WRP #101 - DC Y2K Weather Report (drbob, Risks, Honest Corp, Letters, CCCC)
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DC Y2K Weather Report (drbob, Risks, Honest Corp, Letters, CCCC)
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Author:
cory hamasaki
Email:
kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net
Date:
1998/11/10
Forums:
comp.software.year-2000
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Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report V2, # 45
"November 10, 1998 - 416 days to go." WRP101
Draft $2.50 Cover Price.
(c) 1997, 1998 Cory Hamasaki - I grant permission to distribute and
reproduce this newsletter as long as this entire document is reproduced
in its entirety. You may optionally quote an individual article but you
should include this header down to the tearline or provide a link to the
header. I do not grant permission to a commercial publisher to reprint
this in print media.
--------------------tearline -----------------------------
In this issue:
1. drbob
2. Risks
3. An Honest Corporation
4. Form Letters
5. CCCC
Preface ------- Solutions -----------------
WRP101 starts the solutions series. There's no longer any doubt that
the work will not be completed, the failures will happen. It's time for
solutions. This issue gives you some simple measures, future issues
will be more hard line. You decide for yourself, stay in the city
with a case of canned corn, a years supply, or bail for the boonies.
Will your love for your neighbor be the key or is it time to cache ammo?
Preparedness ------ from drbob ---------
Here's the shopping tip you should include for your coupon using readers:
1) save only the high dollar amount coupons for the products you use most
including personal hygiene items,
2) find the grocery store in your area that doubles coupon values,
3) wait for the items you have have coupons for to go on sale for as close
to double the value of the coupon you have.
4) bingo...pay little or nothing using the doubling effect of the coupon.
Example for you slower folks... say you have a $1 off coupon for Crest
toothpaste wait for it to go on sale for $2 or less.... bingo its free when
they double your coupon.
Rules:
1) never buy anything that not on sale, timing is critical.
2) buy as many as you can using coupons (most stores have a three
item/coupon limit per shopping trip.
3) save as many coupons as you can get for each item and make multiple
trips to the store if the deals are good enough.
This requires a lot organizing in the beginning, but my wife has been doing
this for about 18 months and saves about $400 each month and it only takes
about 1 1/2 hours a week. Some items we never pay for are toothbrushes,
toothpaste, deodorant, shampoos, soaps of all kinds, zip lock bags,
cereal, razors, can goods and new product lines. Everything goes on sale
eventually. We are fully stocked and will use some of the stuff for
bartering.
Have fun with this it really works.
<Thanks drbob, I don't use coupons, I'm too disorganized but for you
organized folk out there, and you know who you are, what nerve, paying
your bills on time, never running out of toothpaste... I'm always
squeeeeezing that tube for a half dollop. >
<Anyone with any ideas, send them in. Especially you c.s.y2k'ers, if
you have information that will help someone, let's get it in a WRP.
C.s.y2k, the USENET newsgroup has the best information but also the most
noise and is almost impossible to wade through.>
Side effects ------- Risks ----------
Page 58 - 11/9/1998 Time magazine
Playing Deadly Games? by Mark Thompson
"A Swissair flight that killed 229 people may have been brought down by
the in-flight entertainment."
"... Salvage crews have pulled up evidence of heat damage above the
ceiling that straddles the cockpit and first-class cabin, which is where
the heart of the in-flight entertainment system was housed. Each unit
uses Microsoft NT software, with a powerful Pentium processor at each
seat wired to a central computer. These wires, pulled out of the
Atlantic, also had been damaged by high temperatures. ..."
Quotes (c) 1998 Time Inc.
In Y2K expect odd side effects. An article like this in Time magazine
does *not* prove anything... this is wild speculation...
We're still 417 days away from the singularity. What's gonna happen?
I don't know. Will planes fall out of the sky? Maybe, maybe not.
*If* Time's speculation is correct, a defect in an in-flight
entertainment system killed 229 people.
In 417 days, something strange and horrible is going to happen. ..and
you can't wish it away.
Then there's the "Radar blackout" over parts of Western US, the
controllers "lost" about 200 aircraft. Is this a problem?
At this point, it doesn't matter much. Bozo the Quality Assurance clown
is calling the shots. ... and his brother, Sad Sam the Team Player.
You know Sam, he used to be technical but after the divorce,
the bills from his mom's operation, he's had to compromise his
professional ethics. I need this job, you need this job, it's
important that we make the delivery dates, we're all team
players here.
They're making mistakes, taking risks... oh, they think they're being
decisive, barking out orders, managing ... whatever management is....
what is it anyway, clicking up PS6? Consolidating status reports?
Intimidating the code heads?
Us dirt-beneath-the-fingernails programmers expected a full court press,
a deathmarch years ago, a sweeping away of the bull-slingers. They're
still with us.
I thought I'd be running work 6x18 on my S/370 MVS mainframe...
upgrading it for the legacy systems work... didn't happen.
Instead of burning up the CEC, squeezing out every last S/370 MIPS,
swapping IDCAMS and DFSORT tips on c.s.y2k, I'm horsing 50 lb sacks of
concrete as a "day laborer".
The days have slipped away....
At the -bks- dinner, the topic came up, when did you realize we were out
of time. For SHMUEL, it seems to have been 3 years ago... I'm dense, I
thought there was hope until Day 500 came and went. For Chevron Corp,
they just came to this realization.
My priority is beating the January 1999 burst of awareness. Here's
the harmonic convergence... less than a year to go; hey, weren't we
supposed to be done last month; production failures are increasing;
everyone's back from taking the month of December off and where are
we? ... and so on.
My goals for the next two months: help my pal complete the fence
and the greenhouse. Extend the food reserves to 6 months (at a
subsistance level). Power for the comms. Beg my medical expert for the
sanitation, infection article. Water.
Enterprise ------- An Honest Corporation ------------------
sec.yahoo.com
"Because of the scope of Chevron's operations, the company believes it
is impractical to seek to eliminate all potential Year 2000 problems
before they arise. As a result, Chevron expects that its Year 2000
assessment and corrections will include ongoing remedial efforts into
the year 2000."
"While the company believes that the impact of any individual Year 2000
failure will most likely be localized and limited to specific facilities
or operations, the company is not yet able to assess the likelihood of
significant business interruptions occurring in one or more of its
operations around the world. Such interruptions could prevent the
company from being able to manufacture and deliver refined products and
chemicals products to customers. The company could also face
interruptions in its ability to produce crude oil and natural gas."
This is not especially shocking; it is refreshingly honest compared to
the, "Done by December 31, 1998, leaving all of 1999 for testing."
baloney handed out by most companies. The rest of you companies, come
clean, you're not going to make it, you didn't "get it". Let us know
so we can plan, stock up, get ready as best we can.
I have most of what I need to last 4 months now. Each week, I add
another week or so. I'll be at 6 months of stores by the end of the
year.
I received these two sample letters from a geek-pal.
Community ----------- Letter 1 ------------------
Dear -neighborhood watch-,
I have been wondering if we have ever had what might be called a
"disaster support" group. Maybe that is too strong a name. I'm
thinking of a somewhat organized group that would know both about
various resources and also which families might be vulnerable in case of
problems.
I started thinking about it because I am a computer programmer and have
been following the year 2000 problem for several years. I went to a
meeting this week held by an organization that thinks there might be
fairly serious problems in the country in the year 2000 that could leave
a lot of unprepared people in bad trouble.
I don't know if you've been following the Y2K debate but the range of
predictions runs from "no problems at all" to a total melt down of most
of the country's government, financial, utility, and industrial
organizations. The group that held the meeting is one of a growing
number that sees local community action as the best way to get through
the period.
No matter what you think might happen in the year 2000, however, there is
always the possibility of weather related problems. As I type this
note, the radio is reporting the possibility of a hurricane on the way
to the US coast. As the El Nino phenomenon disappears they say that the
chances for more hurricanes and more severe winter weather increase.
A neighborhood organization might be aware of various skills, for
example, who has a snow blower, who has the tools and knowledge to drain
water pipes in a severe freeze, which houses have fireplaces and wood;
who has CB radios, who has 4-wheel drive vehicles. You might even go so
far as to pre-plan paired families ahead of time: say, which family
would take responsibility for making sure which widow living alone
would be taken care of.
Most of the time I have lived here I have known a few people in the
neighborhood, been unconcerned about most people, and have avoided the
rest. Now might be the time, however, to follow a different path,
particularly if the people I have avoided might help me shovel the snow
off my roof in trade for the use of my ladder.
Let me know your thoughts.
Community ----------- Letter 2 ------------------
NEIGHBORHOOD PREPAREDNESS GROUP
I am looking for persons who might be interested in setting up a
neighborhood preparedness group. A preparedness group would be a
somewhat more organized way of doing what residents already do
now -- helping out their neighbors in an emergency.
One of the things a preparedness group could do is keep lists -- all
voluntary of course -- of things helpful in a weather related or other
emergency:
Equipment available that might be useful: for example, chain saws, snow
blowers, long ladders, 4-wheel drive vehicles.
Skills of residents: people who have special knowledge such as how to
drain water pipes, how to turn off gas mains or electrical lines; how
to restart furnaces.
A preparedness group might also keep track of individuals who might be
especially vulnerable in emergencies: persons with special medical
needs, those with no transportation.
Any one interested in participating in such a group please contact me.
<the above letters may be useful to those who are trying to motivate
their neighbors. Combine it with the information from Chevron
and it's gotta sink in to the most thick-headed pollyanna out there.
Font up the letters, make it look real nice. The guy who wrote the
letters is easing them into it, starting them thinking about winter
storms and once the hook is set, he'll reel 'em in; in a few weeks or
months, they'll be running to the sales along with us, grabbing the 1/3
off soup, 49 cents/lb pasta. >
<as a known Y2K nut-case, I get a lot of email, letters, phone calls,
etc. In the last couple days, I've had two requests for interviews one
from TV, the other from NPR. I declined NPR, I don't know who they
got but the program will be on today, Tuesday, AKA 416 days to go.>
Clueless ------------ CCCC ------------------
The dinner at dusk with -bks- was a terrific fun evening, it turned out
that Frank and GregS90210 are kindred spirits... brothers of the
smokeless power and crewserved weapons. Neither ever saw a belt fed
weapon they didn't like. Multi-barrel? Even better.
SHMUEL did the ordering, I handled the eating and managed to get a
little more than my share. I've got pictures of the gang, including the
rare and elusive Paul Makinen. I'll get copies on the web ... when I'm
good and ready.
My work load is cranking up. Rates are still soft, I just gave a new
client a hefty discount on my rate, the job is a tuff one, not Y2K and
not code cranking... it's even PeeCeeWeeNee'ish, if you call a 6 engine
Pentium-Pro a PC. It's a killing pace, attending meetings. It'll be
about 40 hours/month, the deathmarch has started, poor me, -sob-, are
you crying for me yet? -sob- -sob- meetings but no donuts.
Don't throw me in that briar patch... no donuts... I didn't say no
malasadas from Leonard's bakery. ..and Redondo's Portuguese sausage...
Yes, I'll be losing money on this deal but hey, when they dangled that
.. you'll have to attend the meetings in Waikiki, carrot in front of
me.. I took the bait. Any Y2K'ers in Honolulu available... oh maybe
Monday evening, drop me an email in the next day or two.
I'll miss the WDC Y2K meeting for November, I'll be thinking about the
buffet at fannie mae... let's see, when the meeting's going on, I'll be
toweling off after a morning swim.
I've noticed a new rise of cluelessness.... this is a good sign, as
awareness spreads, the clueless boink their heads up, blink their eyes
and wonder, could it be true? and they ask the same old questions,
make the same statements... blah-blah, I have a PeeCee, I've been
to school, I don't believe that it takes 5 years to fix a system, I
can't comprehend a system that is so big and complex that it took
serious talent a decade to build, ergo, such systems do not exist.
People-people, such systems not only exist, they keep you warm and fed.
Sometimes I just want to grab these clueless and S-SHAKE some sense into
them, SLAP them around. -brrrrr- it's frustrating to see them try to
think. Then I remember the leftover pumpkin pie... cut a slice, and
everything is calm and peaceful
cory hamasaki 416 Days 9,999 Hours.
Fine Print ------- Subscriptions, Don't Read ----
You don't have to subscribe to the WRPs, you can keep reading the issues
on the web or in Usenet or however it gets to you. I'm collecting a few
"members only" items. These will be mailed to both shareware and print
edition members, these are free... well, the bundled into your
membership fee.
We had a couple people fax in their subscription requests without
including a mailing address. I understand why some of you are a little
on the shy side but please include some kind of mailing address, maybe
the address at the office or a P.O. Box.
1 Year $50/shareware memberships or $99/print edition.
Mail a check or your credit card information to:
Kiyo Design, Inc
11 Annapolis St.
Annapolis, MD 21401
or you can fax your credit card information to:
Fax (410) 280-2793
We take Visa, MC, or AmEx.
Please include your name, address, phone number, and email.
WRP ------------ Members Only -------------------
The next WRP will be out early or late. Print members, remember
you get two WRP's in each mailing... so it'll show up, whenever.
I got a price quote for the out-of-print publication on growing and
storing vegetables using early 1900's technology.... essentially how to
build various styles of root cellar, berms, crop selection, fertilizers,
timing, pest control, diagrams, data tables, everything you need to
know. The printing costs were a little higher than I thought.
It's 36 pages. I want to make it up into a book with a cardstock cover
so it's handy and durable. Remember the tip about sealing things in
plastic.
I'll be sending these to member/subscribers in December. If I'm to
mail these out by mid December, I have to contract with the printer at
the start of December so I'll need a count of members by December 1.
You don't have to do anything to get this, I'll be sending it to
everyone.
Fine print -------- publishing information -------------
As seen in
USENET:comp.software.year-2000
elmbronze.demon.co.uk
sonnet.co.uk
gonow.to
ocweb.com
kiyoinc.com
Don't forget, the Y2K chat-line: ntplx.net any evening, 8-10PM EST.
Please fax or email copies of this to your geek pals, especially those
idiots who keep sending you lightbulb, blonde, or Bill Gates jokes,
and urban legends like the Arizona rocket car story.
If you have a Y2K webpage, please host the Weather Reports.
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