I would like to compile the views of the various Presidential candidates concerning the Y2K and embedded systems crisis, survey them concerning their assessment of what the impacts might be, ask them for their general comments, and make the results known to the public and the media. I think that this could help increase awareness of Y2K and generate useful discussion concerning what the Administration could and should be doing now to minimize the impacts of Y2K. I would appreciate seeing statements made by any and all of the Presidential candidates on Y2K, preferably statements that have a date and a traceable source. The first step in the process is to compile at least one or two recent statements from most of the candidates. A second step would be to send out the 0 - 10 impact scale and survey all of the candidates regarding what they think the impacts will be and ask each for his or her comments.

Please submit your responses here rather than to my e-mail address.

Thanks for any assistance you might be able to provide, particularly with the first step.

-- Paula Gordon (pgordon@erols.com), August 30, 1999

Answers

I realize this isn't a direct help but I recall that Dan Quail dismissed y2k as a minor problem one year ago;now seems to partially- get-it. A PGI.

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), August 30, 1999.

Top.

-- Faith Weaver (suzsolutions@yahoo.com), August 30, 1999.

Paula, What a great idea! Here's something from one of last week's threads: www.quayle.org QUAYLE URGES CLINTON TO SHIELD ECONOMY FROM POSSIBLE Y2K CRISIS --Seeks action to protect international currency markets --

PHOENIX, AZ  Republican presidential candidate Dan Quayle today called on President Clinton to take precautions now against possible disruptions of international currency markets that might be caused by the Year 2000, or Y2K, problem.

Even if our financial markets are the most Y2K compliant in the world, a breakdown anywhere in this incredibly complex system may feed back to us in ways we cannot foresee or imagine. We need to think through what steps we can take right now to ensure the integrity of this system, Quayle writes in a letter dated today (available upon request).

Quayle urged Clinton to consider a proposal by Jack Kemp to peg the U.S. dollar to gold in order to stabilize currency markets.

Kemp first outlined the idea to Clinton in a June 11 letter, and Quayle is urging Clinton to reconsider his decision, communicated in a correspondence dated August 5, not to move forward with the proposal. Quayle also suggested that Clinton submit the idea to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for review.

If you are to act on the proposal, it should be done early enough to www.quayle.org QUAYLE URGES CLINTON TO SHIELD ECONOMY FROM POSSIBLE Y2K CRISIS --Seeks action to protect international currency markets --

PHOENIX, AZ  Republican presidential candidate Dan Quayle today called on President Clinton to take precautions now against possible disruptions of international currency markets that might be caused by the Year 2000, or Y2K, problem.

Even if our financial markets are the most Y2K compliant in the world, a breakdown anywhere in this incredibly complex system may feed back to us in ways we cannot foresee or imagine. We need to think through what steps we can take right now to ensure the integrity of this system, Quayle writes in a letter dated today (available upon request).

Quayle urged Clinton to consider a proposal by Jack Kemp to peg the U.S. dollar to gold in order to stabilize currency markets.

Kemp first outlined the idea to Clinton in a June 11 letter, and Quayle is urging Clinton to reconsider his decision, communicated in a correspondence dated August 5, not to move forward with the proposal. Quayle also suggested that Clinton submit the idea to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for review.

If you are to act on the proposal, it should be done early enough to www.quayle.org QUAYLE URGES CLINTON TO SHIELD ECONOMY FROM POSSIBLE Y2K CRISIS --Seeks action to protect international currency markets --

PHOENIX, AZ  Republican presidential candidate Dan Quayle today called on President Clinton to take precautions now against possible disruptions of international currency markets that might be caused by the Year 2000, or Y2K, problem.

Even if our financial markets are the most Y2K compliant in the world, a breakdown anywhere in this incredibly complex system may feed back to us in ways we cannot foresee or imagine. We need to think through what steps we can take right now to ensure the integrity of this system, Quayle writes in a letter dated today (available upon request).

Quayle urged Clinton to consider a proposal by Jack Kemp to peg the U.S. dollar to gold in order to stabilize currency markets.

Kemp first outlined the idea to Clinton in a June 11 letter, and Quayle is urging Clinton to reconsider his decision, communicated in a correspondence dated August 5, not to move forward with the proposal. Quayle also suggested that Clinton submit the idea to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for review.

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), August 30, 1999.

From Steve Forbes:

May 21, 1999

"We have technology for Y2K, but lack leadership"

"Y2K is not a technology crisis, it's a leadership crisis," say Steve. "We have the technology and money to fix every computer and software program affected. What we have not had is real leadership from the White House." Steve urged the adminstration to move quickly and decisively to fix the federal Y2K computer crisis, protect the US economy from crippling Y2K class-action lawsuits, and raise domestic and international awareness of the problems and solutions.-- www.forbes2000.com"Economic Security"

http://issues2000org/steveforbes.htm#Quotations

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), August 30, 1999.

What does Quayle mean by "Peg the dollar to gold "? What possible good would that do for anyone? Would he peg gold higher or lower than the present market price? Would the value of the dollar change with a fluctuating gold price or would the value of gold change at the whim of The Fed reserve ? Someone smarter than I am will have to explain Quayles reasoning.

Jubilation T. Cornpone

-- Jube (Logic@nd reason.com), August 30, 1999.

Jube:

I've given up trying to understand what mister potatoe man means on any subject. Your guess is as good as anyones.

Best,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), August 30, 1999.

Paula, I have been working on Y2K in embedded systems for quite some time now in the power industry. I have seen a lot of problems, however the vast majority were minor and did not affect the ability of the device to perform its primary functions. My research indicates the same is true across the spectrum of industry. A far smaller number have been found that do indeed fail and could lead to plant shutdowns, etc, but nothing on the scale that could be called a "crisis", especially since they are methodically being evaluated and fixed. While widespread, I have seen no evidence of major failures due to Y2K in embedded systems that could even be remotely considered a "Crisis". Can you please post some actual examples (including manufacturers and model numbers) of Y2K problems in widely used embedded system devices in the US that would fail in such a way as to cause severe problems of the magnitude that this should be considered a "crisis"?

Regards, Regards,

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), August 30, 1999.

Dear Fact finder you say that you are only finding minor problems with the embedded systems you are testing. I dont believe you. # 1 if we have broken the back of y2k why, hasnt nerc tested one full section of the U.S grid with the dates advanced foward into the year 2000 on the real world system under real world Load conditions to see if we have really got a handle on it. If it breaks we will at least have enough time to get spare parts and learn what caused it to fail so we can prevent the other three grids from collapsing on New years eve.

There is no leadership in the power industry or Washington to make the hard call. I worked as a component level troubleshooter for the aerospace industry for 20 years, and lab testing and type testing dont tell you squat until you put those components under the real world tests and you know that is the facts.

Do we have to have the courage to test the fixes on one of the four grids to see if we got it right? There will be no subsitute for the real thing in this case. That 24hr 7 day a week system is a very special animal that cant be duplicated in the lab, It will require going live and testing it end to end. We may be lucky and get it right the first time, but my educated guess says we will have component failure the first time out going live over the grid.

But this is what it will take to learn how to prevent or minimize the failure of the other three grids. The tough call is who's city will be first. This is where leadership is required. There is no electrical problems or software problem that cant be fixed if we have the data to know what to expect. y2k will cause a unique problem that has not been incountered before on the grid. This is why one of the four needs to be tested early and completely. There are risks. those cities may go down hard for a while, but they will get the support necesary to come back on line in a far shorter time frame now then in january when the whole world will face the y2k bug for the first time at the same time. Techinically you know I am right on this call. The Grid is an engineering masterpiece that has been designed to work well on the old two digit date standard. A new four digit or windowed standard now needs to be tested live on the big system. It's all hot air until it's tested live on the grid. The Phd's and engineers know how complexed the grid's algorithms are to match. It took them 20 years to get the software right. Make no mistake they are scare of missing it with y2k, that is why none of the Grids have been y2k tested end to end live in the real world yet. Until they do this successfully y2k will be a crisis of unknown proportions.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), August 30, 1999.

Here Paula, Bill Clinton on y2k:

I thought Professor Davis did a great service to all of us who are less well-read in what happened 1000 years ago by debunking some of the popular myths. Clearly, not everyone was giving away all their possessions or cowering in churches waiting for the world to end. Maybe what was said tonight will discourage some of our fellow citizens who seem determined to buy desert land and hoard gold, bullets, and skoal in their pickup trucks.

-- a (a@a.a), August 30, 1999.

I don't think that's what deckerfinder wanted.

-- I saw a decker (idid@idid!.com), August 31, 1999.

Y2K Aware Mike,

Coming to a power grid near you, this fall - POWER FAILURE!

I want to make a speculation alert here, since I have heard nothing on this score, but it stands to reason that a real time test wouldn't be done during a summer heat wave. You do it during the relatively mellow months of September and October, when citizens would neither swelter nor freeze if power should be out for a while.

Just a thought, but it could be part of why the window for Y2K has been designated to start September 1.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), August 31, 1999.

"Dear Fact finder you say that you are only finding minor problems with the embedded systems you are testing. I dont believe you."

Gee Y2K Aware Mike and your experiance in this field would be....? I mean, as we all know, reading about a subjuect is far better than having first hand experiance.

As for this thread, what exactly will a Presedential Candidate's, who will not even be elcted until November 2000, view on a piece of history mean? Why not also ask them how they would have handled Vietnam or the War of 1812? It will have just as much bearing as this.

-- puzzled by your (question@huh.com), August 31, 1999.

No wonder you're puzzeled. Assume for a moment that elections will be possible. Do you want a GI, a polly OR a dishonest, self-serving, evil polly who gets it (like our current president).

Naturally you may choose to vote for the media's pick like the majority of the country will do.

Thanks 'a', for tossing in my personal favorite! :)

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), August 31, 1999.

Paula, As your understanding of "embedded systems" is not based on any intimate knowledge of or experience in the subject, and your papers on the subject reflect that, do you actually consider yourself an expert on the subject?

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), September 01, 1999.