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


To: Ken Salaets who wrote (2386)8/6/1998 12:23:00 PM
From: John Mansfield  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 9818
 
Cory Hamasaki: 'c.s.y2k has been 6 months to a year ahead of the press and public
understanding.'

This is my experience also. I started reading specific posts on comp.software.year-2000 almost 1 year ago; along with postings on sites such as www.year2000.com.

There is a lot of CR*P on c.s.y2k; but there is also some advanced discussion on Y2k ahead of the pack as well. So it is worthwhile to read some discussions on c.s.y2k.

John
______-

'From:
kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net (cory hamasaki)
4:56

Subject:
Re: Some FACTS about banks and Y2K

On Wed, 5 Aug 1998 23:44:37, ronkenyon@aol.com (RonKenyon) wrote:

> Jeffrey Weiss <weissj@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> >Mr Milne, the
> >burden of proof is ON YOU. We don't have to name a single compliant bank.
> >We're not the ones trying to do the convincing, YOU ARE
>
> Well actually, Jeffrey, NO YOU ARE. In conventional discourse, the adherent to
> a nonstandard position bears the greater burden of explication, if not "proof".
> In this company (c.s.y2k), the standard view is that the problem is real, of a
> serious nature, and won't go away by itself.
>
> In recent months, this is also the consensus view among educated society at
> large, and is certainly the consensus of bankers and bank regulators.
>
> The accepted presumption, absent specific and credible information to the
> contrary, with respect to any given large, software-dependent institution is
> that said institution is not ready at this point in time (1998-08-06).

I know several organizations that *expect* to be ready. They've
reported their status to WDC Y2K multiple times. These firms have been
very open; I've had off-the-record conversations with their Y2K VPs. I
know how seriously they're taking this problem. I am optimistic about
their prospects but know also how hard they've worked. ...and they're
not done yet.

On the other hand, I hear a lot of jive-talking from other firms, read
the reports of the DoD's Inspector General raking the Pentagon over the
coals... come on, we're not talking about Joe's bait shop... the stuff
about the power industry, the Telcos, trains, seafreight.

As for the banks... I have reports from the superprogrammer grapevine
about serious problems. These are rumors but I believe them.

> Cases or claims to the effect that "thus-and-such particular institution is
> ready *now*" are certainly of interest to the group, and may be subject of
> lively debate, as are interpretations of current evidence and/or projections of
> the likely course of events.
>
> But if you wish to debate the reality of the problem under discussion, you've
> arrived a year or two late ... unless you have some unusually compelling
> evidence, truly novel perspective or argument not yet aired.

c.s.y2k has been 6 months to a year ahead of the press and public
understanding.

A year ago, c.s.y2k was considering the validity and scope of the
problem in general. The concensus was, this is a large problem. done,
debated, the jury's in.

Six months ago, c.s.y2k was examining specific industries, asking how's
power doing, banking, government, water, etc. These questions have been
resolved industry by industry. No one is doing well. There is no good
news. Yes, there are a few who haven't gotten with the program but hey,
some of us think the world is flat too.

Today, the question is, when will it start and what is it. I'm guessing
December 1998-January 1999. *It* is both the first wave of large MIS
failures and the management panic... I'm not concerned about Joe
Six-pack, he's cool... 1972 Monte Carlo with 396 V-8... cool.

I'm afraid of the horn-hairs, now there's an addle-brained bunch,
fad of the day, metrics, awareness posters, clueless as a stone... but
hey, a firm handshake, a sincere smile, good hair... and they'll stab
you in the back every time. What happens when the systems break and the
best efforts of the geeks can't put humpty-dumpty together again? What
happens when management can't deny the reality any longer?

Will they realize that the joke's on them? That they wasted time that
we didn't have? What straws will a drowning executive team grasp for?

I see W.C. Fields calling on the clueless.

> Regards,
> RonKenyon, Emissary of Civility

cory hamasaki 513 days... Something wicked,
This way comes.



To: Ken Salaets who wrote (2386)8/6/1998 12:26:00 PM
From: John Mansfield  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 9818
 
ROFL: 'Sidebar here - There is a terrible misconception flowing through the Y2K
world... the statement, "This is not a technical problem, this is a
management problem." does not mean, "We need more clueless droolers with
good hair to sit around looking at powerpoint presentations, more
secretaries (assistants to the VP who think they're the assistant VP),
more bonuses for management, etc."
______________

'From:
kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net (cory hamasaki)
12:05

Subject:
Re: Do You Remember?

Hey Lizzie, what's the point of this?

On Thu, 6 Aug 1998 03:35:17, alizard[spam]@ecis.com (A.Lizard) wrote:

> In article <6pjmlb$mot$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
> fedinfo@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> >
> >
>
> >The word is, now, that in major cities, 10 days of food will be
> all that may
> >be obtained. After that, nothing.
>
> 10? Sources, please. The number I've heard for the last few years
> is about 3 days food. 10 would be GOOD NEWS.
>
> A.Lizard

3 days... 10 days, it depends on whether you consider canned sour kraut
and pickled pigsfeet to be edible or not. A couple days ago, we had a
grocer-guy explain how his lettuce (which comes from Imperial Valley on
the Lettuce Bowl Express, a high speed refrigerated freight train) is
restocked daily but other items, the more sour items, stick on the shelf
for a while.

When Kos-Can-em, Al Gore, and the others finally come on TV, screaming
for everyone to REMAIN CALM, NOBODY PANIC, while the Fox channel is
showing evacuation routes, and the moving words on the bottom of the
screen go -beep-beep-beep-

<---<<< a 2nd Nuclear Power Plant has b...<---<<<
well, it's probably too late to try for that case of Mac and Cheese and
24 pack of TP.

but hey, what do I know, I'm just the geek who saw a date problem take
down 5 mainframes in 1979, who duked it out with the Unix Propellor
heads when the common knowledge was "Unix is safe until 2038"; they
called me clueless, I told them I'd seen code that misused tm_year; they
said son, read the man-file... I said, I've seen live code and I've been
cranking C since the early 1980s. ...so don't give me that "I'm a cool
Unix dude because I learned to say, 'man-file' jive."

The problem isn't will the stores be cleaned out in 3 or 10 days....
it'll take about 4 hours once it starts. The real question is how long
will it take to reprioritize the shipments... will the Frito-Lay truck
keep delivering those wonderful new 20 oz bags while deliveries of
basics are halted due to lack of freight capacity, fuel, communications,
management priority...

Sidebar here - There is a terrible misconception flowing through the Y2K
world... the statement, "This is not a technical problem, this is a
management problem." does not mean, "We need more clueless droolers with
good hair to sit around looking at powerpoint presentations, more
secretaries (assistants to the VP who think they're the assistant VP),
more bonuses for management, etc."

It means, we need the senior executive to say, this is the priority,
make it so. That's it. ... well, he should say it daily but we don't
need metrics, mission statements, executive retreats, awareness
brochures, committee findings...

With few exceptions, Y2K has not been a priority... and we will all pay
for that. Fortunately, this disaster has been well documented and in
2003 or so, when some semblence of order is restored, we'll be able to
hold the trials... I'm thinking... a speedy trial before Hangin' Judge
Frank Ney, the only law in the Pokono's, a new rope...

"... dag nab it, your lawyer's had his say for five minutes, I gotta go
tend to my horses... guilty as charged, string him up fellas..."

cory hamasaki 512 days... some of us geeks use language like:
Malfeasanse of Office.