Reuters has waded through the new OMB report on our behalf. (Rightly? Wrongly?) At any rate, here's its take:

U.S. Y2K work 97 percent done - White House

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has completed 97 percent of Year 2000 fixes on its most important computer systems at a cost of $8.34 billion, the White House budget office reported on Tuesday.

In its latest quarterly report on federal preparations, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the Pentagon, despite a mammoth effort, may suffer some problems caused by the Y2K coding glitch that could boggle computers.

Nine of the 24 Cabinet departments and key agencies supplying federal services have not yet wrapped up Y2K work, OMB said. They were the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defence, Energy, Health and Human Services, Justice, Treasury and Transportation, as well as the Agency for International Development.

These nine had a combined total of 217 ``mission critical'' systems that were not Y2K compliant as of Aug. 13, down from the 410 reported non-compliant in June, said OMB, which oversees management of the federal government.

The Defence Department runs by far the largest number of federal systems requiring work to be ready for the date change, 169, as of June 30. Of these, 141 were being fixed, including 53 classified as secret; 18 were to be replaced; and 10 were to be retired by year end, OMB said.

The Defence Department, which estimates it will spend $3.6 billion fixing Y2K problems, has been carrying out ``the largest, most complex testing in history'' to pinpoint Y2K problems, the budget office said.

For instance, the Pentagon is making sure that all mission critical systems ``that are expected to be used if the armed forces are involved in a major theatre of war are tested in at least two exercises,'' it said.

Despite these tests, OMB said, ``the interconnection of so many complex systems increases the likelihood that DoD (Department of Defence) will experience some Y2K difficulties.''

As a result, the Pentagon was focusing on ``realistic continuity of operations and contingency planning,'' the report said.

The so-called Y2K glitch could prevent some computers from distinguishing 2000 from 1900 because of old shortcuts that recorded the year with two digits only. Unless fixed, this could disrupt everything from radar to telecommunications to tank display panels.

Overall, ``We feel confident as we go into the home stretch,'' said Linda Ricci, the OMB spokeswoman. ``The U.S. government is in good shape'' for the calendar rollover.

The OMB report card, the 10th in a series, was due to be delivered to Congress by Wednesday, Ricci said.

She said its timing was ``entirely independent and unrelated'' to consular reports on the Y2K readiness of as many as 196 countries being released later Tuesday by the State Department.

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), September 14, 1999

Answers

Amazing:

"She said its timing was ``entirely independent and unrelated'' to consular reports on the Y2K readiness of as many as 196 countries being released later Tuesday by the State Department."

Whenever they go out of their way to bring special attention to an otherwise unrelated issue, you can almost bet that the exact opposite is true. The 97% figure is a load of crap.

If they said 95% the people would think, well that isn't good enough. If they said 99% then there would be much room for failures. 97% is just good enough to seem adequate, but also allows for the 3% failure rate, which could explain away an awful lot of failures by "chain reaction", or at least that is what they will say.

-- @ (@@@.@), September 14, 1999.

Thanks, FM.

...boggle computers. ???

Now theres a new one Old Git would love.

...``the interconnection of so many complex systems increases the likelihood that DoD (Department of Defence) will experience some Y2K difficulties.'' ... As a result, the Pentagon was focusing on ``realistic continuity of operations and contingency planning,'' ...

Gosh! Sounds like the rest of us GIs.

;-D

Humm... IF the "timing was ``entirely independent and unrelated'' to consular reports on the Y2K readiness of as many as 196 countries being released later Tuesday by the State Department." ... why mention it?

Uh, huh.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 14, 1999.

Correction to my answer:

If they said 99% then there wouldn't be much room for failures.

-- @ (@@@.@), September 14, 1999.

Exactly Diane!

And it coincidentally just HAPPENS to come out within hours of the State Dept. report. Wouldn't want those stock investors to start thinking anything could POSSIBLY go wrong in our perfect country! These bureaucrats and politicians are so full of s**t. You can almost always take what they say and believe the opposite.

-- @ (@@@.@), September 14, 1999.

Treasury not ready = no employees and no working government.

Wish to BET how many Senators and Congressmen/women will get three months of checks in Dec? Wonder how many grunt workers will get advanced pay?

-- dw (y2k@outhere.com), September 14, 1999.

remember the word=propaganda? or=uncle sam needs you? so i guess now SENATOR-HORN can give every-one a b+. now we can fly the friendly sky. GOD BLESS AMERICA=WHY??? ITHOUGHT HE SAID HE HATES=LIARS.

-- i like=amazing grace. (dogs@zianet.com), September 14, 1999.

The stock market is now closed. The report should be coming out momentarily, but they probably won't post it to the Net until after all the big players get a look at it and make their stock transactions.

-- @ (@@@.@), September 14, 1999.