T. J. Rodgers is the Chairman and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor in San Jose, CA. He appeared as a call-in guest on the morning talk show on radio station KSFO in San Francisco today. The host, Lee Rodgers (no relation), ended the interview by asking T. J. what he thought of Y2K. T. J. said that he had started out being very skeptical about it, then became very paranoid, and is now fairly cautious.

He believes that Y2K will cause very significant power failures that will last 3 days to a week. He expects random power failures and other infrastructure problems on an ongoing basis for quite a while afterwards. (He did not indicate what he meant about "quite a while.") He spoke about how power failures disrupt other necessities, such as water and telephone. He also reminded the audience about the ripple effect when a power substation in an Oregon forest set off a blackout throughout the West.

T. J. Rodgers is a highly visible Silicon Valley executive. He speaks on a regular basis with the CEOs of other high-tech companies like Intel and Apple. If he is this concerned, how should we feel?

Time to prepare!

-- Incredulous (ytt000@aol.com), May 14, 1999

Answers

I'm glad to read that one of the Silicon Valley CEOs at least acknowledges that Y2K could be serious. Most of them refuse to take responsibility for a problem that they did much to cause, even if it was by accident. Incredulous, did he say where he stands on the Federal Y2K litigation legislation.

-- Mr. Adequate (mr@adequate.com), May 14, 1999.

This came across in my email . . . Lee Rogers and Melanie Morgan just interviewed T.J. Rogers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, this morning on KSFO Radio in San Francisco. Lee asked T.J. what he thought about the Y2K problem, and T.J. had some very interesting comments.

T.J. said that he is very concerned about the power grid. He said that he understood the chip problem, and that ht has been researching the Y2K issue for a while now. He is convinced that the power grid will go down. He hopes it will only be down for a week or so, but is convinced that it will fail.

He also said that they are fitting the Cypress buildings with emergency generators. He understands that the fab equipment will not be able to function on emergency backup power, but they will be able to continue to run the heating and AC systems within the buildings.

Because of who T.J. is, and what he does for a living, I respect his opinion on the Y2K problem. If he's convinced that the power grid will fail, it sure gives weight to the fact that Y2K will cause disruptions to our lives. Let's get prepared to weather the storm.

How do we prepare? First, get some long-term shelf stable food. We offer what we think are the best plans at the best prices, and would prefer you use us. But no mater where you go, get some. There is no way to know how long the disruptions will last, or when they will start (food runs on the grocery stores may start as early as this summer). That's why long-term shelf stable food is the best for this type of preparation. Unless you store up on food, and soon, we're convinced you'll be standing in a food line come next year, maybe earlier.

Water. Get a water storage system for your home. We can help there too. If the power grid fails, so will the pumps that pump water to most of our homes.

Other essentials. There are many other things we need to do to prepare. There are several good books on this topic, including Michael Hyatt's, so it would be wise to do some research to find out what's best for you and your family.

We are quickly running out of time.

Best Regards,

Researcher Bob 888-925-9252 www.y2konline.com

-- Same as b4 (NWphotog@Foxcomm.net), May 14, 1999.

Those of you that have ever heard him speak, or have read any of his numerous articles covering a wide range of subjects, know that he commands significant respect. I certainly regard his opinon on such matters as reasoned, not reached "out-of-context." and as honest without an apparent axe to grind. It certainly does not make him "right." It means for me, that I have yet another data point to add to my database, for which I am resonsible....

-- Dave Walden (wprop@concentric.net), May 14, 1999.

In case you're interested, executive bio for T.J. Rodgers

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 14, 1999.

Before everyone jumps on the no power bandwagon based on T.J.'s comments I would like to attempt to supply a degree reasonableness. First, T.J. is a respected silicon valley figure and knows processors. He is not a respected utility or power production authority and has provided no basis other than personal opinion as to why there will be power outages due to Y2K. Utilities are stating they will be ready and the expectation is that there will be no outages due to Y2K. I know this because I work on Y2K in a major utility. Respected people say stupid things over and over again because they are uninformed in areas outside their expertise. The event T.J. refers too occured a couple of years ago and as an initiating event has no relation to Y2K. However, that event affected his company so it sticks in his mind. The same can be seen on the utility side, AT&T lost their main switch in the east which disrupted long distance calling for several hours, this made an impact on us so we felt telecommunications was the biggest risk. What it boils down to is that you always consider what you don't know about to be the greatest risk. Since we have worked with the telecommunications industry the utilities no longer consider telecommunications a big risk. I believe if T.J. communicated on Y2K with his power company, PG&E, he would generate a comfort zone and change his opinion on Y2K induced outages. Having said all this, I will add that from a contingency planning viewpoint it is okay to assume a worst case scenario of a 3 day power outage but this is applicable to ALL disaster planning. Every company or individual that relies on power to stay in business (or survive if you are on a breathing machine)should plan for disaster and Y2K is no different. What I have seen, though, is that practically everyone is over reacting to Y2K believing this to be the end of the world while they never think about routine disasters such as earthquaks, fires, etc. I had a customer of ours call and ask if they should get a generator for Y2K because their daughter required a breathing machine to live. I asked what they would do now should they lose power, they had no plan. My response was not to worry about Y2K but to prepare themselves now for any possible loss of power. This is our response to Y2K, we'll be ready and we will supply power just like we always do, but that means the customer should be prudent and prepared for a loss of power for whatever reason and not do anything special for Y2K unless they know their systems aren't ready.

-- murph (murphjen@aol.com), May 17, 1999.

another observation, other than my own lengthy response the only other long response I see is from someone wanting to sell you Y2K supplies. I'm not selling anything and would think long and hard about taking preparation advice from a salesman wanting to sell you the recommended materials.

-- murph (murphjen@aol.com), May 17, 1999.