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Non-Tech : The Y2K Newspaper -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Ounce who wrote (85)	9/1/1999 9:17:00 AM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 198

JAPAN IS THE BIGGEST Y2K RISK IN THE WORLD TODAY August 31, 1999 Karl W. Feilder, founder and president of Greenwich Mean Time, is acknowledged worldwide as the authority on the year 2000 "PC" problem and, vitally, it's cause: lack of control at the desktop. EXCERPT Feilder acknowledges that many other nations need help too, but says the case for transferring accumulated knowledge to Japan is most urgent. ``We've recently experienced the domino effect of Japanese recession and stock market fluctuation, compounded by the interdependence of the traditional keiretsu. These groups of large companies - all with strong connections to the same bank and significant cross-holdings in each other's shares - dominate Japanese business culture. I don't think anyone would argue that it is in the interests of the West to prevent their economic failure.' [...] He says there are lots of other ways the West can help Japan. "Western companies can pass knowledge on to their Japanese trading partners. In addition, industries should be transferring knowledge among themselves. Most banks, certainly in the UK, have produced very professional Y2K guides for their customers in the form of booklets or videos. Their millennium compliance statements are comprehensive too. Japanese banks, which I'm particularly worried about, could learn a lot from them. Only one has checked their PCs - and even they haven't checked all of them." [...] Every single PC needs to be checked at all five layers: (1) hardware (BIOS), (2) operating system, (3) software programs, (4) user data and (5) data sharing. biz.yahoo.com gmt-2000.com ============================================================ Feilder Reports: Until Last Week, Japanese Government Did Not Know That PC's Are Noncompliant This is from the head of Greenwich Mean Time, producer of Check 2000. It appeared on de Jager's forum, August 29. I will not bother to comment, except to say that Feilder always tells it straight. Gary North . . . "I have been in meetings in Tokyo for the last week, and have met some very high up people in industry and government, which has given me a lot of critical information about the risk posed to the world economy by the world's second largest economy. Try these for a few facts on Japan : 1. The government has had a Y2K campaign running since summer 1998, and have done a lot of the right things, but until last week, no-one had told them that Y2K affected PCs at all. 2. Only one bank has even started checking their PCs 3. In meetings with some of the key PC manufacturers, it became clear that they have NOT tested the BIOS for Y2K issues (just like the US situation in 1997) 4. The Japanese head of disaster and emergency management told me that he thought Y2K was overhyped, and consequently they have not made a contingency plan (although they could modify an existing plan - e.g. earthquakes or war.) 5. The government's own figures, which will be presented in Berlin, whilst very very impressive, are so inaccurate that they verge on being pure imagination." . . . garynorth.com ============================================================ From: Ron Reece Tuesday, Aug 31 1999 9:26AM SILICON INVESTOR Reply #479 of 484 I was unable to find where Fielder actually stated that the Japanese had been unaware of Y2K related PC problems. It seems to have been a comment inserted by Gary North and not a direct, documentable, quote by Fielder. I sent Mr. Fielder an email trying to confirm that North quoted him correctly. If so, it is VERY important information (and not encouraging). I'll let the thread know when I get a response. Or if you found where Fielder actually stated that they had been unaware of Y2K related PC problems before, could you please provide the link? I couldn't find the Year2000 "forum" that GN was referring to. If this is correct, I need to have the information so I can forward the data to someone I know who is dealing with the Japanese on Y2K. It may be valuable in "smoking out" any denial on their part. =============================================== From: Ron Reece Wednesday, Sep 1 1999 12:05AM ET SILICON INVESTOR Respond to Post # 482 of 483 Response from Karl Fielder: Ron, The quotes attributed to me are accurate. I have just finished a hard tour of Japan and have even more information. I would agree that many companies are not telling the truth - but this is mostly from ignorance rather than a deliberate policy. However, having told an untruth, they must confess if they subsequently wish to change their tune - and THAT results in a loss of face. Karl Fielder Promised I would share this when I got a response. Looks like Gary North was properly quoting Mr. Fielder's comments. Not comforting if you live in Japan. siliconinvestor.com ============================================================ To: Ron Reece who wrote (482) From: Christine Traut Wednesday, Sep 1 1999 8:12AM ET SILICON INVESTOR Reply #484 of 485 I had the pleasure of meeting with Karl Feilder last spring. I give great weight to his opinions on Japan. He is a man who calls them as he sees them. And he is a very bright and perceptive guy. Karl was one of the original sources of my Microsoft cynicism. I still find it amazing that they are managing to keep America from realizing that virtually every MSFT operating system is going to need to be patched to be Y2K compliant. I keep wondering what effect this fact is going to have on public confidence when it finally gets through everyone's complacency about PCs. ============================================================ Cheryl 121 Days until 2000

To: Bill Ounce who wrote (85)	9/7/1999 10:43:00 AM
From: Bill Ounce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 198

comp.risks reports possible Y2K $891.24 payment to consumer ====================================================================== RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Friday 3 September 1999 Volume 20 : Issue 56 FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks) ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator *** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. * This issue is archived at <URL:http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/20.56.html> and at ftp.sri.com/risks/ . [...] Subject: Tandy bug? The following story was recently forwarded to the EGR mailing list. I wonder if anyone knows anything more about it? L. 2) William Slattery shares the following personal experience. All you reporters out there might take special note. Y2K is here! I got a check in the mail last week from Tandy Corporation: $891.24. A nice chunk of change that there is no way in the world they could owe me. Here is what I think happened. Because of my odd habit of paying off most of my bills to the nearest ten dollars OVER what I actually owe (it makes the math easier when I balance my checkbook), I had a small credit on my Radio Shack credit card. Their computer looked at the end of the billing period, which fell after the infamous 9/9/99, and said Wowza!, this guy has had a five dollar credit on our books since January 1 of 1900. Since company policy is to pay off credits on inactive accounts, I'm going to calculate the interest and cut this guy a check. So here we are. I phoned Tandy headquarters (817-415-3011) and talked with the person in charge of this sort of thing, Lisa Mapes. I told her there was no way Radio Shack could owe me 900 bucks because I hadn't spent that much money in their stores in my whole life. I told her I thought they had a Y2K problem. She laughed at me. It was not a good laugh. It was the "you're so ridiculous it's hilarious" kind of laugh. Ms. Mapes told me to go ahead and cash the check. Radio Shack really owes me this money, she says, even though they are completely unable to explain WHY they owe me the dough. I told reporters at The New York Times and National Public Radio that all their stories warning about Y2K were finally starting to pay off. I figured that after years of running Chicken Little stories -- the sky is gonna fall! the sky is gonna fall! -- it would make a good little story when the first chunks of sky actually started landing on people's heads. Apparently not. They seem profoundly uninterested. To a mind as comprehensive as yours, I am sure the potential for gaining fabulous wealth is immediately apparent. The key to getting rich off Y2K is to open numerous small accounts under assumed names, lodge small credits in them, and wait for the checks to roll in. If I'd thought of it sooner -- and could get rid of this pesky conscience -- I'd be a rich man today. ------------------------------ [...] ------------------------------ Date: 23 Sep 1998 (LAST-MODIFIED) From: RISKS-request@csl.sri.com Subject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks) The RISKS Forum is a MODERATED digest. Its Usenet equivalent is comp.risks. => SUBSCRIPTIONS: PLEASE read RISKS as a newsgroup (comp.risks or equivalent) if possible and convenient for you. Alternatively, via majordomo, SEND DIRECT E-MAIL REQUESTS to <risks-request@csl.sri.com> with one-line, SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) [with net address if different from FROM:] or INFO [for unabridged version of RISKS information] .MIL users should contact <risks-request@pica.army.mil> (Dennis Rears). .UK users should contact <Lindsay.Marshall@newcastle.ac.uk>. => The INFO file (submissions, default disclaimers, archive sites, copyright policy, PRIVACY digests, etc.) is also obtainable from csl.sri.com ftp://www.CSL.sri.com/pub/risks.info The full info file will appear now and then in future issues. * All contributors are assumed to have read the full info file for guidelines. *** => SUBMISSIONS: to risks@CSL.sri.com with meaningful SUBJECT: line. => ARCHIVES are available: ftp://ftp.sri.com/risks or ftp ftp.sri.com<CR>login anonymous<CR>[YourNetAddress]<CR>cd risks [volume-summary issues are in risks-*.00] [back volumes have their own subdirectories, e.g., "cd 19" for volume 19] or catless.ncl.ac.uk [i.e., VoLume, ISsue]. PostScript copy of PGN's comprehensive historical summary of one liners: illustrative.PS at ftp.sri.com/risks . ------------------------------