Just got my latest issue of Wired Magazine (7.04 - Apr 99). It's not yet up on their web site so I'm unable to provide links.

The cover is totally black. If you hold it just right you can see in bold print "Lights Out" In smaller print "Learning to love Y2K"

Beyond the overly dramatic cover art there are several Y2K-related articles that are worth reading.

The first article is "Powerless" by Jacques Leslie. It is very detailed account of the Great Ice Storm of 1998 in Eastern Canada/North Eastern US. It is a fascinating account of how people there dealt with a prolonged loss of electricity (some as long as 5 weeks). It addresses numerous issues discussed here in this forum and looks at both the good and bad sides of events that unfolded there. Don't miss this one - it's a good look at the types of things that could happen should even localized outages occur next year.

The second article is "Life In The Dark" - about the power outage in Auckland, New Zealand in 1998. I have not finished reading this one yet so I'll withhold comment.

The third article is "The Myth of Order" by Ellen Ullman. It is a well written look at the culture and error-prone nature of software and systems development. If you are not a programmer and have wondered just how and why 'such a simple problem' came to be, this article is for you. Even if you are a programmer/designer/engineer, you'll enjoy the article and see much familiar there. Take the following quote:

The most irrational of all external factors, the one that makes the experience of programming feel most insane, is known as 'aggressive scheduling.' Whether software companies will acknowledge it or not, release schedules are normally driven by market demands, not the actual time it would take to build a reasonably robust system. The parts of the development processmost often foreshortened are two crucial ones: design documentation and testing.

The next article "This IS Not A Test" (also Ellen Ullman) focuses on Texaco's Y2K efforts. Ms. Ullman interviewed Jay Abshier, Texaco's Year 2000 project manager. In short, it is all the interdependencies that have them most concerned. And for good reason - they have a lot of them.

Pretty good coverage all in all.

I suspect Wired will post these articles to their web site at some point. Until then, you'll need to find someone with a subscription or see it on a newsstand. It should be easy to spot - just look for the magazine that sticks out like black thumb...

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), March 06, 1999

turning the italics OFF...

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), March 06, 1999.

Kudos to "Wired". They have gone where most tech magazines dare not venture. The article about programers bugging out last summer, woke me up to the y2k problem. This issue should get some attention. All black cover will stick out, even at a Barnes and Noble.

Maybe TV will follow with 30 second blackouts, then come back on and tell viewers "this was a y2k test, this was only a test. If this had been January 1, 2000, your TV would not come back on". That might wake a few more people up!

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), March 06, 1999.

Speaking of TV, how are U.S. broadcasting stations doing on remediation? If you run with the assumption of some power...how will people cope without Peter Jennings and Oprah?

-- PNG (png@gol.com), March 06, 1999.

Last I heard, the embedded systems in a Jennings2000 model news droid are ok. On the Oprah model, however, they are relatively innacessible.

-- humptydumpty (no.6@thevillage.com), March 06, 1999.

John, you show cosiderable restraint in not making blackboxes within blackboxes the topic of one of your typically lame-arsed joked. bravo.

-- Ron Jeremy (wackawackaguitar@moustache.com), March 06, 1999.

Christ!, I need to get a life. Spaaaacccce MMMMaadnessssssssss. Help.

-- humptydumpty (no.6@thevillage.com), March 06, 1999.

I'm still waiting for my issue to arrive. They were starting to sound a little Polyannish, so this should be an interesting read.

Humpty: As for "Spaaaaace Maaadnessssss", I'm assuming that you were referring to Ren and Stimpy...would love to see them do Y2k episode with Paul Milne making a cameo appearance.

- Got Happy Helmet?

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 06, 1999.

YOU STOOOOOOOOPEEEEED EEEEEEDIOOOOOT! >>>THWAP<<<<

When I told you to STOCKPILE, I meant FOOOOD! NOT KEEEETTY LEEEETTER!

-- Ren (powdered@toastman.com), March 06, 1999.

The first season of R & S was the best. Went downhill after that. Ever since I started reading more, I haven't been watching as much time glued to the TV set.

-- Not watching as much (cartoonbuff@GI.com), March 06, 1999.

"Say, Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"Uh, I think so, Brain, but how are we going to get all those computers to fail all at once?"

-- y2kbiker (y2kbiker@bellatlantic.net), March 06, 1999.

I was at a couple of bookstores earlier, and while I was there, I figured that I'd take a look at the magazine cover. Couldn't find a copy...have they hit the newsstands yet? Just curious...

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 06, 1999.

Just got the Wired article...definitely worth a look.

I liked the way they covered the interdependency issue towards the end of "THIS IS NOT A TEST"...

"Interdependency" was the word Abshier (Y2k project mgr @ Pembroke Refinery in Milford Haven, Whales) kept saying. He had used the word several times during the test demonstration, but now, as we talked in the control room, he seemed to give in to its implications - the vast, interconnected economic machine that lay beyond his control.

The nitrogen vendors he depends on. The thousands of other critical suppliers. The subsidiaries in South America and Indonesia. The big customers - airlines, other oil companies, utilities, outside pipeline operators, the automobile industry ("every car off the assembly line has oil in it") - what will happen if they succumb to Y2k and stop working, supplying, buying?

Abshier's composure seemed to waver as he let himself consider all the possible points of failure. "I'm aware of the interdependencies," he said, "the cascading effect. One pipeline going down - what's the cascade effect?"

It was right there that I caught some of Abshier's edginess. Suddenly it was all to easy to envision Y2k problems propagating themselves, system to system, like ice-nine of the computer age.

Think this would be a good read to give to the DGI's?

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 09, 1999.

WIRED IS FULL OF CRAP.

-- SOI (idontreadtrash@mydesk.com), March 09, 1999.