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

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2259)	7/23/1998 9:21:00 AM
From: Bill Fischofer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

Test Pushes Wall Street's Computers Into 2000 Without Mishaps See nytimes.com for article in today's New York Times. Looks like the end of the world may have to be postponed once again. <g>

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2259)	7/25/1998 1:58:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

' However, the same is not true for manufacturing, where only half, or 49 percent, are "totally confident" that all of their IT systems will be Year 2000 compliant and fully tested before the new millennium. The remainder of the sample in manufacturing show considerable doubt about their Year 2000 plans, with only about one-third, or 31 percent, "fairly confident" that all of their IT systems will be Year 2000 compliant in time. ... news.com

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2259)	7/25/1998 2:10:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

Subject: Mainstream Media coverage - Conde Nast Traveller Date: 24 Jul 1998 20:02:54 EDT From: mcm.no-spam@dont-junk-mail-to.inorbit.com (Mark Mercer) Organization: personal Newsgroups: comp.software.year-2000 I get this glossy travel mag, so that I can think about vacations I don't have the time or money to take! Well, it looks like they are now including coverage of Club Dead package tours: August 1998 edition (just got to subscribers today, newstands soon) On their "Stop Press" section in the front of the book. This is where they have often strong reporting on the "dark side" of travel, including safety issues. Lead story in the section - the cover section: "Ghost in the Machine - Big plans for New Year's Eve 1999? Cross your fingers: The 'millennium bug' may keep you grounded." Pretty good discussion, in a "balanced" sort of style (flame-on, Paul) about how the FAA says they'll make it - but how the FAA is often late on their projects. Also information on how the UK's modernization program won't be ready by 1-1- 2000, and how Latin America, Africa, and the former USSR are paying little attention to Y2k issues since their ATC is already messed up. Nothing we don't already know here in csy2k. But another, very visible mainstream media article. Mostly travel-oriented, of course, but a sidebar mentions ATMs, credit cards, building elevators, etc. Definitely enough to get the leisure class "thinking". Not on their web page yet, and I don't think they post full text online, but it may show up shortly. Their site: travel.epicurious.com -- Mark Mercer Secular Y2k Rooster: The time is near. mcm<at sign>inorbit<dot>com (fix the obvious) mercers.com

To: John Mansfield who wrote (2259)	7/25/1998 2:19:00 AM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 9818

'From: Francis A. Ney, Jr <croaker@access.digex.net> 4:09 Subject: Re: IRS--How Are They Doing With Y2K? > From: no.spam@this.net (Mail: Y2000 infomagic com) > Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 00:57:17 GMT > > >Correction: It's a whole bunch of data entry terminals emulating a 1403 > >reader, said emulation running on Unisys/IBM minis. > > Er, Frank, > > The 1403 is a printer. Don't you mean a 2540 or 2501? > > (I have senior moments, too) Well, maybe the guy that wrote it had a senior moment. I got to witness a full start-up of a data entry section (this was early February, just before the seasonals came in for the start of filing season) at Cincinnati Service Center (which is really in Covington KY, a real shit-hole). The mini's console screen showed "IBM 1403 EMULATION" along with a bunch of other junk. Don't remember seeing any 2500-series numbers and the 1403 was rather prominent. Dunno. I know next-to-nothing about Autocoder, maybe this was just a program name, or something. I do know at the time they were playing games with the executables to get it running -- no source to be found -- and they had been doing it every year for about ten years. CSC had about twelve data entry sections, four were active at any one time (shift-work) at the height of filing season. In each section, there were about 80 terminals that fed 2 of these minis. Every four hours, the disk pack was changed for an empty one, which was sent on to the mainframe for entry into the pipeline processor. At one time they were trying to network the minis into the system so they wouldn't have to change packs (they were also running out of good packs). There are no printers tied to this set-up. The supervisor got back reports from the pipeline systems after the disk packs were fed in. The 1999 filing season is going to be a bit interesting, to say the least. Frank Ney N4ZHG WV/EMT-B VA/EMT-A LPWV NRA(L) GOA CCRKBA JPFO Abuses by the BATF access.digex.net "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" "Uh, I think so, Brain, but how are we going to get all those computers to fail all at the same time?"