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Technology Stocks : Y2K (Year 2000) Stocks: An Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: paul e thomas who wrote (11355)	5/2/1998 5:24:00 PM
From: bob	Respond to of 13949

Ridge Administration Receives Nearly $11 Million to Continue Squashing Year 2000 Bug; PA Ahead of Schedule to Complete Y2K Conversion HARRISBURG, Pa., May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge today announced that Pennsylvania has been awarded $10.98 million by the U.S. Department of Labor to upgrade its mission-critical computer systems for Year 2000 compliance. Pennsylvania received the third largest federal grant for Year 2000, after New York and Michigan. Funds will be used by the state Department of Labor and Industry (L&I) to update software and hardware, and to hire computer programmers with expertise in older computer languages still in use on many of L&I's computer systems. The money will be targeted to those computer systems handling unemployment compensation and employment services, to assure uninterrupted service to recipients of those services. "This critical funding will help Pennsylvania maintain its national leadership in beating the Year 2000 deadline," Gov. Ridge said. "While many organizations are just beginning to talk about the Year 2000, Pennsylvania has been taking decisive action to protect its vital computer resources -- with taxpayers reaping the ultimate benefit." Gov. Ridge added that regular monthly reports tracking corrections to 45,879 state-agency computer programs show that state government is ahead of the aggressive timeline for computer fixes established under the Governor's Year 2000 Action Plan. The tracking project uses a sophisticated computer program developed by the Governor's Year 2000 project team. Over a year-and-a-half ago, the Governor's action plan established a deadline of June 30, 1998, for making corrections to all agencies' mission- critical computer programs. Dec. 31, 1998, was set as the deadline for correcting all remaining computer programs. In addition to preparing agencies' computer hardware and software for the Year 2000 date-change, Gov. Ridge's action plan directs the Commonwealth's efforts to safeguard agency data exchanges with outside parties and to identify and correct computer microchips in equipment used throughout state facilities. The action plan also includes an outreach effort to inform the state's schools, local governments and businesses about the Year 2000 threat so they can plan corrective actions. Pennsylvania state government has been frequently recognized by Year 2000 experts and prominent publications as a national Year 2000 leader. More information on the state's Year 2000 progress can be found on the Pennsylvania Homepage on the World Wide Web at (http://www.state.pa.us), or at the Office for Information Technology website (http://www.oit.state.pa.us). The Year 2000 refers to a flaw in the way dates traditionally have been entered into computer systems, preventing them from properly recognizing dates after the year 1999. Since computers routinely use dates to make calculations, the Year 2000 threatens to invalidate electronic records by hindering the ability of computers to make accurate, date-based calculations. Technology experts predict that computers worldwide may be seriously impacted by this date-change dilemma. SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry & Pennsylvania Office of Administration CONTACT: Roger Baumgarten of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, 717-787-7530, or Scott Elliott of the Pennsylvania Office of Administration, 717-772-4237 Web Site: state.pa.us (Today's News) (Company News On-Call) (Feature News) (Automotive) (Entertainment) (Health/Biotech)(Technology) (Financial) (Energy) (Washington and the World) (Money Talks) (About PRN)(Ask PRN) (Links) (PRN Events) c1998 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. Redistribution, retransmission, republication or commercial exploitation of the contents of this site are expressly prohibited without the written consent of PR Newswire. These pages have been optimized for Netscape v.2.0 or later

To: paul e thomas who wrote (11355)	5/2/1998 7:56:00 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Respond to of 13949

Paul, based on the current crop of investors, I'd say you are 100% right. However, the big speculation is about whether we will get a "third wave" of speculation. If it happens, and I think it will (errr... pray it will (gg)), it should be a tsunami. For this to happen, either the press has to do a better job of informing the public about the peril of Y2K, or, heaven forbid, we have to have some Y2K related tragedy that wakes people up. Perhaps if that Millennium movie ever comes out (the one where the world comes to a halt because of computers going haywire on 1/1/2000), we'll get some good publicity. I really do think the odds are in our favor. I really think we will see the moms and pops buying Y2K stocks. And, thus, I guess I stand in the extreme minority that the companies perceived as strong Y2K stocks will be the best investments to cash in on Y2K investment mania. There's an old adage in investing that says "sell when most people are buying and buy when most people are selling". Well, most people are certainly selling Y2K related issues. Do you fell lucky? Well, do ya? (gg) - Jeff