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

To: flatsville who wrote (4702)	3/16/1999 9:12:00 AM
From: J.L. Turner	Respond to of 9818

"in Washington, D.C., that a committee will develop the backup plans so that members" March 1999 and the govt. has no backup plans for that segment of society most likely to riot and kill. "of the public can continue to receive food stamps and health care payments if interfaces" What about the producers of society?Apparently only non-producers count,why is that? "The public doesn't care if the computer systems are compliant or not,'' Koskinen said. "What the people want to know is if they will receive their benefits, Medicaid and child care assistance.'' Taxpayers are not even considered by this type of bureaucrat socialism is wonderful if you are on the receiving end. "Koskinen said about 165 federal interfaces with state systems have been identified, although the number could slightly increase as more systems are discovered." Hark! a dependency problem, and there could be more!! " Emphasis is on 40 mission-critical services such as food stamps, Medicaid and job training," Job training is mission critical but knowing your interfaces isn't.Only a Cheeky could buy into this. "In addition to developing contingency plans, Koskinen said comprehensive end-to-end testing will be conducted at the federal and state levels to make certain that interface systems are able to sustain the 40 major welfare assistance programs from the first time data is keyed into a state or local system to the point where it is manipulated and stored for the last time in a federal system." They are talking about testing when they haven't completed assessment(remember 165 interfaces found with more to be DISCOVERED) What a joke! "Michael Benzen, the chief information officer of Missouri, said planning for disruptions is appropriate," Particularly if your state has had problems already Mr. Benzen. "Benzen, who also is president of the National Association of State Information Resources Executives, said more than 65 percent of the mission-critical federal interfaces are compliant and all should be fixed by year-end." No testing verified by 3rd parties = Non-compliance "States don't get a cookie if they finish in April or if they finish in December,'' Benzen said. "The bottom line is that they finish by deadline. This is not a race.'' Nah no race,what do I care if I can't get medicine or food or money. "Benzen said many of the federal services can be delivered in a timely manner only by electronic means. In Missouri, for example, Benzen said his state could not run the Medicaid program manually if the systems broke down," Gee do you suppose they learned something,like if you can't pay your unemployment benefits on time manually you might not be able to pay medicade payments.Wait until your friendly MD realizes what that will do to his cash flow. "We would have to hire 500 to 1,000 clerks, and I don't think the work force can offer us that kind of support,'' Benzen said. "We fixed our Medicaid systems last year to make certain they are running.... It would be better to fix the systems rather than run the program manually.'' They are just pi##ed that social security has first debs on all these competent clerks that they need to process the millions of social security checks each month.Then of course there is the hundreds of thousands of horse handlers we need to keep the mail moving as we revert back to the poney express. "This is less about technology and more about management," Kelly said. "No one cares about those interface systems. The public is concerned with what services those interfaces have. The social service programs totally depend on consistent flow of federal funds.'' No one cares - the byline of this administration -its legacy J.L.T. "Our remaining challenge is to get the public to understand that there are some things we don't need to worry about,'' Koskinen said. "There are going to be some glitches that are manageable. But the world will not end as we know it.''