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

To: Bill Ounce who wrote (91)	9/9/1999 2:16:00 PM
From: Bill Ounce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 198

USA Today -- Don't worry, be prepared usatoday.com Don't worry, be prepared Poll finds most Americans don't fear worst on Jan. 1, 2000 By Thomas A. Fogarty and Del Jones, USA TODAY [...] A new USA TODAY/National Science Foundation poll found fewer and fewer Americans expect major problems due to Year 2000 computer glitches. Only 7% expect their personal lives to be disrupted in a major way, while 40% expect no problems at all. Last December, 14% expected major problems, and 30% expected no problems at all. Yet a significant number of people are taking steps to protect themselves against possible failures if computers malfunction. Many computers, software and embedded chips use two digits to designate a year. That means they could read "00" as 1900, rather than 2000. More than half of Americans plan to get documentation of bank, retirement and other financial records. Almost half say they won't fly on New Year's Day. Almost 40% intend to stockpile food and water, and about one in five will stock up on gasoline, according to the poll of 1,014 adults conducted Aug. 25-29 by the Gallup Organization. [...] Management consultant William Ulrich, author of two books and hundreds of articles warning of serious Y2K fallout, says there is no doubt that concern is disappearing. In February, 750 people attended one of his seminars that was set up for 450. By June, only 16 showed up for a well-publicized seminar at a Catholic church in Santa Cruz, Calif. Americans are nestling into a false state of complacency, Ulrich says. They don't lose sleep over Russian nuclear submarines, so they can't be expected to lose sleep over Y2K, he says. [...] Even some who first warned of catastrophe are coming around. Y2K author Peter de Jager, who says he might have been characterized as an "alarmist" three or four years ago, last week confirmed a flight from Chicago to London where he will be "drinking champagne at 32,000 feet," when Year 2000 arrives. He says he's almost to the point of telling people not to worry at all. "Prepare like it's Hurricane Dennis," de Jager says. [...]