USA TODAY's online site, www.usatoday.com, as of 4:38 EST (9:38 GMT) this morning, is headlining "Pentagon fudged Y2K readiness"
"Nuclear weapons agency acknowledges it exaggerated Year 2000 computer fixes."

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 27, 1998

Answers

Well, at least USA TODAY splashed this as a top headline. (Not that the underlying story is a tremendous surprise to regular readers of this forum...) Too bad it's one of the days of the year when U.S. residents are least likely to scan USA TODAY's front page. (I.e., this is traditionally the biggest U.S. shopping day of the year as the Christmas buying frenzy starts off.) Quote:
"The Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) claimed that three of five so-called 'mission critical' computer systems, essential to conducting its most primary duties, were fully prepared to face the computer crisis despite never conducting necessary testing, according to a recent Defense Department Inspector General's Report." Comment:
Yes, without testing they will indeed face a crisis. :-(

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 27, 1998.

Ouch! I forgot that when one puts in some HTML formatting, one has to put in ALL the formatting. Well, here's how I intended that preceding stuff to appear:

Well, at least USA TODAY splashed this as a top headline. (Not that the underlying story is a tremendous surprise to regular readers of this forum...)

Too bad it's one of the days of the year when U.S. residents are least likely to scan USA TODAY's front page. (I.e., this is traditionally the biggest U.S. shopping day of the year as the Christmas buying frenzy starts off.)

Quote:
"The Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) claimed that three of five so-called 'mission critical' computer systems, essential to conducting its most primary duties, were fully prepared to face the computer crisis despite never conducting necessary testing, according to a recent Defense Department Inspector General's Report."

Comment:
Yes, without testing they will indeed face a crisis. :-(

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 27, 1998.

We are already facing a crisis, most don't know that, yet. First we must protect the Christmas profits. *Sigh*

Looks like just shutting the darned things off is the only way the military can make it through Y2K!

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 27, 1998.

My morning paper (Portland Maine Press Herald) led, top o' Page 1, with an AP story about lack of y2k readiness by state entitlement agencies. Quoted national spokespersons as saying states should start making contingency plans to issue checks by hand, and they actually warned that some entitlement checks to the elderly and poor might be late or nonexistent in Jan 2000. First time I've seen government types issue that sort of seriously doomster prediction in a national context.

-- JDC (yankeejdc@aol.com), November 27, 1998.

Thanks for the info, No Spam. Is it any wonder we have a hard time trusting our government? On the smaller of the 2 pieces, this is my favorite quote: "But Pentagon defenders say the exaggeration will become reality before the millennium, and the public shouldn't worry." Yea, right! Also notice that it is an "exaggeration," not a LIE. :-(

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), November 27, 1998.

They can lie to "us" or the "USA" or the world all they want.

But the computers weapons and radios and satellites and controllers and chips and power and gas and phones and water and sewage and ..... and ..... will still fail.

Because the chips and programs won't listen to their lies. By the way, who were they lying to? Their bosses in the Clinton-Gore conspiracy in DC, and we (the public) just found out "accidently"?

Or were they telling the truth "up" the military chain of command, and the "military chain of command" sent the story to the "civilian chain of command" who released the story to the public as a lie?

In other words, can we trust the military to tell their bosses the truth? Can we trust the lower echelon military "doer's" to do their job correctly and honestly, and then we get lied to by their military bosses?

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 27, 1998.

you know, folks, at least the American nukes are designed to failsafe...any bets on how many of those small nukes that were stolen during the break of of the old USSR will put in a sudden (though uncalled for) reappearance somewhere around 01/01/00?

Arlin Adams

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), November 27, 1998.

Arlin H. Adams;

RE: The "borrowed" nukes.

No bets from this side of the aisle said the little boy in the front row.

That's just one more ingredient in the "witch's brew" that is going to be coming soon to a planet near you.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 27, 1998.