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Technology Stocks : 2000 Date-Change Problem: Scam, Hype, Hoax, Fraud -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cheeky Kid who wrote (1229)	3/10/1999 10:05:00 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 1361

By the way, "jury-rig" is originally a nautical expression. A "jury" is a temporary sail rigged when the main sails can't be set, such as during a storm or when the masts are down or have been damaged. It is a fitting expression for dealing with Year 2000 problems. And this is why the year 2000 isn't going to be so huge a problem. There are always five or six ways to do a task, and most of us know it. And if one of them doesn't work and we have some time to think about it, we will try another, and another after that. This is done from the marketing department on down to the factory floor. Secretaries and administrative assistants do it all the time. For the people in Information Technology all over the world, it is a description of their job. After all, it isn't as if these computers work all that well now. Interesting article... Funny how these guys couldn't have adopted this attitude from the get-go. But y'know... from the perspective of someone like myself who used to provide input for some military contingency planning, you have to know what will work and what won't. Without a certain amount of knowledge of where your vulnerabilities are, especially in terms of supply chain issues from overseas vendors, you may find your contingency plans requiring contingencies plans of their own. Now call me overly confident regarding American "know how" and ingenuity, but I think much of our history reflects our ability to turn chaos into a semblance of order. However, I don't have as much faith in the more rigid cultures in Asia and to a lesser extent, Europe. I remember an old anecdote reportedly attributed to a captured German general from WW2. When asked why he was conplementary of the US Army, he alledgedly responded: "Because War is Chaos. And the US Army practices Chaos on a daily basis". I think the analogy applies to the US culture overall, but then again, I might be biased. However, in a just-in-time economy where everything has to be in its proper place at just the right time, I suspect we could see some negative economic impact that could affect that fine-tuned GDP figure we're so currently proud of. No.. Y2K is not the end of the world, but if certain countries don't have their act together, the economic disruptions could turn into political ones. And those might turn into particularly nasty internal and external military disruptions. And my sources here in the DC area are not so confident about Asia, let alone Europe. I made a quip a couple of weeks ago to one of them asking "exactly how do you make a contingency plan for an entire economy?". Things never happen in a vacuum, and there are oftentimes repercussions that no one thought to factor in. Regards, Ron