Side note. Since 1/1/2000 rolled over and died, Sanger revealed that he was a full time "music teacher" thus even his BS story about "Ph.D. Canditate" was slanted.

Visit this HyperNews at www.smu.edu message (to reply or unsubscribe) at: http://www.smu.edu/cgi-bin/Nova/get/gn/1076.html Larry Sanger is a grad student in Philosophy at Ohio U. He became more than Y2k aware and set up what he proposed would be a "news service" reporting the good and the bad of Y2k. He claimed his academic research skills would make up for his total lack of technical skills. Similar claims are made by the disciples of Gary North, Yourdon, Michael Hyatt, Y2knewswire and the other re-distributors of alleged "news" about Y2k. Time after time, defenders of each claim that one can't bother with the background of these people because its "the documents" (as they now refer to media reports) that matter. Few people have the time to read everything and opt for things like Sanger's Review to get their "news". In reality, IT IS NOT "NEWS" but rather second and even third hand reports of news and not prime sources or documents. The latest fashion now in the Fear Brigade is "What about the Senate Report?". My answer to that is read the Senate report and see who the people testifying are. Read the words very carefully for all the "if we don't get it finished in time, there could be a disaster" and other "IF" or "What IFS?" and piled on "scenarios" replete NOT with "facts" but opinions often from very "vested interests" whose neutrality is questionable such as the Remediation Vendors. Never was this truer than reading the reports about "embedded systems" or "the need for independent testing and verification". One of the biggest abusers of "the need for independent certification" to verify is Edward Yourdon. You should note Mr. Yourdon will be delighted to tell you about his qualifications to set up that "independent testing and verification program" just for you. Mr. Sanger can't know that the large and rather good Comdisco is a services provider when one of their top Marketing people testifies or is quoted in a newspaper or magazine article. Nor can he know that many of the articles in the "trade publications" replete with the "horror stories" are PLANTS from the Vendor P.R. forces. One thing is clear though, a neutral "news provider" would be useful for many people but the Sanger Review is not one of them. The treatment of the New Jersey computer problem first attibuted to Y2k then to human error was not "EVEN HANDEDLY" treated by Sanger Review. Like the rest of the Y2k Cult Memes, Sanger Review was beside himself to jump on the N.J. story when it seemed like it was a big Y2k caused error. With a later clarification, we find that Mr. Sanger (who claims to be an objective Y2k collater of news) comes up with the following most "objective" comments : http://www.y2kreview.com/wk990321.htm NJ Benefit Glitch Unrelated to Y2K (Ralph Siegel, AP) SOURCE: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ap/technology/story.html?s=v/ap/19990324/tc/y2k_benefits_glitch_3.html SANGER: Here's something rather strange. The last few days we've seen stories about a purportedly Y2K-related error with New Jersey's food stamp program. This article says, however, "A computer glitch that caused $23 million in food stamps to be given out prematurely in New Jersey was not connected to Y2K millennium bug problems as first suspected, computer experts say. The problem was one of human error and hardware on a computer that controls the automated food stamp accounts." Few other details are given about how the alleged misperception of the problem arose, or just how the error came about if it was not due to problems setting up a new, Y2K-compliant system. Also, no particular "computer experts" are cited. "Human Services spokesman Ed Rogan had said the glitch was caused by new 'Y2K' software designed to protect computer records from disruption when the calendar changes to Jan. 1, 2000." Rogan was apparently not asked to comment on the article's claim. ......................................................... NEXT: The Human Error Problem (Wired News) SOURCE: http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/18684.html SANGER: Further clarification of the state of New Jersey's food stamp program error we've been following. It was not merely the view of unnamed "computer experts" (see yesterday) that the error was not Y2K-related, but of state officials. Carol Tencza, a state Human Services department spokeswoman, said: "We've been flying by the seat of our pants for the past 24 hours. This is not a Y2K story." The article explains: "after further checking, the state had a new take on the problem. Officials said the error occurred when disk-capacity problems forced employees to do some transfers manually, and somebody keyed in the wrong effective date." (Still no indication of how the state originally got the idea that the problem was Y2K-related; we speculate that it was "Y2K-related" in the rather loose sense that it was a problem installing a new, compliant system.) ............................................................. ------------------------------------------------------------- Visit this HyperNews at www.smu.edu message (to reply or unsubscribe) at: http://www.smu.edu/cgi-bin/Nova/get/gn/1076.html

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 10, 2000