Interesting post on GE

Y2K...man or myth (bufogold) Jan 14, 09:36

Last year, I indicated that Y2K would be a non-event. My reasoning was that information systems are imperfect and constantly are crashing, breaking down and provide error-ridden data. For every system, there are several people that are constantly repairing them. Y2K would be a catastrophic disaster, if information systems were perfect...thank God they are not.

However, the Jan. 10th issue of INFORMATION WEEK surveyed 2,083 IT professionals. Almost 30% indicated Y2K related computer problems. This figure is up from 10% a week earlier. Additionally, 10% have already experienced supply chain problems.

The mainstream news media with its sensational-liberal-nanosecond attention span does not have the fortitude to get the facts out. INFORMATION WEEK is an objective fact-based publication and can be trusted. On a certain level, I am more concerned now than I was last year. On balance, I believe that we will get through it all. The wild card is still how the government reacts to future events.

The INFORMATION WEEK article is on page 32 of the January 10 edition and refers to the following web link:

http://www.informationweek.com/768/y2k.htm

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 14, 2000

Answers

Aside from the mention of supply chain problems, which I think will be the real killer for big companies, I liked this quote from the end of the article:

Asked if he thought that Y2K preparations reached the level of "overkill," PricewaterhouseCoopers' Porter says it's not possible to overprepare for an event of Y2K's magnitude.

Does that mean that "doomers" aren't really crazy?

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), January 14, 2000.

--IMO, this is the BEST y2k related mainstream news report that has been posted here since rollover. Simple, to the point, anyone can read it and make up their own mind about whether or not y2k was a magical one day almost nothing event, a complete non event, or a continuuing problem that is showing signs of "not getting better".

We have daily reports here of all sorts of "problems", problems that may or may not be related to y2k. I am particularly concerned about the industrial accidents, trips and scrams and hot shutdowns at nuke plants, various explosions, etc. Those are the types of things that we need the info for, for the immediate assessment of a "y2k" event because people are getting hurt in some of these incidents. There's no way to determine what is or isn't, or if these are "normal" amounts we are seeing. Industry has been alowed to use weasel words for decades, of that there can't be much debate, various long drawn out court cases have proven that. Plus, I'm sure everyone here has either personal or close friend anecdotal information about this or that at some company that was hushed up in the past. I know I have, several different jobs and companies.

Main problem is that we get no real information, past, present, and I'm sure into the future. Not to say that we 100% DON'T, just that it's such a wildcard about ANY "official" sources that we have to take anything said with several grains of salt, ie, there's no trust. Cynicism is a safe approach. Both ways on any story, both ways.

What constitutes a "problem" or glitch? What a company says? Or what happens? Or the commercial news reporting description? Or what a gov agency says it is? Or what your cousin loooie says it is? Or what some maybe true maybe not anonymous poster on the web says? What information to trust?

Right now my gut says that "it" is worse than is being reported. My intellect says that the problems are being contained at least for the short term, but that there are continuing and growing. My concerns are that people MAY HAVE been hurt, DIRECTLY from a y2k glitch, but, because of the news weaseling, no one will know, at least not in a timely manner, maybe years from now when some lawsuit settles and it's buried in section C, page 23-if you happen to see it and remember.

I'm glad the money was spent on "fixing", I'm glad I have adopted Survivalism as a continuuing lifestyle. The two are compatable views.

Rats continue to breed, that's why so many people can continue to still smell them. Call us "doomers", I call it common sense to protect from the weasels of the world. Last I looked, weasels weren't extinct. I see their tracks everywhere.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 14, 2000.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

Earlier, TechWeb Survey

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), January 14, 2000.

Right-On Zog!!

-- Johnny (jljtm@bellsouth.net), January 14, 2000.

Thanks Andy. Good one. Accurate assesment too, zog.

For the archives.

Diane

January 10, 2000

Businesses Still Feeling Sting From Y2K Bug
An increasing number of glitches are surfacing, though most are termed insignificant

By Larry Greenemeier

http:// www.informationweek.com/768/y2k.htm

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

The Y2K bug refuses to go away without a fight. An increasing number of system glitches surfaced as last week wound down. About 30% of people surveyed by InformationWeek Research say they had experienced Y2K-related computer problems by the end of the week, up from 10% a few days earlier.

One in four IT professionals say their companies have suffered Y2K- related problems since New Year's Eve, according to the survey of 3,243 respondents, including 2,083 IT professionals. And while most of the glitches were termed insignificant, about 16% caused brief service interruptions and 4% caused significant interruptions. The problems included incorrectly displayed dates, prematurely expired passwords, and noncompliant date fields that halted non-critical applications.

Laura Betterly, president and co-founder of music Web site Visiosonic Ltd. in Clearwater, Fla., was alerted to her company's Y2K problems on New Year's Day when she went to use the PHAT MP3 player on the company's site. Instead of music, Betterly was greeted with a "dynamic linked library" file error message, indicating .wav sound files weren't being converted to the MP3 format because the software had expired. Visiosonic's in-house development team fixed the code that day, posted a fix to the site, and E-mailed the fix to more than 100,000 customers.

There were other Y2K-related problems. Microsoft experienced glitches that caused erroneous date displays on its Internet Explorer browser and Hotmail E-mail program. And although the U.S. government escaped major system woes, an Energy Department nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee was temporarily unable to exchange data with the department's headquarters.

The good news is that no major Y2K-related outages were reported worldwide. But that doesn't mean IT managers are done with their Y2K work. Nearly 25% of respondents say they have further Y2K remediation to perform on noncritical date fields that display inaccurate dates but don't affect the program itself. Most of that work will be quick- 69% say they'll be finished within 30 days. IT managers also say they'll continue to watch systems to make sure they perform properly on month- and quarter-end cycles. Another concern, says Jim Porter, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, is ensuring that systems recognize the extra day in February resulting from leap year.

Businesses plan to continue monitoring their supply chains. Nearly half of those surveyed say it's too early to tell if their customers, suppliers, and partners experienced Y2K problems; 10% say they've already experienced problems with their company's supply chain or extranet.

Although concerns arose before New Year's weekend that Y2K would encourage hackers to take advantage of the date changeover, just 2% of respondents experienced unauthorized system breaches. "We were skeptical as to how prepared people would be," says Jerry Brady, VP of security-management applications for Internet Security Systems, a provider of Internet security-management applications and services. "While hacker volume continues to grow in general, we were surprised to see a low number of probes and actual hacks." Brady attributes the low volume of Y2K hacker activity to the heightened level of security around most IT systems

With most companies reporting surprisingly pleasant Y2K experiences, 25% of respondents say they devoted too much money to the problem. Businesses and governments worldwide have spent $300 billion to $600 billion on Y2K fixes, according to Gartner Group.

But 75% said the amount devoted to Y2K remediation was justified. Given the alternative to a successful Y2K rollover, Brendan Myers wouldn't change his company's actions. "It sounds melodramatic, but the future of our organization was at stake," says Myers, manager of network and support services for Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.

Many businesses ended up with additional benefits from their Y2K efforts, such as replacing antiquated equipment and software. The year 2000 work also helped companies review internal processes and partner or customer relationships. "In addition to preparing for the Y2K event itself," says Laura Gregory, a senior VP with Visa International Inc., "Visa improved the way it tests its IT systems and improved its relationships with its member banks."

Asked if he thought that Y2K preparations reached the level of "overkill," PricewaterhouseCoopers' Porter says it's not possible to overprepare for an event of Y2K's magnitude.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 14, 2000.

Your "gut", your intellect, and your concerns seem to be totally accurate. Think about it. Almost one full third of all IT individuals (margin of error minimal) have experienced Y2K problems. Regardless of the size and scope of them (presently), that's a HUGE percentage. And the bulk of problems are still to come, according to experts. Besides, most of THOSE may not have even fully come to fruition yet, may propogate other corruption elsewhere, or are being only temporarily delayed. All it will take is ONE large-scale problem that cannot be suppressed or spun into dizziness and the masses will react. As for the question of whether most of the "insignificant" glitches are major or "newsworthy" in an "official way", just LOOK at the posts since rollover. That would normally be enough news to keep the mainstream press busy for the entire YEAR. Yet hardly a word. It's all unrelated, we are told. OPEN OUR COLLECTIVE EYES, because a huge blanket (of disinformation) is covering us. Most of all, continue to trust your instinct -- unfortunately it may be all that we have left. As for "who to believe" about reports of glitches, sites like this are doing just fine. Anything "unsubstantiated" usually comes out into the open. Besides, there are so many, take your pick. It amazes me to hear comments that this board is virtually "clean" of glitch reports when they just keep rolling in like a steady stream that seems to be getting WIDER. And that's just within THIS particular forum. It would be interesting to see what cross- section of the population this sight represents. But I'm sure there must be TONS of things that equally AREN'T being posted. As the "glitch chart" people stated, there's probably several times MORE reports NOT being acknowledged or posted. And it's still relatively "early", but not THAT early. Reports about banking/ stockmarket trouble just ahead, and other info, seem to speak of an uneasy sense that it could be later than presumed. At least that's my "gut" feeling of where things stand. No one wants misfortune to happen, but let's separate truth from lies here, and realize that those on the team of getting to the bottom of the truth, either way, and appropriately warning a society that may yet be laughing at their own misfortune, are the only team. This forum is for the GOOD of all those involved, not for the bad. Sometimes the good is to be warned of what bad may lie just ahead. Unfortunately for our nation and the world, this could be the hard, sad truth here. Let's hope it isn't.

-- Patrick Lastella (Lastella1@aol.com), January 14, 2000.

Patrick:

First, let me don my custom tin foil hat and display my doomer credentials. As in prepped to 125 people months of food, for a family of three...

The herd *ain't* gonna move. We worked ourselved into a tizzy most of last year, worrying about that.

Unless Social Security collapses, or entitlement payments freeze and the inner cities start burning, or the post office collapses, the herd isn't even going to NOTICE.

For almost everyone in the country, Y2K is OVER. It would take an enormous amount of work on the media and government's part to even convince the public that there was still any issues, let alone get them to "stir".

For what it is worth.

We will stay on the lunatic fringe, right or wrong. We won't be getting a lot of mainstream company.

-- mushroom (mushroom_at_bs_too_long@yahoo.com), January 14, 2000.

Top.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 14, 2000.

Heard today of a law firm having a problem with a custom file- management program which uses bar codes to track files. The software supplier had certified that the program was Y2K compliant. It wasn't. The firm's MIS person announced it was Y2K related. The program will be fixed, meanwhile its functions are being maintained by hand. Nothing fatal, just an expensive annoyance.

No, names of parties involved will not be provided.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 14, 2000.

Tom, apparently the good code was barred, har!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 15, 2000.