Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Data Dimensions -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: paul aswad who wrote (4140)	1/27/1998 5:37:00 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4571

Well Paul, I hope that your "tea leaves" also relay to you that an huge quantity of companies are also in denial about the severity of the Y2K issue and when they wake up, both they and their governmental agencies will be clamoring for assistance from whereever they can get it. I'm sure that a fair amount of this will migrate to DDIM as well as every other Y2K play. Anyone shorting any minimally credible Y2K oriented firm is going to lose money sometime this year as recognition spreads. What will be your tolerance for pain before you decide to go long??? And anyone who claims to hold a Masters in Computer Science and has the guts to say that Y2K is only serious, but not critical, will either quickly change his mind this year, or be looking for a new job due to his incompetence. I hope you guys short some more, in fact. Just that much more upside when earnings come and the company beats the street's already downward revised projections. Why do you think they revised them downward in the first place?? The street analysts overplayed earnings expectations in order to hype the stock to nose-bleed levels, then they shorted it. Now they have revised the levels to a point where the company should fairly easily meet or exceed them and they will be able to ride the wave back up again. Think about it guys... This is how the Big Boys play the game and you guys are acting like Pigs waiting to be slaughtered. And while you're pondering that, ponder this news article as well: *************************************** Administrator says year 2000 glitch affects all systems Mohammed Adam, The Ottawa Citizen Ottawa-Carleton must spend at least $30 million to fix the year 2000 computer bug or face chaos, regional councillors heard yesterday. Everything from the 911 emergency service to water supplies to fire fighting and payroll processing could come unhinged if the region's computers or software are not upgraded. "We have no intention of reinventing the wheel," finance commissioner Jack LeBelle said. "We will have to tear down all the existing business systems and install new ones." And Mr. LeBelle told astonished politicians that he couldn't even promise that $30 million will be enough to fix what has become a technological nightmare around the world. Chief administrative officer Merv Beckstead said the region is in a race against time and he urged penny-pinching councillors to approve $4.6 million for OC Transpo to get on with its part of the job. "We are less than 24 months from the year 2000 and we can't change the date. We are in a time crunch," he said apocalyptically. "This is a time-bomb. I am really amazed that the region is only now addressing this problem," rookie Coun. Wendy Byrne intoned gravely, urging her colleagues who were fretting about the monumental cost to get on with it. "It is a grim reality that we have to deal with or things will come to a grinding halt in 2000," Coun. Robert van den Ham agreed. The computer problem that has sparked global alarm has to do with the way computer programmers coded dates. To save memory space, programmers used two digits to code years; 1998 is simply 98. The problem is that when 2000 arrives, millions of computers will read the year as 00. In the mind of the computer that could mean everything from 1200 to 2000, precipitating a disaster of unimaginable proportions, some predict. Small businesses, large corporations and governments are spending billions of dollars trying to cope. The cost to the federal government alone is estimated at more than $1 billion. Regional experts say some computers may be able to adjust but with so much riding on computer chips, no one dares take the risk that all will be well. Last September, regional council approved $6.2 million for the region's finance department to upgrade its computers. Yesterday, councillors on the region's corporate services committee and the transit commission approved $4.6 million for OC Transpo and fast-tracked it to council tomorrow for final approval. OC Transpo general manager Ian Stacey told the councillors that the bus company could come to a screeching halt in a year's time if work doesn't start immediately. "If we don't deal with the year 2000 problem, we are not going to be able to operate beyond the summer of 1999," Mr. Stacey warned. But Mr. LeBelle said most of the region's work, ranging from traffic signals to sewage collection, is computerized, so it will take at least $30 million to combat the problem. But not everybody was taken in by the doomsday scenario painted by the bureaucrats. Coun. Dan Beamish said staff had "carefully engineered" the issue to force council into precipitate action. Coun. Betty Hill was equally skeptical, saying some people just wanted an excuse to spend large sums of money on new toys. "I don't know how we can bring large amounts of money like this for approval when we haven't done our budget and when we don't know what our priorities are," she scoffed. ******************************************** Regards, Ron