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 : Y2k Why the stock-market will collapse within days/week -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul van Wijk who wrote (18)	5/18/1998 3:01:00 PM
From: Cheeky Kid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 185

In my opinion if the market corrects it will be because of escalating tensions in India/Pakistan area. I don't see a correction from Y2K in the coming weeks. I am not an expert, I believe NO ONE can call a correction or collapse. They usually call it after the fact. But that's my opinion.

To: Paul van Wijk who wrote (18)	5/18/1998 5:47:00 PM
From: K. M. Strickler	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 185

PvW, It is my impression (from a friend that I have working in Holland) that the government is FULLY aware of the problem, and has postponed all computer upgrades until this problem is resolved. That is more than I can say for other governments. The problem is that even if YOU are 2K compliant, when you are linked to a system that is not, you are not then 2K compliant. The problem is, as I see it, there is not enough talent or time to correct all of the problems. I hope that enough of the problems can be resolved that the total infrastructure is not impacted. Time will tell. Regards, Ken

To: Paul van Wijk who wrote (18)	5/19/1998 12:07:00 AM
From: foobert	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 185

Try this >>Posted on comp.software.year-2000 From: Matthew D. Healy, Ph.D. <Matthew.Healy@yale.edu> Subject: Electricity: Cautious Optimism Date: Monday, May 18, 1998 2:09 PM I do not dispute those who say the Y2K problem is a very large problem for the electric utiltity industry. It is. However, I also do not think it's gonna be quite as awful as some folks here seem to think! After reading various alarmist postings in this newsgroup last week, and suffering some sleepless nights as a result, I spoke with a good friend whom I will not name but who is in a position to know the facts at one particular electric utility. He says the following about his company, which I will not name: 1. They began their Y2K project in 1995, precisely because they knew the longer they waited the more it would cost. They expect to be done by March 1999, a target date chosen in order to allow some time for any final "mopping-up" that might turn out to be needed. My friend has been involved in the Y2K project since its inception. He says the first application they converted was a surprise, testing it cost a lot more than had been expected, but that's precisely why they began their project in 1995 -- in order to have actual experience when there was still time to adjust the budgets for later phases. Overall, more than half their Y2K costs have been for testing. 2. They are very well along with converting their internal IT systems to client-server; many converted systems have been operational for some time. They are now working on things like departmental systems. The last mainframes should soon be gone. 3. They are well along with testing and fixing their generating plants, with only one left to go. During scheduled maintenance shutdowns, they advanced the date and tested, then replaced whatever failed. Usually only a relatively small number of embedded devices in a given plant needed replacement, and the costs were not horrendous. 4. They are also well along with their distribution network. Since they have at least one backup for every circuit, and in many cases more than one, they have been able to test their distribution system without any outages by cutting one circuit at a time out of the loop for advanced-date testing. Their operational people do get a little nervous whenever they are testing a circuit for which there is only one backup, because a failure of that backup during the testing would mean a local outage. So far they haven't had that happen, but since they still have some circuits to test, they may yet have some brief local outages. But they consider the risk of a few localized outages before Y2K as a relatively small price to pay for avoiding Y2K problems. There probably will be some localized outages in early Y2K, but utility people have a tremendous amount of experience in working around outages and getting things back on line pretty quickly. 5. Most other large utilties are doing similar programs, and they are exchanging data with one another concerning what they learn. Some smaller utilities are not as far along as the big ones and may therefore have worse problems. 6. NOBODY is making firm written guarantees about the components they made being Y2K compliant, so they are testing everything themselves. Even if a vendor did make a firm promise, they would still only believe an actual test they did themselves. 7. My friend thinks that when push comes to shove the Feds will probably get their most critical systems fixed with a lot of triage, and most Federal agencies will be able to function in Y2K though at somewhat lower efficiency. Many state governments are way behind the curve, and there are going to be some messy situations in many capitals around the country. But not the end of the world as we know it. >>End of post