FROM WEBSITE http://www.sangersreview.com/:

Patrick Shannon, News Editor -- Larry Sanger, Executive Editor Friday, December 31, 1999 -- 11am EST

Rumor -- IBM getting swamped with orders for parts from NZ and OZ ... First baby of 2000 ... Nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania shuts down, not Y2K-related... Swiss company lost data connections to Sydney shortly after midnight Sydney time ... Quite a few pipelines to halt operations during rollover... First nuclear reactor (in Russia) to rollover appears fine... Bank runs in Hong Kong and Bangladesh?... Power problems in Auckland and Wellington? ... Yeltsin resigns ... Getting swamped with orders for NZ! (TimeBomb 2000) This is an unsubstantiated rumor, read through this thread for discussion: "Our Emergency Orders Operations here at IBM is getting killed with emergency parts that need to be sent to New Zealand and Australia asap. They tell me that they are getting 10-15 orders a minute!! That is very unusual since we don't get that many AN HOUR for the whold world. I'll try and find out where the emergencies are taking place. They tell me that IBM is even chartering flights since they can't wait for Airborne and FedX to pickup. This is extremely costly for IBM since an average chartered flight to New Zealand could easly run around $10K!! I keep you all informed..." IBM's Year 2000 Alerts Page says : "As of 15:00:00 GMT, 31 December 1999, we have no Year 2000 issues with our products to report."

-- Tess Smathers (DC) (adhoc@concentric.com), December 31, 1999

Answers

Response to High Volume of IBM Orders from NZ, Etc.

Sydney Morning Herald is reporting NO problems with computers. New Zealand Y2K Readiness have sent staff home.

-- Bruce James-Newman (bruce.newman@lpl.com), December 31, 1999.

Response to High Volume of IBM Orders from NZ, Etc.

While the Sydney Herold may be reporting no computer problems, the University at Aukland is reporting computer problems with both hackers and viruses.

-- Tess Smathers (DC) (adhoc@concentric.com), December 31, 1999.

This is in response to reports that firms in New Zealand and Australia were making emergency orders for parts from IBM swampping them with. Shipments are reportedly needed so urgently that the recipients cannot wait for FedEx or Airborne, and IBM was reported looking into chartering planes. The Zone 2000 Project received word from Fred McNeese, an IBM representative as follow:

"I request that you correct your completely erroneous report concerning an alleged IBM parts shortage in New Zealand and Australia. There is absolutely no truth to that report. IBM has no parts shortage in either country and I urge you to remove this report immediately. I suggest that you might want to check with me in the future before you print anything concerning IBM operations in Asia. Fred P. McNeese Director, Public Relations"

-- Steve Davis (Columbia, MD) (Steve@davislogic.com), December 31, 1999.

It wasn't IBM Parts shortages. It was parts being ordered from New Zeland. For small P.C.s

-- Dave Butts (springfield,Va.) (dciinc@aol.com), December 31, 1999.