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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (6392)	7/8/1999 1:51:00 PM
From: B.K.Myers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

Cheryl, Thank you for the additional information about safe deposit boxes. As usual, your information is right on the money. I came across an interesting Web page that address the Y2K compliance of Safe Deposit Box Operation that raises the question; Are safe deposit boxes Y2K compliant? <<The Safe Deposit Box Operation product is an old DOS software program that has been discontinued and will not be upgraded to be Year 2000 compliant. We do not currently anticipate a Year 2000 compliant replacement for the Safe Deposit Box Operation software in the future.>> sheshunoff.com I don't know how many other Safe Deposit Box Operation products are not Y2K compliant, but I would check with my bank before putting anything into the box that I might need access to in early January. Also, if you do not currently have a safe deposit box, you should be aware that people are grabbing them fast: <<Demand for safe deposit boxes has some bank customers locked out Want to stash your cash for Y2K? Get in line. Sheryl Jean Staff Reporter The hottest service a bank has to offer these days is somewhat small and costs extra. It's a safe deposit box. Consumers must wait months or even years to put their name on a box at some Twin City bank branches. In addition, some banks are receiving unusual requests from people who want to place cash in a safe deposit box around the turn of the millennium for fear of Year 2000 computer glitches. For those people, the key to a safe deposit box is the word "safe." Norwest Bank, owned by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., plans to convert at least two bank branches slated to close in Plymouth and Woodbury into staffed, safe deposit box centers with no other bank services. Liberty State Bank has 100 people waiting up to three months for one of its 2,700 safe deposit boxes, said vice president Joan Peper, vice president for the single-office St. Paul bank. Big banks "have cut back on services, closed branches and cut down access to safe deposit boxes to three or four hours a day," Peper said. "That's where our demand is coming from. Basically, the consolidation and closings of banks have left people out of the loop." The safe deposit box shortage is not universal. While some banks don't have enough boxes at certain branches, other banks have an excess. The size of the problem appears to be tied to the size of the bank and where it is located. Convenience and proximity to home are major factors in choosing where to rent a box, said Charlotte House, vice president of marketing for St. Paul-based Cherokee State Bank. Only 10 percent of 690 safe deposit boxes at its Grand Avenue branch in St. Paul are not rented, but other branches have more than 50 percent availability, she said. Although 14 percent of Norwest's 160,000 safe deposit boxes throughout Minnesota are available, there's a definite crunch in the Twin Cities area, said Colleen Ross, senior project manager for Norwest Bank Minnesota. Some Norwest Bank branches in the growing, western suburbs have no safe deposit boxes available, and "there's a two- to three-year waiting period," she said. Norwest's two planned safe deposit box centers will offer hundreds, maybe thousands, of new boxes, Ross said. The exact number of boxes and the cost of construction were not available.>> amcity.com B.K.

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (6392)	7/8/1999 4:33:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 9818

' British Memo Warns of Russian Y2K Catastrophe NewsMax.com July 4, 1999 The British embassy in Moscow has warned diplomats about inviting friends and family to Russia during the upcoming New Year, Britain's Sunday Independent reports today. Fearing the implications of the Y2K millenium bug, an internal embassy memo leaked to the Independent underscored British concerns that Russia is "considered one of the countries most vulnerable to Y2K problems." The report notes that Russia has recently increased efforts to fix the Y2K problem. Experts, however, have concluded that Russia is doing too little, too late, to manage the computer problem. The Independent states that "at risk" areas in Russia include transport, electricity supply, telecommunications, and heating systems. An American Chamber of Commerce report issued by Terralink, an IT firm specialising in millennium bug issues, found that Russia could suffer catastrophic consequences because it was "very likely that major infrastructure providers upon whom everybody depends, will experience Y2K failures". Notably, experts have pointed to concerns about Russia's nuclear power stations, fearing a meltdown similar to Chernobyl, if the power grid fails. Russian officials have been dismissive of the Y2K problem. Ilya Klebanov, a deputy prime minister, recently said that "nothing awful is expected in Russia, and problems will be resolved by December". But independent experts scoff at such claims. Klebanov's predecessor "as late as May was complaining that 20 government departments had not yet submitted plans on tackling the millennium bug," the Independent reported. ..... 38.201.154.108

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (6392)	7/9/1999 8:40:00 AM
From: John Hunt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

How Y2K could sink the Stock Market << The stock bubble of 1999 constitutes perhaps the most dangerous, speculative investment climate ever. Exactly three score and ten years after 1929, the world seems poised on the verge of an equally ruinous stock market collapse. As the Dow Jones Industrial Average of blue chip American stocks passed 10,000 and then 11,000—the last extremely volatile surge representing the fastest 1,000 point rise ever—the speculative orgy of day traders ramping the price of Internet firms and other unproven enterprises started to resemble a casino, with the players punch drunk on the free booze of easy credit. Overvalued markets tend to become even more overvalued; in normal times it would be hard to predict just how long this unstable situation would last. But this is not a normal market. In light of the historic Y2K or Year 2000 computer crisis, the complacency, blindness and greed of the stock orgy has been nothing short of astonishing. The vessel is now out of control, the S.S. DowTanic is recklessly into overdrive. But the DowTanic is racing headlong into an obstruction it cannot avoid: Y2K is now less than six months away. The general public has dismissed warnings that this epochal event may be considerably more than the trivial weekend glitch the bubble-blowers would have them believe. Yet Wall Street and Bay Street continue to pump air into the stock balloon, singing the calming refrain of "Y2K-OK" ... more ... >> gold-eagle.com Now there's a new chant for Cheeky Kid to sing down at the shelter ... Y2K-OK! < vbg > If the market follows its normal scenario of anticipating problems about 6 months in advance, it must be just about be 'down elevator' time.