There are some threads of possible interest at the following sites. They include some recent postings by Paula Gordon, along with a summary of her April 12, 2000 panel presentation (about ongoing efforts to understand what happened through the rollover and what is happening now regarding Y2K and embedded systems) These threads may help help clarify where she is coming from:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=Grassroots%20Information%20Coordination%20Center%20%28GICC%29

http://pub5.ezboard.com/fyourdontimebomb2000.showMessage?topicID=5387.topic

The ezboard thread includes a discussion of the following statement that she made in a recent coolboard exchange. Incidentally, KOS was a poster on that thread and had some very interesting things to say:

http://www.coolboard.com/msgshow.cfm/msg=856760279810293&mb=8274298018 92357

"...The Y2K story at this point in time seems to me to be much more like a Sherlock Holmes mystery than an Alfred Hitchcock thriller however. Even so, I think the Y2K story has more layers than any mystery. That makes it very hard to share the story with others. It certainly cannot be done in sound bites. There is too much about what has happened and what is happening that boggles the mind. Long explanations with lots of background and information has to be provided. This takes time, patience, interest, and openmindedness.

It helps, I think, to have the disposition of sleuth. Figuring out what happened and what is happening with Y2K can best be approached deductively, searching out pieces of the puzzle and piecing together evidence, including circumstantial evidence. Just when the most important pieces seem to be in place, some new information or insight surfaces and modifies the emerging picture. Sherlock Holmes would be working overtime on this case.

Even those with the mind of a sleuth are likely to find it difficult to believe that hardly anyone in Washington or anyone with any connection to the media is tracking the problems that could well be caused by embedded systems problems.

Another aspect of this situation that will be difficult for many to grasp is that hardly anyone who knows about the embedded systems problems or who knows about the ways in which they can malfunction seems to be sharing that knowledge with anyone, including persons in roles of responsibility. In addition, those who understand or are in a position to understand the implications of the tangible, if often circumstantial evidence involving unusually high numbers of uncommon problems in a variety of high risk sectors are not tending to share their understanding and their concerns either. That may all yet change.

Until it does, we are left with some significant concerns:

1) the world has sunk billions into minimizing the impact of Y2K and while worst case scenarios have thankfully been averted, few seem to recognize that the job that was started is not really finished yet and

2) if we fail with Y2K to involve those with technical expertise in all phases of assessing and addressing the complex technical problems including having an appropriate role in making sure that the job is completed, what a poor precedent we will be setting for other equally complicated and daunting problems already at our doorstep..."

-- still searching (still searching@finding.more), June 08, 2000

Answers

"These threads may help help clarify where she is coming from:"

The only thing they clarify is that she still doesn't know what she is talking about.

-- Buddy (buddydc@go.com), June 08, 2000.

Interesting quote from snooze button cited on the ezboard thread at http://pub5.ezboard.com/fyourdontimebomb2000.showMessage?topicID=5387. topic and cross posted at GICC.

"...The real truth stands on its own.

To quote Winston Churchill: Truth will ultimately prevail...its just stubborn. He said, 'Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is.' "

-- still searching (still searching@finding.more), June 08, 2000.

Califo rnia oil production crippled

http://www.remarq.com/read/sftwry2k/q_EIJhRLJkg0C_bNx#LR

-- (1@2.3), June 08, 2000.

TYPICAL DOOMER BS. THE CURRENT RUNNING CAPACITY OF THE OIL INDUSTRY IS ABOUT 90%. (Takes into account planned and unplanned outages for maintence.)

So.

Here you have California running at 2 million less 250K-300K or 85.0 to 87.5 % of Max. (Just in case anyone forgets, once upon a time, total running use of all capacity over 85% was considered a BOOM TIME RATE. That has been modified since the arrival of JIT and ERP so it is far better to work with more localized Vertical Views.)

BIG........FREAKING........"CRIPPLED".......RIGHT??

BULL SHIT.

THIS IS WHY **BUSINESS PEOPLE** DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO SUCH ****crap*** ON THE NET. THEY SEE THROUGH THE "DISTORTIONS" IN SECONDS.

BUT AN ......"ACADEMIC" LIKE PAULA THE DENSE ......WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO IN BETWEEN "GRANT APPLICATIONS"...FINDS THINGS LIKE THIS "INTERESTING".

CRIPPLED??

three other refineries operating at less than 100 percent capacity

THREE OUT OF HOW MANY??

THEY ARE RUNNING AT about 85-87.5% instead of industry average 90%.

JACQUES NEEDS "REMEDIAL ARITHEMATIC".

Jacques Bernier Message 1 of 4 California's oil production crippled!

http://www.bayinsider.com/business/gas_prices.html

State oil production crippled

But production already is crippled in the state, with at least three other refineries operating at less than 100 percent capacity, said Jay McKeeman, executive vice president of the California Independent Oil Marketers Association.

Various refinery shutdowns in California mean about 250,000 to 300,000 gallons a day are cut out of the state's normal daily supply of 2 million gallons, according to Chevron spokesman Jack Coffey. Tosco's Avon plant alone usually produces 160,000 gallons a day.

"The problem is one in a continuing series of problems," McKeeman said. "California is a huge petroleum consumer entity, (buying) 13 billion gallons of gasoline a year. It needs a lot of refining capacity a year to meet that demand. Anytime there's a glitch in the system you get a problem." ==========================================================

Nothing to do with "le bogue". It is due to them darn earthquakes that keep shaking the systems.

JB

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), June 08, 2000.

cpr, Please, don't remove the last hope of the dying y2k doom movement, oil was, is, all they have to cling on too. And for the simpleminded, it's a lot easier to attribute EVERYTHING to something they can understand - a y2k "bug". Far easier than having to understand OTHER technical problems, OPEC effects on supply and demand and pricing, etc.

THERE IS ONLY ONE TECHNICAL CAUSE OF ALL THE WORLDS PROBLEMS AND IT IS LATENT Y2K BUGS - Y2K DOOM CANNOT BE FIXED AND IT WILL NOT GO AWAY BECAUSE I CANNOT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING ELSE!!!!

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), June 08, 2000.

HELP! MY CAPS LOCK KEY IS STUCK AND I CAN'T TURN IT OFF! IS THIS CONTAGIOUS?

-- (HELP@ME.COM), June 09, 2000.

Refine ries

http://www.remarq.com/read/sftwry2k/q_tFKpJ2oycEC_bN7#LR

-- (1@2.3), June 09, 2000.