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

To: Cheeky Kid who wrote (4994)	3/23/1999 2:48:00 PM
From: Bill Ounce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

re: press perspectives >> Isn't it interesting how minor Y2K bugs get the press, but when an everyday normal computer >> glitch occurs.......no press...... Well, a few weeks ago, Charles Schwab had problems with their online trading. A normal everyday non-Y2K Internet commerce scaling problem. But it made headlines in many newspapers.

To: Cheeky Kid who wrote (4994)	3/23/1999 3:39:00 PM
From: Fred Ragan	Respond to of 9818

While this kind of error may be a serious headache for more than a few bureaucrats it is unlikely to rend the fabric of our civilization. My concerns are with errors that have the potential to interdict the fundamental components of our infrastructure and to cascade back and forth across different strands. Errors of the kind just cited, while inconvenient and costly don't threaten our way of life. They are however harbingers, the rate of their occurrence will either be a relief or a warning of worse things to come. The areas of special concern to me are: banking, telecommunication, electricity, transportation, potable and sanitary water, and food manufacturing and distribution. These all exist as a group of interlocking rings, each connected to all the others in such a way that the loss of one threatens the loss of some or all of the rest. Of these fundamental strands of our infrastructure banking is the most vulnerable and the one I am most concerned about. It's stability is not only a technical problem but also a psychological problem and therefore the most at risk. Cheeky, we need to see these minor problems as they occur in the same way that we need weather forecasts.