I would like to know if there will be a certain time we will see a deluge of accurate information regarding Y2K and not just 10,000 fearful speculators predicting everything from total plutonic reversal ( thats bad ) from a couple of days/hours of brownouts and myabe a few misplaced financial transactions.

I myself am preparing from a potentially dangerous situation but i am still uncertain where or when to expect accurate info. My father has been in the computer field 30+ years programming COBOL and every other obscure system and he says there is nothing serious to really worry about, and that the problem will be fixed in time of the 1/1/00 deadline. I trust his opinion and yet with the tons of web pages and latest info I ask again... where/whne can i get the up to date , accurate information? ( Lord knows the government hotlines are no help unless you need a quick pseudo pick-me-up ) 1-888-USA4Y2K is just plain silly.

Can someone help me out there?

-- Adam (Y2KSrvivor@aol.com), January 11, 1999

Answers

Yes, after 1/1/2000. Seriously.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), January 11, 1999.

Until 2000 expect "embedded information."

Reading-between-the-lines internet bifocals still required.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999.

What I really hate about reading between the lines is that some people read further into them and others aren't on the same page. But i guess thats par for the course in all kinds of media. I don't particularly like it when someone says , " hey...Y2K will come and go with maybe a few speed bumps and then you'll be onto some other apocolyptic prophecy ".

But then again , it does force myself to reanalyze my own cynicsm and go back to my routine. Until another incident gets the proverbial light shed upon it and I'm back to the Y2K dusruption scenarios again. Is that wrong? And if it's not , how can i continue my normal life without pulling out the new gray hairs as they form?

Thanks for the help

-- Adam (Y2KSrvivor@aol.com), January 11, 1999.

Adam,

The trick is you have to read lots of different pages and then find the common links between them.

Sort of like focusing a microscope. Fuzzy view until it gets sharper and "on focus." Same with a Kodak camera. Learn how to take good snapshots and you'll get better pictures. We're all striving for those "once-in-a-millennium" keepers for the Yourdonite Y2K photo album.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999.

Maybe your dad is right if he is knowledgable about computers. Those are the people I would like to hear from. The ones working in the trenches on a daily basis, the ones facing and fighting the problem. Where are they? My personal experience is the programmer that is working on the computers where my daughter works. She told my daughter that she is preparing for her family and to expect a bad time. No one knows,someone knows, who knows? I just bought more beans and canned peaches.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), January 11, 1999.

Adam - Since your Dad's been in The Business that long, he should savvy Ed Yourdon's articles pretty darn well. Print him a copy of Ed's "Y2K Software Projects: It's Deja Vu All Over Again." If he gets through that and still says it's no big deal, print some of the others or just point him to this site (assuming he gets on the Net, of course.) Anyone who's ever worked on a few major IS projects should have developed a very healthy respect for the power of (a) human stupidity and (b) Murphy.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), January 11, 1999.

The mainstream press will begin releasing real info when they no longer act to protect Clinton from himself, when they accept their responsibility to be true independent observers and researchers instead of liberal propagandists.

That or when the power goes out in the newsroom.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 11, 1999.

Chuckles, Robert.

Revenge of the journalists ... Y2K compliant typewriters.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999.

My take on it is: it won't be a bump in the road and it won't be the end of civilization, it will be somewhere in the middle. So be prudent and prepare.

-- lulu (lulu010101@aol.com), January 11, 1999.

My take on this is that a bump in the road=the tooth fairy. We will get a HUGE economic disruption at the very least, and the end of the world (as we know it) is a real possibility IF the power goes out for more than a week or two.

The only prediction that counts is your own. Your welfare, and that of your family is in YOUR hands.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), January 11, 1999.

"What I really hate about reading between the lines is that some people read further into them and others aren't on the same page. "

Exactly. That's why nobody knows, and from that comment you know that too.

"But then again , it does force myself to reanalyze my own cynicsm and go back to my routine. Until another incident gets the proverbial light shed upon it and I'm back to the Y2K dusruption scenarios again. Is that wrong?"

Is following your rational brain and instinct wrong you mean? "And if it's not , how can i continue my normal life without pulling out the new gray hairs as they form?"

By preparing more. Works great for me.

I read a story on the Amish today in Wired Magazine, and an Amish said of Jaron Lenier, "I agree with his statement that you can't design foolproof machines, because fools are so clever." This from a guy with an 8th grade education.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 11, 1999.

When can we expect to see accurate information about Y2k?

Simple -- when we've dealt with Y2k as long as we've dealt with the other types of computer problems about which we now have accurate information.

If we'd all started working on Y2k in 1980, say ...

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), January 12, 1999.

Not to worry then. Y2K is just going to be a bump in the road. Will that be a New York City, moon-crater variety pothole or a bump in the road like Thelma and Louise had at the end of the movie?

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 12, 1999.