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

To: Ken Salaets who wrote (3622)	2/3/1999 11:21:00 PM
From: O. H. Rundell	Respond to of 9818

Ken, IMHO each of the three of you (Drs. Doug and Ed and you) are in good company ! Somehow I doubt that the public will "get the hint" or if they do, the closed meetings will add to the unease. Perhaps our gov't is outsmarting itself. Is that an oxymoron? Best, O. H.

To: Ken Salaets who wrote (3622)	2/4/1999 2:06:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 9818

'...We investigated the FAA progress, and though it's true that they've made many positive gains since last February, don't be fooled. The FAA is far from out of the woods, and the flip side of its shiny Krugerrand of reassurance is a dull and gritty kopeck of uncertainty and unanswered questions. First off, the biggest, nastiest problem in the FAA's system is the computer at its core, the IBM model 3083 mainframe. Even though they were built back in the '70s -- ancient history, in computer time -- the 3083's still form the backbone of the FAA's long-distance control system. They drive the information displays at the 20 FAA "enroute centers" throughout the country; these are the centers that take over the control of air traffic at 60 miles from takeoff and handle all longer-range air traffic in the U.S. In October of 1997, IBM stated bluntly that "the appropriate skills and tools do not exist to conduct a complete Year 2000 test assessment of the IBM model 3083." In the face of this serious problem, the FAA has decided to replace or "rehost" the 3083 by the year 2000 using a system called Display System Replacement (DSR). In January of this year the FAA was very happy to report that the first DSR system went online in Auburn, Wash., but there are still 19 enroute centers that must be completely overhauled by the end of December, and the last time the FAA undertook rehosting on this scale it took three years to complete the job. The FAA does acknowledge that rehosting might not get finished in time for the new year, however, and so they offer the following: "...as a contingency to Host (system) replacement, we have already completed renovations of the existing Host as of July 31, two months ahead of OMB's September 30th renovation deadline. If there is a need for the Host to be operational in the Year 2000, we are assured that it will transition to the new millennium in a routine manner." But wait. IBM said the problem couldn't even be assessed, let alone fixed. How has this machine gone from completely unfixable to completely fixed in such a short time? The key to the mystery lies in the FAA's definition of the word "renovation." You'd think that a system that had been "renovated" had been fixed. Or at least looked at. Not so in this case. What the FAA means by "renovation" is nothing more than simulated repairs on a simulated version of the FAA computer system, which are being conducted at an FAA technical center in New Jersey. Most of the testing is still being done on the simulator, and the FAA won't specify how much testing is actually being done on the real machines. .... cgi.pathfinder.com