Okay, gang, my written testimony is now posted on my web site. My oral testimony is a small subset of the written testimony, with a few differences; I'll post it later today or, more likely, sometime tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, comments, ideas, and good wishes. I'll do my best to represent all of your viewpoints in the brief time that I have allotted.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), May 25, 1999

Answers

Prayers, meditations, and thoughts of goodwill.

Godspeed to you,

Critt

-- Critt Jarvis (middleground@critt.com), May 25, 1999.

Our thoughts and best wishes go with you. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), May 25, 1999.

A bit of hellfire and brimstone never hurts eh? Good work Ed!

-- Brian (imager@home.com), May 25, 1999.

For all you have done, and continue to do, Ed, deepest thanks. We're cheering, and whooping, and stomping, and holding our lit Bics up, and some of us are crying, and all of our hearts are just beating with pride in your courage and with respect for the magnitude of your service. May your words meet many receptive minds. We're with you.

-- Faith Weaver (suzsolutions@yahoo.com), May 25, 1999.

Thanks Ed. Hope they get it.

-- Steve King (parse@earthlink.net), May 25, 1999.

Help!

I can't connect to Ed's website. Can someone cut and paste it here? I know it's probably long, but I would truly appreciate it.

Thanks,

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), May 25, 1999.

Bless you, ED, you made my tears well up. My humble thanks!

-- Betty Alice (Barn266@aol.com), May 25, 1999.

Ed,

Thanks for the excellent speech. You touched on all the vital points. I know this sounds hokey, but I think you are a great American.

-- Watcher5 (anon@anon.com), May 25, 1999.

I doubt Winston Churchill could have persuaded the politicians to take action. But I do know that your committee appearance, and subsequent speaking enggagements, will inspire a great number of people to prepare and hence ease any Y2K problems. Fingers crossed that today will be the turning point. Break a leg!

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), May 25, 1999.

Mr. Yourdon,

I wish only that you might emphasize the special vulnerability of the poor, the mentally ill, disabled, elderly, minorities and the foreign-speaking community of immigrants. It is easy to forget them; many have been forgotten by others. But our concern for them in the face of these unknown dangers will be a measure of this nation's soul. If America should fail to warn the inner city, the poor rural areas, and the China towns of the challenges that are now faced, we will have failed morally and ethically. Behind the smile of Lady Liberty, all will see fangs... not compassion.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), May 25, 1999.

Ed,

When you asked for people's thoughts and suggestions on your speech to Congress, I wanted to write to you, but felt my suggestion was hokey....I wanted to say to you, to make it a "Patrick Henry" speech...and low and behold at the end, you quoted my favorite patriot.

God Bless you and good luck.

Cary Mc

-- Cary Mc from Tx (Caretha@compuserve.com), May 25, 1999.

Good luck! Anthony and Barb Waltrip

-- Barb Waltrip (awaltrip@telepath.com), May 25, 1999.

Dear Ed,

My deepest gratitude to you. It's simply great.

Kristi

-- Kristi (securx@Succeed.Net), May 25, 1999.

Ed,

Blessings and best wishes today! You'll be great.

(And verbally kick a few shins too! Get that hill moving!)

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 25, 1999.

Mr. Yourdon,

I can only say sincerely, thank you.

-- Lilly (homesteader145@yahoo.com), May 25, 1999.

Ed,

I have learned so much as a result of Y2K. It's brought my father and I closer togehter. He alerted me to this problem two years ago and recommended your book and website.

Thanks for all the great information here.

-- Gail (Gail@msn.com), May 25, 1999.

Ed,

May God grant that the members of the committee, the press, and those who see media coverage of your testimony actually hear and understand what you are saying!

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), May 25, 1999.

mahvelous, ed, simply mahvelous!

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), May 25, 1999.

super.

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), May 25, 1999.

Outstanding. You certainly spoke for me, only better.

Thanks.

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), May 25, 1999.

My thanks as well Ed. I deeply appreciate your wonderful ability to encompass intelligence, care, independence of thought, the emotional strength to stand against criticism, humor, and a great gift of expression which gets to the heart of the matter. You are truly brilliant and an exemplary family and community man.

Lora

-- Lora Ereshan (artemis45@hotmail.com), May 25, 1999.

You da Man! :-)

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), May 25, 1999.

Oh yes, Ed, please fart in my general direction so I may fully savor that which eminates from any part of your body!

-- Blechhh!!! (gonna@puke.now), May 25, 1999.

Good Job Ed!!!!!!!! Let us know how they took it.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), May 25, 1999.

Nice speech, Ed. Especially good is the point about the need to avoid polarization and emotional rhetoric, which certainly have come to cloud most Y2K considerations any more. And yes, we clearly need more fact-based investigative journalism by the mainstream media, though I doubt that we are going to get it. Most journalists earn their stripes by doing "hot" political and social reporting, not by trying to cover a rather technical subject that, in both its abstractness and breadth, is difficult to explain and conceptualize concretely. (Hence the quick-and-easy reaction by most reporters either to "sensationalize" Y2K stories or to dismiss everything as "hype.")

Good critique of Greenspan, though in fairness it should be pointed out that this is a man accustomed, by the very demands of his position, to speak in vagaries and generalities, so as to appease all sectors of the financial community. You can hardly expect particularities when he turns to Y2K.

Finally, a nice albeit necessarily brief attempt to give the good senators an intro to software metrics, though you probably should have mentioned that an enterprise-wide Y2K project typically falls somewhere between a traditional "development" project and a "maintenance" program. I note from the transcript of Koskinen's teleconference with the APEC Y2K summit in late April that he is finally getting coached on such matters, presumably by Rubin and Jones. For the first time, at least to my knowledge, Koskinen conceded that some major federal systems that we are calling "fixed" simply might not work next year (at least for a while). He also sounded louder alarm bells than usual about Y2K problems locally and in SMEs in the U.S., and about the general Y2K situation overseas. I hope that all the senators have read that transcript and understand the implications for the global economy and geopolitical situation, which might eventually have rather significant and longterm consequences for U.S. localities.

-- Don Florence (dflorence@zianet.com), May 25, 1999.

In reference to the above...

Koskinen Comments To Singapore APEC Y2K Symposium--USIA, April 22, 1999

A transcript well worth reading.

http:// www.usia.gov/topical/global/y2k/kosksing.htm

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 25, 1999.

Mahalo Nui Loa Ed! Great Job! Mahalo also for comming to Kauai and helping to wake up the grasshoppers. A few are stirring.. Our prayers and Aloha are with you. Justin P.S. Be careful if you go on the Metro....

-- Justin Case (justin case@Aloha.com), May 25, 1999.

I wholehartedly concur with Justin. An outstanding job!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), May 25, 1999.

Patrick Henry! Wow! (Think those Congress-blobs can handle the brilliance of those early days, or shrink in the shame of being compared to such?)

Think we'll get to start it over? We should anyway, y2k or no. Make our own famous future quotations.

I wonder if they had trolls at the Constitutional Convention? I know they had Tories (about 1/3 of white Americans) during the Revolution, but didn't they all go to Canada or somewhere?

It wasn't very harmonious times in the ol' USofA, and it took a couple centuries to start including the forgotten citizens.

Mr. Yourdon Goes to Washington. I can see the treatment. Let's see, Nicholas Cage leads... yeah, Costner's a little over-exposed. Bonnie Bedelia, his incisively supportive wife, and of course Alicia Silverstone as Jennifer.

"That's enough now, Dad" my 3-year-old would say. Give 'em hell, Ed.

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.com), May 26, 1999.