If you live in North Carolina (or just don't like it when people ridicule preparedness) ...

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For those of you who listen to Danny Fontana's financial radio show, he has a site on-line where he posts his diatribes and advice.

http://www.danny-fontana.com/comm.asp

In today's post, he laughs at people who prepare for Y2K. Give him what fer, gang. His e-mail is danny@danny-fontana.com.

-- Brett (savvydad@aol.com), April 07, 1999

Answers

Even if you subscribe to the government's advice to prepare for a bad winter storm, and heed those warnings, you'll be labled a crackpot. Living in the northern tier means being cold in January. A bad winter storm last for 3 days and can take a few days longer than that to clean up. So, let's say we have a week to plan for. How much is being warm when it's 20* below zero worth to you? For me, if I had to place a dollar figure on it, I would say that I'd be happy to pay $100.00 a day to keep my family warm. But, if I would consider spending $700.00 - $1,000.00 on a wood stove, I'd be laughed at.

That's ok...let them laugh. I consider it an insurance policy against future winter events...

-- Daniel Buchner (buchner@excite.com), April 07, 1999.


If you have a slow, old computer like me--er, mine, here's the text. I warn you the "planes falling from the sky" bit is prominent. Take your St. John's Wort first.

4/6/1999 - The Millenium Bug

There is more good news on the Y2K front. We have all heard the doom and gloom scenarios. We have all heard about how banks are going to close and how the utility grid will explode plunging us all into darkness. We have all heard that at 12:01AM on January 1, 2000, it will become necessary to squirrel our families away in those bomb shelters that our fathers had built for us during the Cuban missile crisis, eat C-Rations and horde ammunition. And, we have all heard that airplanes would fall out of the sky.

We can blame all of this on the millenium bug. Billions of dollars are being spent to fix the problem and billions of dollars are being made by those willing to scare the you-know-what out of you. Well, I've been telling you from the get go that all of the hoopla was so much spoiled gorgonzola...that so much money would be thrown at this deal that there was no way it wouldn't be fixed. The position is about as popular as Quadaffi at a Republican Women's Club meeting, but I stand by it.

Now comes word from the FAA that they are going to be ready. Yeah, fans, it appears that airplanes will not fall out of the sky thus eliminating one more catastrophic prediction. The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it was confident its air traffic computers will work correctly at the end of the year, with Year 2000 work already completed on 88% of its systems with the rest completed by the end of June.

We are on track for the FAA to be certified Y2K compliant, said program director Ray Long. Thus, the FAA joins the utility companies, the banks, the financial service industry and critical government systems in declaring that they are ready or will be ready for Y2K.

I'm left to muse about our next disaster. Just what will it be? My guess is that Y2K isn't quite over. The real danger left from that non-event will be all of us shooting our neighbors in sheer frustration when we realize how much we spent getting ready for a problem that didn't happen. Let's see, there was the generator, the six months supply of food, the cancelled airline tickets, the kerosene, the bottled water, the six shotguns, four handguns, and the ammunition. And, of course, the power saw, the Coleman lamps and the shelter itself. Take comfort. You can use all of that stuff later when the government declares war on Louisiana and hundreds of thousands of Cajuns can no longer get gumbo.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 07, 1999.


...Ooh, I can see how the doomers won't like Danny's comments, although I don't think he is laughing at people who prepare for Y2K, rather at those that over prepare - you know who you are...

"On January 1, 1999 they will experience many more, and it will be much more difficult to sweep them under the rug. On April 1, 1999 we will all watch anxiously as the governments of Japan and Canada, as well as the state of New York, begin their 1999-2000 fiscal year; at that moment, the speculation about Y2K will end, and we will have tangible evidence of whether governmental computer systems work or not."-- Ed Yourdon

"So, of course I want to see y2k bring down the system, all over the world. I have hoped for this all of my adult life." -- Gary North

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), April 07, 1999.


Someone should tell these people to quit saying "planes will not fall from the sky" --- it makes ther whole stance laughable.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), April 07, 1999.

Danny Fontana is a complete idiot. I live in Charlotte and USED to listen to his radio program.

About a month ago, WBTV had a pathetic "Town Meeting" which aired on prime time TV. Mr. Fontana was introduced as a "Y2K Guru". I about lost my dinner.

That show was a farce and did a HUGE disservice to the residents of Charlotte. The ironic part is that Danny is now doing commercial spots for a consulting firm touting their ability to make your PC Y2K compliant. He ends the spot by saying, "We all know that 70-80 percent of PC are not Y2K compliant".

But will this cause problems? Hell no!!!

Sorry for my rant...Mr. Fontana brings out the "Type A" personality in me!

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), April 07, 1999.



This is a little old, but I wonder who, even Danny- boy, would laugh at CIAs official analysis of Russia (at: www.msnbc.com/modules/y2kinternational/map_nestframe.asp)

At risk: Power loss, telephone loss will be widespread. Interruptions to imports/exports will be severe. Interruptions of government services will be widespread and severe. Air transportation interruptions likely. Chance of unrest or bank panics is moderate. Notes: Nuclear weapons claimed under control except for tracking weapons in inventory. Unified Energy Systems has no plans. Banks, finance, insurance firms slow to action. Association of Russian Banks bemoans "every man for himself approach."

*** END *****

Just a reminder, Y2K is no joke to the CIA.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), April 07, 1999.


Personally I've never heard that airplanes will fall from the sky. Also I like how Danny trumpets as evidence the fact that FAA "expects to be ready!" Yeah, everybody expected to be ready by Dec31-98 too. And last year Congress all but accused the FAA of flat-out lying. Some people have bigger mouths than brains.

-- Shimrod (shimrod@lycosmail.com), April 07, 1999.

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