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 (Year 2000) Personal Contingency Planning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Investor-ex! who wrote (464)	9/16/1998 11:04:00 PM
From: jwk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 888

I posted this on another y2k thread yesterday and thought it might be of some interest here, too. ------ I had a lengthy and informative conversation yesterday with someone who is directly involved with keeping I-70 open through Colorado. It's a major job in the winter under the best of circumstances. Often it is closed for hours or even days at a time because of problems at various choke points. He had become very aware of y2k issues facing him. What was getting to him was the fact that the more he pursued fixes, the more problems and glithces he turned up. A main concern falls under the general concept of cascading glitches. He is only to well aware of how tenuous the supply and support line is to keep everything up and running. When he started factoring in potential (likely) y2k glitches..... well, he wasn't happy about the prospects of having I-70 open if we have a big snow year. Options: several hundred mile detour through Wyoming (which is rumored to have its own winter issues) or New Mexico. Will trucks and traffick move east -west in jan. 2000? Sure. But there is a worrisome likelyhood that the movement may be impeded by y2k glitches. So stuff arrives late.... some shops shut down for a while or cut back on hours. People make less, fall a bit more behind on bills, get a bit more tense and frustrated...... no problem, send them over to BW's place to get a pep talk on how all their fear, frustration, and anger is just a by-product of unreasonable hype. oh yeah, then there was this bit about transportation out of the Senate yesterday (thought they were all supposed to be focused on Bill's crotch like the rest of the country) September 14, 1998 Congress warned late yesterday that the U.S. transportation industry is likely to suffer major interruptions come the Year 2000, or at least so says Bob Bennett the senator from Utah and chair of hte Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem. The Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, heard testimony from Transportation Department (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration officials as well as executives from American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and representatives from major metro public transportation services. According to one report, a DOT official told the committee that the United States might ban U.S. airlines from flying to and from countries that can't prove their air traffic control systems are free of the Year 2000 computer bug. The committee queried a total of 32 airlines, airports, railroads, maritime shippers, trucking companies, and metropolitan transit authorities. However, only 16 responded to the committee's requests. "We made this survey so simple that I can only conclude that those who didn't respond are either unaware of the severity of the problem or are embarrassed over their lack of progress," Bennett said. The Senate hearing explored safety and convenience concerns for the traveler and commuter, as well as the potentially paralyzing effect the millennium bug could have on businesses that are reliant on "just-in-time" inventories and prompt transportation of manufactured goods. "With the hard part yet to come--testing and implementation--I am forced to conclude that there may be significant interruptions in the transportation industry," Bennett said.