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

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (399)	11/10/1997 7:35:00 PM
From: gamesmistress	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

The Wall Street Journal may not care about Y2K but TheStreet.com does. Back to the Future: Y2K Horror Stories TheStreet.com, 11/10/97 So why don't people seem to believe this thing? There were some 300 attendees at the recent SPG Year 2000 Conference and Expo in Dallas' Grand Kempinski hotel, and they're all working on their companies' Y2K problem. Previous shows had seen as many as 2,000 Y2K pros in attendance. But all too few are willing to talk about their own, real problems. One reason for the silence is that tales of impending Year 2000 breakdowns are shrouded in issues of liability. "We've done estimates of the potential liability for Year 2000 problems," says Steven L. Hock, an attorney with Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges. "And we think damages could far outstrip the actual cost of all the Y2K fixes -- we're talking upwards of $500 billion." But without anybody willing to talk on record about the problem, we reporters don't have much to go on, because we don't like to use unattributed anecdotes. Thus, the Year 2000 has become a silent killer -- a massive, broad-reaching problem that no one will admit to suffering from. So here are a handful of nameless, faceless and largely unattributed stories about Year 2000 problems. You don't have to believe them. You don't even have to read them. But a couple of years from now don't say you weren't warned. thestreet.com

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (399)	11/11/1997 1:25:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

Y2K MEDICAL: FRIGHTENING DISCUSSION *It's appalling what's NOT being done. This is from a moderated group of medical and medical-related professionals.* "While the FDA is getting concerned about medical device and system Y2K probems, they are not yet fully aware of the insidious nature of Y2K." "This is one area where Congress should be very concerned and I recommend that everyone let them know in no uncertain terms that we want them concerned." "The worst part of all this is that the CEO/CFO level still do not want to believe there is a problem." "META Group research indicates a significant number of medical devices will malfunction due to Y2K. It's (embedded systems) a Y2K area that so far has gotten little attention in the IT community." "We find that some vendors have been very helpful, but there are many others who refuse to release any information. Two that we are having problems with are GE Medical and NEC (PABX)." "HCFA has also not developed contingency plans in the event the Y2K systems fail ... Yet the contractors not only have not developed contingency plans, they said they do not intend to do so because they believe this is HCFA's responsibility." "Several medical manufacturers have already found that "identical" (bought at the same time & sequentially serial numbered) machines react differently to Y2K dates because of the different BIOS & motherboards used in "identical" machines. "Here I would like to take the opportunity and ask the editors of technical magazines to pubish more articles on embedded devices, microcontrollers and testing procedures. - Swedish National Board of Health & Welfare" techstocks.com Print this out, and give to anyone you know in the medical field.