Called in to Bank One headquarters in Columbus, OH to help with a non computer project. While going from point A to B, I passed a large glass walled conference room with several dozen people in attendance. There was an instructor(?) facing people seated at desks and directly behind him was a banner stretching across the room which read Disaster Preparedness. I talked to no one regarding my sighting and have no idea as to what disaster(s) were being discussed but it seemed obvious to me that preparedness issues are being taken seriously at Ban

-- cantsay (cant say@forobviousreasons.com), August 14, 1999

Answers

Rather than interpret this as dire news, I would say that the more contingency planning there is, the better the chances we'll all muddle through this.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), August 14, 1999.

Sure, what great timing you had. Good thing it was a glass wall so you could see the meeting. Good thing a HUGE BANNER said Disaster Preparedness so you could figure out what they were talking about. Gee, anyone else want to chime in with more dumb luck sightings.

-- Homer (HomerSimpson@d-uh.com), August 14, 1999.

I can see it now: On the black board is written, "We are have temporary computer problems. Your money is safe and insured by the FDIC." The students in the class, all bank tellers, practice saying this with a smile. The instructor critiques them: "No, put more HONESTY into it. Like YOU really believe it. Thats it!" "NO, NO, you are cowering, acting afraid. Do it with ENTHUSIASM, like ANY MINUTE the system will be back up! Thats better, keep practicing." "Damn it, quit laughing, this is serious! (Gawd, I hope my stored food and gold coins arrive soon.)"

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 14, 1999.

I didn't offer any interpretations of meeting i merely reported what I saw. I will say that I was impressed that once a vendor is checked into Banc One headquarters they have a fairly free ability to come and go without a lot of supervision. This one building houses between 5 and 6 thousand workers. It is so large that for the convenience of workers they have built a large gift shop which includes a Starbucks. They also have a laundry where you can drop off your clothes. The area where I saw the meeting in session was close to their main entrance right off the main hall way. This wasn't a luck sighting, Homer. The bank was not making any effort to shield this session from the casual observer's

-- cantsay (cantsay@forobviousreasons.com), August 14, 1999.

A laundry area where you can DROP OFF YOUR CLOTHES??!!!?!!! Gawd, that place sounds like its pretty open about EVERYTHING!!!

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 14, 1999.

King of Spain,

LOLOLOLOLOL! Do you like to mud wrestle?

Thanks,

-- Uhmm.. (jfcp81a@prodigy.com), August 14, 1999.

King of Spain, you really ought to get out more and meet the public and visit public buildings. And one more thing, straighten up that crown on your head!

-- conehead (conehead@coneheaaadd.com), August 14, 1999.

Did you also see Y2K on the board in conjunction with "disaster preparedness"?

Any large organisation that relies on computers will (or at least, bloody well should) have disaster perparedness high on its priorities at all times, not just for one year. Buildings catch fire, or get flooded, or the power or telecomms cables get severed by a bulldozer, or any number of more unlikely disasters can strike. The computer operations should have the means to cope with these (off-site data archives, spare or clustered processors on other sites, etc).

What I'm saying, is that you may well have witnessed nothing out of the ordinary at all, just normal staff training or business planning.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), August 16, 1999.

The PC word these days for disaster recovery is

Business Resumption...

Don't want to frighten the horses you know...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 16, 1999.