The world braces for Y2K, real or imagined

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/yearinreview/top.stories/08/

Quote:

Will the Millennium Bug bite? The overwhelming response to the question of 1999 was, "Who cares?" But amid the apathy were calls of alarm from the media, the government and certain entrepreneurs with windfall profits on their minds.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), December 27, 1999

Answers

hamster....there you are!! Are you my hamster or Andy's hamster?

Somehow our meaningful discourse on hamsters got deleted! Can't imagine why............

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), December 27, 1999.

Calls of alarm frm the Media, The Govmint???? LOL,LOL,LOL,LOL,LOL,...

Help me, I am laughing and can't stop.

-- RickJohn (rickjohn1@yahoo.com), December 27, 1999.

Keep reading past the silly opening.

"The Y2K problem is the electronic equivalent of the El Niqo and there will be nasty surprises around the globe."
--John Hamre, Dep. Secretary of Defense

Experts: Sky may not be falling, but prepare for a storm

(CNN) -- When someone in Liza Christian's rural Oregon community gave her a book called "Time Bomb 2000," she carried it around for weeks before reading it.

"I thought, 'This is too grim; Stephen King could have written it,'" Christian recalled. "I really didn't want to deal with it. It just seemed too bizarre."

But by the time she finished the book about the year 2000 computer problem, also known as the Y2K bug, Christian decided it was important to learn more. In May 1998, she helped start one of the nation's first grass-roots organization's for Y2K preparedness -- the Rogue Valley Y2K Task Force.

Christian described the group as "mainstream" but said she has been exposed to other theories about the Y2K problem, including the warnings of some religious groups that it heralds the biblical Armageddon.

It's possible they could be right," Christian said, "but I'm a fairly positive person and I don't want to just throw up my hands and give in to the gloom and doom. I want to do what I can."

(snip)

Catastrophe likely averted

In the early 1990s, computer consultants began sounding the alarm that many older computers were programmed -- and much of their software was written -- to recognize only the final two digits of a year. Some said the problem would cause widespread chaos in power, transportation, communications and other vital systems as the year 2000 began.

(snip)

Smaller companies lagging

"We'll see everything from ... nuisances -- like my calls going to your phone -- to serious business stoppages," said Anthony Paoni, a professor of information technology at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Paoni said most major companies will likely have their systems fixed in time but that small- to medium-sized companies are lagging. The interdependence of systems means that a few stragglers could disrupt the whole, since large companies are usually networked with smaller ones, he said.

"The best case for a [non-Y2K compliant] company is that its computer system stops on January 1," he said. "The worst case is that it keeps running and it begins to corrupt the data. Now that's a big problem."

Worldwide problem

The Y2K bug isn't isolated to the United States. Experts say the entire world will be affected and that most countries are much further behind than the United States in dealing with it.

The U.S. Senate report said the computer glitch could cause civil unrest in poor countries, undermine economic growth in Asia, Latin America and Africa, and disrupt global trade in oil and other vital commodities.

-- kermit (colourmegreen@hotmail.com), December 27, 1999.

Actually I am nobodys hamster. When I feel someone made a good and valid point I agree with them, when they are wrong I disagree.

I do not align with someone because they are 'doomer' or 'polly'. If an issue is discussed and a 'polly' makes the most valid point I am likely to agree. The same is true when the 'doomer' is right.

This hamster runs alone in his wheel. Its a thankless job, but someone has to do it.....

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), December 27, 1999.