Koskinen on CNN Headline News

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

CNN Headline News had a brief - 1-2 minute spot - this evening with Koskinen saying:

Paraphrase of John Koskinen:

"The impacts of Y2K will likely last a few weeks beyond the January 1 rollover date. This due to draw downs of the JIT supply lines and the failures of support systems necessary to maintain the US economy. It is too late, not all systems will be repaired by the 12/31/1999 rollover date."

CNN Headline News repeats their segements from hour to hour or so, hopefully someone else will see this and confirm that I quoted accurately. Koskinen suggested that some food and water should "be set aside" but requested that listeners NOT remove all their cash from the bank. AS I recall, he said "Please". I believe he was speaking from in front of the White House.

Did anyone else see this?

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), July 31, 1999

Answers

Nope - but if he said this then you can bet your bottom dollar that the shit WILL hit the fan exponentially.

Wouldn't want to live in Watts, New York, Dee Cee, Atlanta etc. after rollover...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), July 31, 1999.


Koskinen on CNN

Note this was on CNN web site with 7/30/1999 date posted yesterday. It appears the segment on Headline News this evening was an abbreviated version of this segment.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), July 31, 1999.


BTW, CNN has a poll associated with above link asking if readers think Koskinen's statement is too optimistic. At 10:50PM the vote was 34% saying he was too optimistic and 66% saying he ws not too optimistic.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), July 31, 1999.

See also:

Link

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), July 31, 1999.


Well isn't this interesting. Pollies and Doomer types have been waiting for this and John Koskinen delivers.

CNN looks to be making a big deal over this. Well worth checking out.

  CNN - Government's top Y2K expert predicts failures for weeks, months - July 30, 1999


For fair and educational use.

Government's top Y2K expert predicts failures for weeks, months

July 30, 1999
Web posted at: 12:06 PM EDT (1606 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Don't expect the Year 2000 technology problem to disappear after Jan. 1. President Clinton's top Y2K expert said failures could extend well beyond New Year's Day.
 

Although John Koskinen predicts there will be a national "sigh of relief" in the early hours of Jan. 1, he also anticipates scattered electronic failures over the first days, weeks and even months of the new year.

Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press that some failures may not become obvious until the end of January, the first time after the date rollover that consumers review their monthly bank statements, credit-card bills and other financial paperwork.

"It won't evaporate until after that," Koskinen said. "Clearly, this is more than a January 1 problem." But he also slightly hedged his predictions: "None of us are really going to know until after January 1."

Unless repaired, some computers originally programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year will not work properly beginning in 2000, when those machines will assume it is 1900.

Some computer systems may shut down quickly with obvious failures, and others may gradually experience subtle problems or degraded performance that may take weeks to notice.

"The more difficult problem will be where the system looks like it's doing it correctly but it's doing it all wrong," Koskinen said.

Some failures won't be recognized until the work week starts Monday, Jan. 3, as employees return to their offices and turn on their computers for the first time.

Repaired computers also will need to recognize 2000 as a leap year, even though most years ending in "00" don't need to adjust for Feb. 29, he said.

A new $40 million Information Coordination Center being organized down the street from the White House will operate until March, sharing information about failures with states, federal agencies, corporations and foreign governments.

Koskinen urged people to prepare for possible trouble as they might for a winter storm or a hurricane: Buy flashlights and batteries, keep enough cash, food and water for several days and make copies of financial and medical records.

But he also cautioned against stockpiling supplies, which could lead to local shortages, or draining bank accounts, which could strain the nation's financial system.

"If we get a couple hundred million Americans doing anything differently, we're going to create economic problems," he said.

An AP poll this month found most Americans don't expect major problems, but nearly a third plan to stock up on food, water and other supplies. About one-quarter of Americans planned to withdraw cash in case of trouble.

Koskinen predicted the most widespread problems will occur in developing nations that were slow to begin repair work. He named certain regions that recently suffered financial problems, including Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia. But he acknowledged that parts of Africa, Central America, South America and the Caribbean also were likely to suffer.

"Clearly, some of the developing countries of the world are going to have some difficulties," he said, adding that only 25 to 30 of the world's nations were well prepared. "Many more countries are going to have problems than not."

The State Department will begin issuing travel advisories in September for U.S. citizens about which countries to avoid.

Koskinen also disclosed that the government will consider evacuating American citizens from countries with widespread failures. He said each U.S. ambassador will make that decision.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), July 31, 1999.



Here is the CNN Y2K homepage. Heavy bandwidth but I am impressed.

 CNN In-Depth Specials - Looking at the Y2K bug

-- Brian (imager@home.com), July 31, 1999.


From the "CNN In Depth Specials" link above, this quote on the Postal System:

*Nearly 80 percent of the U.S. Postal Service's mission-critical systems have been corrected. The agency says it will be fully compliant by the first half of 1999.*

Doesn't this fly in the face of the dismal description presented by Karla Corcoran, Inspector General of the USPS in late Febuary? Anybody have confirmation of this most recent statement quoted by CNN?

-- Tee (teefleur@yahoo.com), August 01, 1999.


Just saw the story. I didn't see Koskinen say anything about power but the commentator did say there would be weeks, or even months, of scattered power failures . Koskinen basically said problems will occur beyond Jan 1 but will be mostly related to bad data in systems which appear to be working correctly but are not. The commentator also said preparations should include stocking up on food, water, and batteries, but NOT to take your money out of bank accounts (they were VERY clear on that!).

Oh! No mention of "three day storm either".

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), August 01, 1999.


And don't think about SEX! Don't! Not once! Whatever you do, you mustn't!

What if everyone thought about SEX at the same moment! What if everyone thought differently? Now that would be different. What if everyone thought about SEX at the same time?

Kosky you been lurkin' here too much, man. You're supposed to be steerin' these folks the right way, not puttin' ideas in their heads they never had.

Me, I'm waiting to hear what Dan Quayle says about Y2Q.

-- Mr Gresham (wh@t.century.is.this?), August 01, 1999.


tee,

Interesting quote about the USPS...that means they should have been declaring 100% compliance of mission critical systems on June 30th. I don't recall hearing any fanfares or grand announcements. Had this been true, I would expect them to shout it from the rooftops.

Mr. Gresham,

ROFLMAO!

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), August 01, 1999.



The article Brian posted is also at this link:

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990729/V000290-072999- idx.html

"Gov't. Y2K Expert Predicts Failures"

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), August 01, 1999.


What I find *interesting* is that even the headline of the CNN article is "doomer".

It seems that forever we have gotten happy-faced headlines and only those who bothered to read past the first paragraph got to the bad news. Does anyone else sense that someone has given the word for the gates to be opened to get the herd mooooving? The dust is rising.. I feel a stampede acoming.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 01, 1999.


No Linda I don't. I've read people here stating that public opinion is starting to change for the better - for over a year now, but it never seems to happen. Call me disillusioned, but I think all these predictions of the media and the sheeples finally getting it are just happy-faced predictions on our part.

-- Jammy (wesleyan@dog.com), August 01, 1999.

Mr Geesham, Dan already told everyone not to worry.

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), August 01, 1999.

Also, yesterday (Sunday) CNN was reporting that .gov is really getting antsy regarding hackers and mentioned that the ATC and IRS were particularly vulnerable to sabotage.

Inferential analysis: all you can do anymore.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), August 02, 1999.



I think itis important to remember that CNN is the MOUTHPIECE for this Administration. If this Administration wants to get the word out on ANYTHING they will more than likely give it to CNN first.

Of course, they may throw abone to Dan Blather once in a while.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 02, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ