Denmark: latest snippets

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Still very quiet here 'on the streets' and in the media.

However, over Xmas a lot of our visitors started to ask me (as an IT guy) what I thought would happen, and some started to 'get it'. I was also asked by more than one person "Of course my ordinary PC won't be affected, will it?" In each case the "ordinary PC" was about seven years old.:-(

Some "snippets:

Last night our electricity went off for 1.5 hours. Rumour has it that it was due to a Y2K test. At least my neighbour (a farmer) got a chance to test his new generator.

I posted on TB2000 that every home in Denmark had received a Y2K leaflet from the Government. Deficient though the leaflet was, it did contain some sensible advice. However, I've now discovered to my dismay that only some homes have received it: the Government left it up to the local council (the 'kommune') to decide whether to re-distribute it. Many councils just left all their leaflets in the local library.

The train service, DSB, has issued a statement saying that they are 'almost 100 per cent certain' that there will be no problems (makes a change from '99.9 per cent certain', don't you think). SDo they are planning normal services on New Year's Eve. On the other hand, They are disabling all the elevators, and they have prepared a fleet of diesel engines ready to rescue any electric trains which become stranded. They also say that all the signals will go to red if the electricity fails (I don't understand how all this hangs together).

There WAS a large front page article in a section of a major Sunday newspaper (Berlinske Tidende), which mentioned Y2K preps, but it just used the idea as a starting point for a feature on the history and variety of canned foods, including Beluga caviar ("the people have no bread!" - "let them eat caviar!")

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), December 29, 1999


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