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

To: John Mansfield who wrote (52)	5/19/1998 5:44:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 185

[UTILITIES] 'Regulators cannot ensure utilities will be Y2K compliant ' ' by Lisa Kelly US federal authorities warned this week that utilities remained in the dark about the Year 2000 problem, as UK regulators admitted they have minimal power to ensure compliance amongst the power providers. The US government's federal regulator for energy providers cautioned that electricity and fuel companies do not know the extent of their exposure to the millennium bug. Kathleen Hirning, chief information officer with the federal energy regulatory commission (FERC), told a House Science Subcommittee that without testing it is impossible to determine the impact of some embedded systems malfunctioning and the ensuing ripple effect across a portion of the grid. UK regulators for the electricity and gas industries have no better idea about the progress of Year 2000 work here - and few powers to do anything about it. A spokesperson for the electricity regulator (Offer) admitted that the millennium issue does not come under the remit of the 1989 Electricity Act - the legislation that brought the regulators into existence. "It was passed before the millennium bug was thought about," he said. According to Offer, statutory licence obligations demanding continued electricity supply provide the only check on companies. The spokesperson admitted that any action could only be "retrospective". "The commercial nature of the companies means they want to solve any problem," he said and added that towards the end of 1997, Offer contacted the companies, "to find out the steps they propose to take. We take a keen interest in those preparations". The gas regulator, Ofgas, has similar problems. .... webserv.vnunet.com

To: John Mansfield who wrote (52)	5/19/1998 5:56:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 185

[OPINION] Some of the things that are necessary in the coming months: - (further) mobilisation of technical people (IT, technicians etc.) - freeze of all work that does not help remediate Y2k problems. Using labour market mechanisms, this would imply a drastic increase in rates of people working on y2k... I still do not see this happening in a way that will really set free enough programmers/technicians. - setting up crash courses in 'simple' remediation work; test work (think of Cobol; desktop programs etc). This enables more experienced programmers to concentrate on the difficult programming work. - 'moral'-pressure from friends, acquantances, family, neighbours and so on ('what?' 'You are doing something with internet!?... but I thought we have a crisis at hand.... want to keep the lights burning.... why is it you are not working on the really important issues!? - putting Y2k squarely on the political agenda: freeze of all new regulations (that might involve additional programming); breaking down all possible tax/law and other inhibitors to solving the problems; contingency planning; stimulation of setting up town/village/county Y2k preparation citizen committees; etc etc. I can think of a lot of other initiatives. Just my 2 cents. John