Since this is my second post of the day, I'll use it for three different topics.

1. A thought for polly-trolls to ponder (ie Poole, Y2K-Pro, DS et al): Regarding pessimism, Ed Yourdon does not write for Reuters.

2. Sista from the Hood put up an item awhile back on the fact that Orem UT appears to be nearly done. Orem (pop 90 thousand) has had a team of 8-10 people working since '95 on Y2K.

My first thought was that with that expenditure of resources they had damn well better be done, but that's not my main thought. For every Orem, how many municipalities haven't done a tiny fraction of what Orem has to get ready?

I am heading out for a trip and will try to sample the situation in Ames, Iowa and Red Lodge, Montana. I'll let you know when I get back if I was able to find out anything significant.

3. I put an ad for my Deathmarch Y2K forum on three bulletin boards: c.s.y2k and two in Great Britain - uk.tech.y2k and a relatively new one (about 5 months old) entitled comp.software.year-2000.tech.

(This last newsgroup is rather interesting. It's formation was a reaction to c.s.y2k going too far afield - political opinions, that sort of thing. It is very heavily moderated. The moderators get one's post and can ruminate for hours deciding whether it should go up.)

But I digress. The upshot is that these ads have so far gathered a grand total of one person with a story to tell. He asked whether a success story would be welcome and I said sure, we can learn from organizational successes as well as failures.

It has occurred to me that programmers in the middle of a death march may not have the time and energy to get involved with bulletin boards and such. I just don't know.

Anyway, if members of this forum have something to contribute, in the way of real-life stories of Y2K remediation in its organizational context, bang away.

As I said, I'll be away for awhile, and I'm not sure how much I can honcho things until I get back. My policy is to give troll poop and OT short shrift. If I can't get on a machine to delete things on my trip into the wilds, rest assured I'll take care of it when I get home.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), July 23, 1999

Answers

Arizona state government...90+% done, will be compliant end September. City of Phoenix, lagging badly, criticized by GAO as not probably going to make it. Planned all along to run the water system MANUALLY, Same with sewers.

We're preparing for the worst.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@It's ALL going away in January.com), July 23, 1999.

A little story, don't know if Y2K related (probably not)but:

On tuesday of this week the state (WI) agency office I work for was SWAMPED. Over 100 people waiting in line -- thats a lot for us. The reason? They were waiting for "Hunters Choice" permits for deer hunting. It seems our state agency (which is of course loaded with computer systems) contracted with a computer service provider in Tenn. to process the permits over the internet. And they were shut down by "a glitch". Calls to them were unreturned. People had to come back the next day and fill out requests and will be mailed the permits later.

The point: this syatem was declared 100% ready 3 weeks ago.

So:

90% ready for Y2K means ????????? (who really knows).

The interconnectedness of our society is amazing. Who of the general public (including me) knows what service is provided how/where or contracted accross the nation or overseas?

And if something doesn't work during Y2K, the "repairman" may be half- way accross the country.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), July 23, 1999.

Jon Johnson

The 90% - 100% is where the Feds put Arizona state government...actually there at the upper reaches of it. Just like the big Nuke (3rd largest in the world) west of the city has been done, DONE for months.

The capital of Arizona is Phoenix. Phoenix is truly clueless about Y2k and yet when you enter, there are signs that proclaim "The Best Run City In The World!" We live in a desert, and water and sewer are 'hoping' to be done by Christmas!

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@It's ALL going away.com), July 24, 1999.