes Dave Webb, a Protection resident andamateur historian. "We have a variety of small businesses and[individuals] with [PCs]," says Webb.
This isn't the first time the town has been chosen for itsname-it was the first city whose entire population was inoculatedwith the polio vaccine back in 1957. "These are bothessentially pathogens-polio and Y2K glitches," Webb pointsout.
Admitting his effort was "a marketing ploy and shamelesspromotion," @Backup CEO Gary Sutton waived the usual $99annual fee and has donated $5,000 in computer supplies to the localschool. "What we have here is a product that's about asexciting as dental floss, but it's just as important andbeneficial," says Sutton, whose company considered BackupCorners, Pennsylvania, and Millennium, North Carolina, beforesettling on Protection.
Like the 11,000 small and midsized businesses around the countrywhose computers already automatically dial out and back up datanightly using @Backup's software, the practical folk inProtection have been able to forget about backups-and focus onfarming.
