DC Y2K Weather Report (Concrete, America's Euro, SVC-11, CCCC)
'From:
kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net (cory hamasaki)
5:12
Subject:
DC Y2K Weather Report (Concrete, America's Euro, SVC-11, CCCC)
Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report V2, # 41
"October 12, 1998 - 451 days to go." WRP97
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.
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.
--------------------tearline -----------------------------
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.
Did you miss Geek Out?
Project Dumbass needs you.
In this issue:
1. Get the word out.
2. Concrete
3. Timing
4. America's Euro
5. Subscriptions
6. SVC-11
7. Koskinen calls Jo Anne a Witch
8. CCCC
Volunteers --------- getting the word out --------
Several people have written in appreciation for the WRPs and have
offered to help by linking their pages to my site, hosting the WRPs, or
have submitted Y2K information for the WRPs.
Like everyone else, I'm trying to make sense of this mess and the
WRPs are my way of sharing my confusion with you... because I am
clueless. I have never seen anything like this before, I don't know
what's going to happen. I do know that we need to do something... and
soon, yesterday.
Help get the word out on Y2K. If you don't already do it, email copies
to your friends. Down load and print copies and give them out,
post copies by the Xerox machine. If you have a webpage, add the WRPs to
your page and build a link to my page at:
kiyoinc.com
..and drop me an email so I'll know to link back to you.
In addition to the WRPs, add some personal commentary on Y2K to your
page. Tell the world what you think, how you are confronting and
resolving Y2K. If you think the problem is overstated, say that.
At the end of October, I'd like all the WRP host and link sites to look
around the ring and pick the best, most informative site. Take a vote
and I'll send a prize to the best site, I don't know what but it will be
unique... uh, make it odd.
Preparation ------- Concrete Fun -----------
Spoke to the Baron yesterday. He's ordered a load of 4x4 and 6x6
pressure treated timbers, concrete, and a cement mixer. Did I mention
that he has a posthole digger attachment for the Jolly Green Giant, his
4WD air conditioned John Deere Werke tractor? He also has a backhoe and
a frontloader for it.
DragonRanch has maybe 2 more months of good weather, October,
November, and part of December. Winter comes early, December 21 is one
month into winter around here.
Here's the plan. Run a stringline, mark off equal distances on the
stringline. Spray paint a mark on the ground. Dump a timber near each
mark. Take down the string. Drill a 3 foot deep hole in each
paintmark. Shovel the dirt clear of the hole.
Using a 20 lb sledge, drive a 1 foot, pointed section of 2x4 into the
ground about 5-6 feet from the hole. If the ground is hard or rocky,
use a metal peg with predrilled holes.
Pour some gravel and dry premixed concrete into each hole. Tip a timber
in. Rerun the string line. Two idiots horse the timber upright.
With the sledge as a brace, use a 20-26 oz hammer to attach an 8 foot
length of 2x4 to the peg.
One idiot holds the timber up, aligned with a level and the mark on the
string. Do not let the timber touch the string or the postline will
bow. The other idiot attaches the 2x4 to the timber 1/2 of the way up.
Brace each timber with at least 2 struts. 4 is better.
Fill the hole with dry premixed concrete. Tamp the concrete with the
mushroom end of a breaker bar as you pour the mix in. Allow 1 week
before taking down the struts.
Alternate method.
For maximum strength, pour green concrete sloooow-ly into the hole, do
not let the concrete stream hit the timber, direct the stream against
the side of the hole. Allow two days before taking down the struts.
Make a jig that marks the top level of the timbers. Trim off the top of
each timber using a chainsaw. paint the top of the timber with tar.
When playing with pressure treated, wear gloves and eye protection, do
not inhale the sawdust. Construction zone rules of engagement apply,
hardhats and foot protection.
As for what the Baron is building... don't ask. It's Y2K and reveals
the workings of his mind. You can use these directions to build a
decorative fence, a secure perimeter, support walls for a storage
building for machinery.
Preparations ---- Timing -------------
The code remediation is supposed to be done by December 1998, leaving
all of 1999 for testing. December 1998 and January 1999 are major
tripwires. If these dates are missed and instead of celebrations we
start seeing unusual system instabilities, that's what we call... a
clue.
Sure, a few problems always occur but when was the last time you saw an
SNA timeout at an ATM? Last week we had multiple reports of ATM
problems, one included the message that a Nov 1998 card had expired in
Oct 1998.
You should be at the 4-6 month-ready level by December 1998, ready as
you can be for the unknown. If we see intermittent panic, you'll
be able to ride it out.
My drop-dead day for finishing preparations is spring 1999. The federal
government will be done, including all testing by March 1999, Al Gore
said so. If they don't make March 1999, I want to be ready, for....
whatever...
Others have detailed the extent of their preparations, my goal is to be
able to survive... not live in comfort. If I come through this, losing
30 lbs, dirty, tired, but with my inner circle alive and well, I win. If
I'm cold in the winter and hot in the summer and I have enough food for
each day, some gruel and dried fruit for breakfast, a spoon of peanut
butter on a chunk of coarse whole wheat bread for lunch, so the F what.
If dinner is a 6 oz can of tuna on noodles split 4 ways, with a handful
of onion grass or dandelion greens from the lawn, that's fine with me.
I've eaten worse... and paid big bucks for it too.
This isn't about spending a lot of money. This is about taking some
measures now. I don't need a 5 KW diesel generator. I'll have a
flashlight that runs for months on 2 alkaline D-ce |
