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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues
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To: Christine Traut who wrote (9438)12/17/1999 11:44:00 AM
From: Christine Traut   of 9818
 
Back in the spring, I did a little news piece on a local TV channel in Louisville about Y2K. I was astute enough to enquire about the reporter's objectives for the story. One of the things that he mentioned was getting a 'visual' - an image that would catch people's attention.

I wonder if part of the problem with people taking Y2K seriously is that Y2K glitches will probably be quite undramatic - unvisual. People who are complacent want dramatic evidence - and there may be little dramatic evidence.

As an example, I recently had dinner with a friend who is a first rate professor/researcher at one of the best teaching hospitals in the country. They have a computer system that keeps track of certain patient results related to cardiac research. They have known, for some time, that this system will fail to work after 01/01/00. The 'contingency plan' is that the doctors will dictate results and someone will transcribe them - but there is still no system to put them into. The hospital hasn't had the budget to get a new one. My friend wondered what was going to happen to everyone's effectiveness when they could no longer easily analyze the research database.

This is an example of the type of system that is undramatic - not 'visual' on the surface - but could create an ultimately dramatic sluggishness in the day to day efficiencies that we have all come to expect.

Even if the most optimistic reports are true, we are talking 98% remediation of systems judged to be mission-critical by entities that are bothering to report.

Another vote of confidence for the dignified way in which Ed Yardeni (and Gary North in his own way) are sticking to their guns.

Christine
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