...this will be short!....I had heard about y2k in Feb. 1999, and did not grasp it until while surfing the internet I came across this article on March 4, 1999. The web page is still active... www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_bresnahan/19990304_xex_government_p.shtml..........after reading this article and all links mentioned in it I got extremely concerned....I am a divorced father of two sons, whom as you would imagine I am proud of and very protective of. My parents are approaching 70, I have seven brothers and sisters. My parents and 2 of my siblings are preparing, we are attempting a collective effort. The other brothers and sisters think we are "silly". Their contingency plan is to come freeload off of us. I pray daily that we do not have to let them know how serious we were when we told them that we would not share with them and they would not be welcome when the SHTF. My ex has the same contingency plan. She has agreed to let my sons be with me starting late Dec., Thank God!! As of today I have yet to be able to come to any conclusion other than Poly's are toast. As we get set to do our best to survive the coming tribulations, I wish you all well and my thoughts and prayers are with you. Good luck my friends!

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), November 09, 1999

Answers

I "got it" in June of this year(a little late perhaps) through listening to Geri Guidetti being interviewed by Jeff Rense on "Sightings on the radio"

My best friend also GI'd through this same program(he is totally blind but "sees" things better than any sighted person I have met),I can imagine many thousands of people Getting It thanks to the many shows Jeff has done on the subject

-- matt (whome@somewhere.nz), November 10, 1999.

My husband and I got it in early Jan. 1999 had just got online for a family Christmas Present, heard about it on alocal radio show, was a religious one can not remember his name just happened to be listening,because was in the car, was talking about embedded chips and fill bottles with water... when we got home typed y2k in on search and have been preping every since. God be with you all, for the long haul.

-- sandy (rstyree@overland.net), November 10, 1999.

I was born with it.

dave

-- dave (wootendave@hotmail.com), November 10, 1999.

got it from a call girl in the far east.

-- shhhhhh (won'tsay@oneshot.com), November 10, 1999.

A number of years ago someone had called me and said, "Hey did you know that all of society is going to collapse? There's this code in the computers..." I put it on a back burner. I watched people in 1997 and early 1998 post on Usenet sounding sometimes looney tunes, noted the topic was being mentioned, but pretty much rolled my eyes. In the fall of 1998 I called the person who had called me and I said I thought it wise to see how things were going. Things were going terribly, and I do think I was doing this right as the Fed instigated pre-panic was in effect. Swoosh, I fell right into the instigated pre-panic as the vague and mysterious That Type lurking in American society. I arrived on a Usent newsgroup hollering, "Help! What is the best heat for cooking source in a chronic outage?" If I recall my initial plans were totally absurd such as "I'd have a tea candle each night to do what I want with for as long as I want." Bless the very real survivalists who were lifestyle not "Y2K'ers" who assisted the sheeple arriving. They've long since vanished now. Then of course all we crash coursing offered tips to each other some being worthy and had our own sites on the topic. Mine was "Y2K For Wimps."

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 10, 1999.

I GI in August of '98. Someone in my neighborhood left flyers on the mailbox. I did not read it for a few days after receiving it, and to be honest, the first part of it I saw was church related. I remember rolling my eyes thinking 'here we go, another end of the world religious cult!'

The only reason I kept reading was because cults of any kind are a unusual in my neck of the woods. My intent at that point was to see who I should be avoiding around here.

Then I started reading several non-church statements, and my curiosity was up. I looked up the urls mentioned in the flyer and started reading.

The thing that 'clicked' for me, was the fact that a few months before, I had talked to a guy who had written the code for a machine that puts the bottom on a Pringles can. Sounds peculiar, I know, but it made me realize just how many programs are out there to do all of the jobs that machines do. I mean, you need the bottom, the top, the label, ect. Several different programs for one pringles can. And not all written by the same programmers. Multiply this by every product you see on grocery and store shelves.....awesome isn't it?

It was enough for me. I have been preparing ever since. Nice to know someone in my neighborhood is too. And that they cared enough to put out a six page flyer in the neighborhood.

-- Dian (bdp@accessunited.com), November 10, 1999.

I GI one night listening to (gasp) an Art Bell Interview of Gary North in Jan. of this year. Put me into a cold sweat and literally WOKE me UP!! (And here I thought i NEEDED those 4 hours of sleep):)

I talked to the wife, and then promptly called a couple of my brothers who work high tech and one who built hi tech for USAF.

They all were, well, odd, about the subject. One brother cracks security protocols, another makes it. (G) One bought a farm in the country overseas. (He HATES dirt. Always has. He now has 2 pigs, 3 cows, and numerous chickens....) The other IT brother, just went"hmmmmm. Can't talk on this phone.)AND HUNG UP! (He called me later from a payphone and said three words that shook my soul-"Buy extra stuff." He then went on to explain that he could in NO way or form discuss this anymore, but said he would be bringing his two kids home with him over the holidays for an "Extended" visit. He said all of this with a stone cold voice. This from a fella that laughs in his SLEEP!)

The Brother that worked in the AF said, "hmmmmm". The next month he bought his wife and kid a trailer, 10 acres, a well, and etc.

yikes.

My Dad and Mom, DGI, really, but they have always kept extra hard goods around. (I have four brothers :))

It has been a long trip. From thinking of a total collapse, to a moderate outage. It is a tough perameter to fill, but we have done the best we can.

My HOPE. My Prayer!!!! Is that this whole year has been a REALLY REALLY bad dream.

My it only be so........

-- DavePrime (the_tv_guy@hotmail.com), November 10, 1999.

I got it working graveyards in the coal mine. Sitting in a broke down D-10 bulldozer and scanning radio stations I ran across Gary North's first interview with Art Bell. Big click in head, more like a cocking .44 magnum than a light switch.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), November 10, 1999.

I got it around June of 1998 from a flyer I had received in the mail from Gary North. At first I ignored the flyer and then one day just before throwing it out unread, I glanced at it and became mildly, though skeptically, interested. Over the next month I thought about it and began doing some research, though not very seriously, on the internet. Then one day in early August it all fell into place and I fully realized how vulnerable we are to something like this and I decided to set up a website to help others get prepared. The website is Y2K Survive (y2ksurvive.com), just recently listed among the top 40 Y2K websites in the world by the London Telegraph.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), November 10, 1999.

---I was raised a mainframe brat, so have always been around puters in some form or another, but I'm not an expert, just a mac driver. I had heard of y2k in about 85 or 86 near as I can remember, helping to install a large printer for what is now csx railroad. The office is in downtown atlanta(was then, anyway). The puter was some flavor of ibm 360 as I remember. My friend and boss, the brains, told me in passing how he hoped his new clone business would take off, cuz these old mainframes where energy hogs, and out of date. he went on to make a zillion bux and retired, then drank it up and went broke last i heard. He told me about the two digit date deal. He also said that ibm was the most restrictive, dumbest company on the planet when it came to "don't rock the boat" bad news. they didn't want to hear it. they were more interested in the length of someones sideburns than anything else. that and trying to be the worlds puter monopoly. anyway, i forgot about it until 95, got on the net for a short period of time. there wasn't much on the net then that i can recall. then in 97 it really grabbed me, as I started researching more and realized that HARDLY ANYTHING WAS DONE YET, AND THE CRAPPY CODE AND CHIPS WERE STILL OUT THERE. This was TEN YEARS LATER. Now, I'm a blue collar guy, and one thing that's a certainty is that repairs always cost more and take longer than anyone thinks, and you invariably get the wrong part, etc. This applies to all of our technological society. Obviously not even close to 100%, but conversationally speaking, this is a fact. Your car craps out, and they need a "special" part from tokyo. Your cable tv goes down cuz some squirrel bounced on the wires someplace and it takes a week to fix. You get in a bill dispute with any of the public monopoly utilities and YOU LOSE. The COMPUTER is ALWAYS right. Phooie. Y2k is the biggest damn screwup that ever happened, bar none. And the "fix" is so tough, cuz it pretty much ALL has to be fixed, or we're SOL for our normal existence. and the "fix" just mostly costs companies money, it hurt's that ole "bottom line", so it gets put off and put off and put off and put off and put off. Yourdon and a buncha other old timer smart guys have all said this. So, in 97, I got REAL SCARED. I started talking to grunts, and cobol programmers_all of whom I made a point of being older than me, no younger guys-and doing a lot of net research. Well, WE'RE SCREWED BIGTIME. This is so overwhelmingly true that it's not debateable. Don't listen to any puter specialits for the big picture. They are "specialists". Their job and mindset is narrow, it's hard for them to see the big picture. I am speaking generally. always exceptions, of course. Most of them just throw a credit card at any problem that's outside their expertise. This crap of manual overrides is COMPLETE, UNADUULTERATED, MALE BOVINE EXCREMENT. YOU LISTENING, DICKIE M.? IT'S B.S.! If we get a 5% across the board instant(the first week of january) fail rate, just 5%, then that's it, party's over. The cascading domino effect will take care of the rest. Tumble, tumble, tumble, tumble, crash, bang, boom...... Now I'm glad that a lot of folks "get it". I'm a long term survivalist, so y2k just made me even more concerned. Have had mixed luck getting friends and family to "get it". The very WORST people to try and convince are pc weenies. Omigawd these people are mostly bozos. Absolute faith in their gawd billy boy gates. That's it, everything else just isn't real to them. Not trying to step on any toes here, or malign anyone, that's just been my experience. Whoever is the family pc geek declares y2k to be a non event, so no further research. It's sad. "Survivalism" as a mindset is a very good thing, and I'm glad that so many folks are getting into it because of y2k. Being "vulnerable' just doesn't cut it, in my opinion. Relying on outside sources for 100% of your "life" is just silly in the best, and deadly in the worst. good luck and mucho better skills to one and all! zog

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), November 10, 1999.

I GI in July 1999. I typed Y2K into Yahoo search and up popped Gary North. I hadn't really thought much about Y2K and interdependencies beforet that time. I pretty much shrugged Y2K off. I'm a non-techie and after all "someone" would fix this. I figured if I didn't think about Y2K it couldn't have an effect on me. I spent the next 8 hours in a cold sweat reading Scary Garys sight until my eyes burned. Since that awakening day in July I've spent at least 2 hours a day scanning the web for info about Y2K. The toughest part is figuring out what to believe and what not to believe. I've prepared enough food, water and wood for about 60 days. As a matter of fact I'm picking up two free truckloads of ash tonight. Time will tell.

-- Scottsworth (Somewhere@Ct.com), November 10, 1999.

I got it about a year ago. My father, a retired judge and successful land developer gave me a call and said, "Why don't you stop by, we're going to have a family pow-wow." My three brothers, all attorneys, my sister a psychologist, and their spouses all sat around the kitchen table. "What do you know about Y2K?", my father asked.

I got it in about 15 minutes. Ever hear the term sober as a judge? My father is not one to buy into nut case scenarios. Neither are my siblings. Neither am I.

Over the past year I have spent more time than I would like to admit studying and preparing for the event. My general feeling is that things will be less harsh than I first thought a year ago. But even if things get hairy, we've done our homework. We won't go hungry, we won't be without water, we won't be c

-- 8 (8@8.com), November 10, 1999.

Honestly, a professor in a cobol class in 1980 brought up the subject. Through the years working in mainframe applications, I wasn't encouraged to think about it much. New code was done correctly, old stuff- only modify what you are asked to modify. I worked for a GI manager from 1989 thru the late 90's, but didn't get scared enough to care until I started reading this forum, even before TIME BOMB 2000 was released. Thanks again to Ed Yourdon!

-- cmd0903 (cmd0903@dontcall.com), November 10, 1999.

Nikoli--that's one of the most evocative posts I've ever read. Kewl.

Cody--Congrats on Top 40 placing.

I want to post a short note here as a tribute to my friend, L., who will probably never read this.

I Got It in five minutes flat in the summer of 1998, after reading a _Wired_ piece. Maybe it happened hard and fast because I'm an academic and think about social system inter-relationships all day long, maybe because my partner is a software developer and I know how finicky, unweildy and creative it is to write code. Maybe because my father started up two mainframe-based (timesharing) data-processing businesses when I was a kid. I remember the first electronic calculator I ever held in my hand, one that he brought home from work: 2 lbs, four basic functions, $300. I remember how mainframes filled rooms, and the oceans of cabling installed under the floor and in the ceiling.

Dunno why I Got It so quick. But I most certainly *did* know, when I Got It, that I was totally, utterly unsophisticated about survival issues, and I needed an education fast.

ENTER my friend, L., who has a 30 acre farm w/ a dozen horses, one of whom I was schooling. On a Saturday morning, I stood in her kitchen leaning on one of the dozen empty chairs around a huge breakfast table- -a crew had just gone outside--and there's L. in the middle of this post-meal mess, sitting cool and collected w/ her feet up on a chair, and a ciggy, and a bag of M&Ms. I told her what I knew, and that I was FREAKING OUT. She gives me this long look, reaches into the knife drawer at her hip, and throws me a paper towel w/ an elastic around it. She says, "years ago I figured something like this was coming." I open it up, and this ragged little pkg is full of gold bullion. Then she says, like Bacall to Bogie, "I've got 10 yrs' worth of nitro-packed wheat in the basement, and a terrific grinder. Let's put in a wind system."

And it happened. Just like that (well, I left out a lot of detail, but that's to protect the innocent. And the guilty.:])

It's an adventure ain't it?

-- silver ion (ag3@interlog.com), November 10, 1999.

When my library card failed in January 1998. It had an expiration date in December 2004 - and had been renewed just a few days before.

The county had to recall all library cards, re-issue them with a stop gap 12/31/1999 date, then replace the whole library system.

Took them 19 months to rebuild their computer system in all county libraries, and re-stock/re-label all their books.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 10, 1999.

I got it when my professor in the Computer Science program told me that when we get out into the field, we'd better start fixing all of these 2 digit year fields or we would have lots of trouble. I remember jokingly telling people that the world would end on Jan 1st, 200 because all the computers would crash.

Now it's not so damned funny. Tim

-- Tim the Y2K nut (tmiley@yakko.cs.wmich.edu), November 10, 1999.

I got it the minute I read St. Gary's first newsletter on the problem. Having done a minute bit of programming, I knew that the computers will do EXACTLY, and ONLY EXACTLY what they have been told. Divide by 0? Can't do it. Reach a negative number for a future year? Can't do it. And I knew that Y2K has enormous potential to throw us back 100 years. Having said that I pray for the best. The hot water heater burped the other day and I had to reset it. Folks, I hate cold showers.

-- Mr. Mike (mikeabn@aol.com), November 10, 1999.

In the summer of 1997, I read an article online about the possibilities of widespread and massive interruptions on the 991231 - 000101 roll-over. My first thought was "They're right."

I started researching the issue, and became increasingly alarmed at what I read. The things I read made perfect sense, until I happened upon a description of the problems related to a field of my expertise. As I read the article, filled with all the credible- sounding terms and the same authoritative tone as the other articles I had consumed, I was shocked.

It was as if someone had asked pre-school children to define the terms of the trade, and then asked the same children to describe cascading faults in the systems involved. I was stunned into disillusionment. In response, I emailed the administrator of the website, offering some corrections and asking (very politely) for his sources. The response (a real shocker at that time, ironically) was a bile-filled accusation, with no facts.

I re-read the articles that had stirred me in the beginning, though this time with a more critical eye. Because of my position in industry, I have access to contacts that the average person may not have. I questioned them discretely and separately regarding their respective areas of expertise. What I found was startling: most of them believed there would be serious problems related to the roll- over - but not in their fields.

When I asked them to explain why they thought there would be problems at all, they stated "It's what I've heard and read." When I asked where, most responded "the internet." When I asked about their respective fields of expertise, they stated that most of the systems do not utilise year functions in their calculations. The exception was my friend from the financial sector. She asked where I had been, scolding me for not realising this earlier. She then went on to state that her firm had been working on fixes, patches, and upgrades for two years; and that their systems would be compliant by the end of 1998 (which they were).

I began an exhaustive search of the internet, seeking the source of these quotes. I found precisely seven people who agreed that Y2K would be devastating. All other sources and sites referenced material that had it's origin in one of these seven sources. I emailed them asking for details and some (any) proof. The one's who responded offered vague, though ominous, predictions; more bile; and continued the circular reference game ("so-and-so says..."...ad infinitum).

I consider that time - some eighteen months ago - to be the time when I truly "got it." I have since continued my search for one (merely one) independently verifiable (and repeatable) procedure for a non- Y2K-compliant device, and have yet to be presented with just four pieces of information about a single device or system:

1) the manufacturer;
2) the part or model number;
3) the procedure utilised to test the system or device that proves it's non-compliance;
4) a list of some place or places (or device or system) where the system or device is in use today.

One would surmise, from all the emotional ranting here and elsewhere, that this information would be readily available; but no one has yet to produce these four simple pieces of information for any system, device, or IC - not one. Just more emotion, accusation; and no proof.

Also, my studies revealed each of the seven original sources of information stand to personally profit from making the claims they do. I suppose, after all, it comes down to following the money.

Un-Worried Regards,
Andy Ray

-- Andy Ray (andyman633@hotmail.com), November 10, 1999.

1992...

Didn't take long to soak in before preps began. Not too concerned at this point, but still prepping. Just got back from "bag-n-gag" - when they ask what's with all the beans, rice and split peas, I tell them it's for a childrens art class.

-- Patrick (pmchenry@gradall.com), November 10, 1999.

Got it after I personally checked out some of the "interconnectivity" claims and claims about the fragility of our food chain. I first found out my local food warehouse has generators, but they will run only two hours, and they are only to keep the food intact, customers will be shown the door, "come back later". I looked in the store rooms of several grocery stores, not a whole lot of extra food sitting there. They depend on the Just In Time method. I Got It when after five months of looking at 1-5 acres of Real Estate. Homes (Mostly Manufactured), great lawns, some cows, only 2 of 20 had any kind of a garden. Got it when I read the World Food Bank was predicting a shortage of food, two years ago. Got it when all the Global Natural Disaster/Wars/Hurricanes,Earth Quakes, etc, started running together, thus creating more of a strain of the World Food Bank. Got it, when I kept reading how much the "Y2K remediation" was costing. Got it last year during a Church's first meeting (only one I have seen since), and some farmer stood up and announced that we would all be dead unless we stored some food. He owns an 80 acre farm, and the unexpected demand for his crops had frightened him, enough to come and warn us. I got it by reading all I could, when we had delays in getting car parts, etc. I got it by realizing the risks are low, but the stakes are too high to ignore. Got snakes?

-- Hope I am just paranoid (gotithard@betweentheeyes.com), November 10, 1999.

But what if, I fell right into the enemies hands, with all the research I have done? My "preparations" lend this Country right into the demise our enemies have devised this trap? My privative preparations were finished five months ago, I have no generator, no stockpile of gas. Money ran out, long before aspirations. Have I, in any way, lent my fears , to the demise of our Country? If so, please , God, help me set it straight. Friends, all, just got to add some humor, "Got Snakes?"

-- Second thoughts (gotithard@betweentheeyes.com), November 10, 1999.

I started work as a Y2k Project Coordinator in March of '98. My initial research on Y2k on the internet was technical in nature (pros and cons of windowing vs. expansion, sample COBOL code fixes, etc.).

Didn't take long to find North's site (a search on "Y2k" at the time yielded only a few hundred hits vs. the gazillions today). My initial reaction was shock and disbelief, followed quickly by the realization that the "doom" predictions were coming from our own .gov!!

Immediately, I dove headlong into research. As '98 progressed, and every prognosticator said the time had passed for large organizations to fully fix their problems, and every survey said that most companies still hadn't started, I knew that the risk was real, and that the problem wasn't going away.

Many thanks once again to forum regulars, who have helped me stay focused and kept my sense of humor largely intact. Good luck one and all.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 10, 1999.

I 'got it' in 1969, in a discussion with a professor of computer science. We discussed the ethics of the situation and came to the conclusion that all of that stuff would be replaced, rewritten, retired loooong before it ever became a problem.

'It' struck home in 1991, when I discovered that some code I had written, purely for a grade, back in the 70's, was still in use, apparently untouched by human hands since I submitted it. Did some checking, and discovered that most of it was still out there. Made a little noise, then went back to sleep, assuming that I had 'done my bit'.

Got a wake up call in 1994, at the company I currently work for, when I found code that had the problem that we were shipping. Made some noise, the 'wheels' woke up, and I went back to sleep, thinking, again, that I had 'done my bit'.

Got another wake up call early last year, when I discovered that the company, which was one of the early starters, had done all the 'right' things, had talked the talk and walked the walk, still had problems. When the second round of 'assess, remediate, test and evaluate' revealed yet more problems, I began to, very quietly, very calmly, start pushing events to the point where they are now, as far as family preps go.

Figure that I made noise, did what I could within the industry, and made the preps I feared were necessary. The rest is up to God.

-- just another (another@engineer.com), November 10, 1999.

I got it back in February when my sister emailed me the y2kweatherman's url. I had just closed my art and gift shop and had some time to do some reading - six hours a day.LOL I could see the merits of making some prudent preps -as for any potential looming crisis. Mostly I was concerned about our personal survival next year if my husband's Belgian based company could no longer manufacture or ship product. I decided it was time for us to forego some frivolous expenses - like vacation - and spend the money on getting out of debt, putting back some supplies and preparing to get out of the way as well as possibly being unemployed.

But the day it really hit me and I truly "got it" was sometime in July when I had to go to the Uhaul storage to empty out our storage unit. The fellow sitting behind what could only be described as the oldest computer known to man, struggling to get my paperwork completed - hit the wrong button and wiped out my account. He then wrote out a receipt by hand and while he was doing that an irrate customer came in and demanded to know why there was a lock on his unit. The flustered guy behind the desk exchanged a few words with him and finally had to ask us all to step out of the office so he could lock up while he tended to this ranting jerk. As I stood there, baking out in the sun waiting for this "inconvenienced" guy to be handled -who could not, not would not wait his turn, I realized two things -1. the man in this office will not have a job next year until the main office can replace that system. Who knows how long? A month? a year?

This man's name is LEGION.

How many others? No work for many means no groceries bought, no utilities paid, no mortgages. Sure some will be okay - but the truth is - with thousands of small and medium sized businesses dead in the water- the ones that most people work for - it is the squeezed cash flow that will be the hardest hill to climb and will hit home in most communities. This is a good enough reason to prepare - to my way of thinking anyway. Oh yeah, and secondly, human nature -like the irrate customer who refused to wait his turn - that will turn sour the minute things get the least bit "inconvenient". We are a society unaccustomed to inconvenience. I'd like to stay out of the lines. Seems reasonable.

-- April (Alwzapril@home.com), November 11, 1999.

The question is, in my case, "did I ever not GI?". Once i heard about it, i began to research it on the net. i ignore pollyanna press releases from the government and mainstream publications and anyone who's out for a buck. you don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to believe in federal deceit, just recall the syphilis experiment that was performed on those black men in the south some decades ago. then i saw and read 'Jurassic Park'. Total Systemic Breakdown only initially requires minor errors in critical areas that are multiplied and magnified over time until the entire system fails.

-- Razsn (robinsun@netscape.net), November 11, 1999.