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

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (5766)	5/22/1999 1:24:00 AM
From: C.K. Houston	Respond to of 9818

"The FEDERAL expectation is that State and local governments will be self-sufficient to the maximum extent possible and explore all available sources of assistance." FEMA - Federal Emergency Management =========================================================== Y2K - THE UNIQUE CHALLENGE Unlike other disasters (hurricanes, floods, etc.), the consequences of the millennium "bug" are more challenging to the emergency management community for several reasons. a.The effects of the Y2K conversion may have a rapid onset and could potentially impact every State in the United States as well as every country in the world. b.The interdependent nature of the vulnerable systems could result in an incremental or cascading series of impacts. Loss of functionality in one essential service could cause significant disruptions in other services. c.This hazard has the potential to adversely affect all levels of government, both in day-to-day operations as well as in response to the consequences of other natural or technological disasters and/or emergencies that could occur concurrently ... "The Federal expectation is that State and local governments will be self-sufficient to the maximum extent possible and explore all available sources of assistance." y2ktimebomb.com REMEMBER WHAT KOSKINEN SAID AT APEC, LAST MONTH - BUT WAS NOT REPORTED IN U.S. UNTIL NOW: "we've told our local governments and our state governments that they need to be prepared to handle emergencies on their own, since the federal government can't be everywhere dealing with every problem in light of the large number of problems that we are likely to have" ... "we should also obviously expect that we will have a large number, possibly, of what would be manageable failures taken one at a time, which will overwhelm the normal emergency response processes when they happen all at once." ... "we've asked FEMA to... make clear to the state and local emergency managers ... that those local governments should not assume that the federal government and FEMA will be able to come to their assistance no matter what their problem is, because we may have so many problems in localities across the country that we can't be everywhere at once. " John Koskinen, Chair - President's Council on Y2K Conversion Transcript, APEC Summit, May 4, 1999 United States Information Agency pdq2.usia.gov@pdqtest1.env?CQ_SESSION_KEY=YLWXNVIGNNZM&CQ_QUERY_HANDLE=123990&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=1&CQ_PDQ_DOCUMENT_VIEW=1&CQSUBMIT=View&CQRETURN=&CQPAGE=1 =========================================================== Prepare for 72 hours. Yeah. Sure. Cheryl

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (5766)	5/23/1999 10:19:00 AM
From: flatsville	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

Any one for puts on the transports? THE SUNDAY TIMES May 23 1999 EUROPE European Airports Heading For Millennium Computer Crash by Stephen Bevan and Lois Jones SOME of Europe's busiest airports and air traffic control centres have fallen seriously behind in their plans to deal with the millennium bug, the software problem that could bring computers worldwide grinding to a halt at the new year. A Sunday Times investigation has revealed that destinations such as the three main Paris airports, plus others in Spain, Italy, Romania and at Luton, may be unable to complete the work needed to eliminate the problem by the end of this year. Experts have predicted chaos and warned that passengers could be at risk. The same airports are believed to feature in an "at risk" list being drawn up by the International Air Transport Association, the airlines' trade body. It is spending £12.5m on a study of 331 airports and 134 air traffic control centres around the world, but has provoked anger for refusing requests to reveal its findings - including one from the government. Robin Guenier, executive director of Taskforce 2000, said: "There's a lot of fear that some airports and air traffic control centres are not going to be ready." Luton has been pinpointed as the British airport giving greatest cause for concern. An insider said: "They've done very little," adding that the airport may have to close over the new year. Barry Foord, Luton's systems and IT manager, said one third of the computer systems would be tested in situ, but the rest would not. The airport would rely on the manufacturers to guarantee that their equipment was millennium-compliant. He believed Luton would be safe. Last week airports in Paris, Rome and Madrid admitted that they were far from resolving the problem. Naples, Italy's third-busiest airport, with 3.5m passengers a year, said it did not expect to complete the work until June next year. Jacques Reder, spokesman for Aéroports de Paris, which runs Orly, Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget, said that it had tested 85% of its systems, but insisted that flaws would be resolved by the end of the year. Gary Miles, of PA Consulting, who has been working with companies all over the world, including BAA, the British airports authority, to resolve millennium bug problems, said the situation in Paris was worrying. "They really ought to be well into final testing." In Spain, 30% of computer systems in the country's 40 airports and five air traffic control centres have yet to be tested. Antonio Villalon, manager of information systems at the Spanish civil aviation authority, said flaws had been found in software that processed the flight plans of aircraft. "There are a lot of other problems that we do not know about," he said. Italy faces similar problems. Carlo Pietro Santi, a spokesman for Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport, said that a fifth of their software, controlling functions such as baggage reclaim, check-in facilities and flight information, had yet to be checked. He said that any work outstanding at the end of June would have to wait until the end of September. "We will not risk disrupting our computer systems during peak season," he said. The Civil Aviation Authority has ordered inspections of all Boeing 727s after faults that could cause fuel tank explosions were found on American aircraft.

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (5766)	5/23/1999 10:21:00 AM
From: C.K. Houston	Respond to of 9818

MORE ON ATM's & DEBIT CARD TRANSACTIONS WASHINGTON (AP) - Banking regulators have ordered a big ATM company address the Y2K computer glitch, or face possible contract cancellations by 750 banks... The company provides automated teller machine services, including electronic transaction services, to some 750 banks, thrifts and credit unions in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming as well as British Columbia in Canada ... Electronic Data Systems, the technology company founded by billionaire Ross Perot, owns 50 percent of TransAlliance. The other half is owned by a group of 24 banks in the West which operates the Exchange ATM network. Its customers include Washington Mutual Bank, KeyCorp, the credit union for employees of Boeing Co. and First Mutual Bank of Bellevue. Although TransAlliance provides electronic services to some 50,000 outlets where machines take cards for payment at gas stations, convenience stores and other locations, that system is not covered by the agreement ... greenspun.com MORE OF THE STORY ... Yesterday on the radio going into town there was a bit of news on ATMs in the Seattle area. Apparently, Trans Alliance is a major processor of ATM transactions for the banks in the area. Banks must have been worried about Y2K compliance because the gist of the story that I caught was that some bank sued TA and won the right to break their contracts with TA without penalty because TA was not expected and was not currently Y2K compliant. (KOMO AM1000) The other was on the TV news last night. They were reassuring all that the banks would be compliant, but recommended that if you are worried and felt you needed extra cash for the New Year DON'T WAIT until December. They recommended withdrawing cash starting now in small increments of $100 or so at a time. (KING 5 - 5:00pm report) Valkyrie (anon@please.net), May 22, 1999 greenspun.com Cheryl 222 Days til ...

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (5766)	5/28/1999 2:00:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 9818

Nasdaq Extends Trading Hours - Exchange's Move Has Wide Implications N E W Y O R K, May 27 — Come autumn, investors could be buying and selling shares of Microsoft Corp. and 99 other companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market while watching Ally McBeal. The National Association of Securities Dealers, which governs Nasdaq, today approved a plan to extend trading hours from the current 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Eastern time schedule. A second session of the day would likely start at 5:30 p.m. and end at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. The changes are expected to take effect around September,after a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission and discussions with industry leaders. “This business of extended hours is a serious market-quality question, and it needs to be addressed with a great deal of seriousness,” said Frank Zarb, chairman and chief executive of the National Association of Securities Dealers. The SEC has been urging restraint, proposing a delay until next year so that the securities industry would not be extending trading hours at the same time it is confronting the Year 2000 computer bug and preparing to shift from reporting stock prices in fractions to the use of decimals. But Zarb said Nasdaq is still sticking with its plans for starting night trading around September. “It is clear the marketplace needs this kind of innovation, and we are going to provide the leadership to get us from here to there,” Zarb said... abcnews.go.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a guy in a VERY nice suit who has been told NOT to take this unnecessary risk right now (just delay it a few months), because the SEC wants to ensure that the other major "changes" (like, oh, Y2K) are managed well, and he's going to just forge ahead. Tell me again how smart all those senior execs are, and how they're not going to override the recommendations of their project teams, subject matter experts, and other advisors. "Against Stupidity, the very gods Themselves contend in vain." --- Schiller, The Maid of Orleans -- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 28, 1999 DISCUSSION: greenspun.com