From Victor Porlier: "Year 2000 Contingency Planning for Government" in Arlington, Va, last week:

The State of Pennsylvania is reported to be furthest along in its Y2K efforts of all the states. Matthew Carey, Manager of the Pennsylvania Year 2000 Initiative, reported that overall they were 99 percent complete in mission critical systems. Someone made the comment that Pennsylvania was 99 percent compliant last summer, and they are still 99 percent compliant in November. One wonders about that last one percent.

Pennsylvania's greatest concern is embedded technology. Mr. Carey fears that it may "break our back." Carey said that the State of Colorado has the best web site information on embedded technology. He added that he was "real scared about water control valves."

In talking about general public awareness he said, " I don't think we have been very honest about this problem and its possible ramifications." This was a general remark applicable to all organizations, not Pennsylvania specifically. He felt that to talk about contingency planning three months ago would have sent the wrong message. Now it is necessary. "We all need to understand, we aren't islands", he said.

The Public Utility Commission in Pennsylvania is requiring that all utilities be compliant by March 1999 or face revocation of their licenses or fines of $10,000 a day. One of their current major initiatives is state emergency management efforts which embrace local public safety departments, telecommunications, and other utilities.

Bruce Webster, co-chair of the Washington, D.C. Year 2000 Group, pointed out that contingency planning for Y2K presents unique challenges. "We are dealing with complexity, not just one system; with humanity, not just technology; and simultaneity, not just one event."

He said, "What is coming is a downpour, not a drip. There will be chain reactions with varied effects. There will be cross-product effects - think multiplication instead of addition, think earthquake during a hurricane. It will not be a one time "flagpole" event, but a bell curve of effects peaking in January 2000, but problems will occur before and after that date."

http://www.cnnfn.com/digitaljam/newsbytes/121884.html

"Won't be long now." - Paul Milne

-- a (a@a.a), November 25, 1998

Answers

Re: the CNN article "The bankers suggest that customers should read the Year 2000 information that banks will be sending out in the coming months and, if they have any questions, they should ask their banker."

Yeah. But don't stop reading there...

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 25, 1998.

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a (a@a.a)

Would it be too much trouble to post the REAL URL for this story?!

I have some Y2K-Pollyanna relatives in PA that need to see the real story!

TIA!!

Regards, Bob Mangus

NOTE: Before posting URLs ... test them to make sure they're correct! Saves a lot of ( everyone's ) time, bandwidth ( i.e., notes like this one! ) and aggravation!

# # #

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus@mail.netquest.com), November 26, 1998.

Well, I've been job hunting in Pennsylvania for a computer programmer job. I live just outside the state capitol and got a hot tip that they are looking for tons of computer programmers for this Year 2000 thing. That doesn't seem to jive with the propaganda, now does it?

-- You know me (secret@dontask.com), November 26, 1998.

I THINK this is the correct link:

http://www.y2ktimebomb.com/DSA/VP/vp9847.htm

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), November 27, 1998.

And Gayla comes through again! Good link.

Note: This little alarming tidbit, while he was talking about telephone services::

< Himmelberger emphasized that Y2K contingency planning is different than disaster recovery because there will be multiple impacts within industries, regions, competitive forces, and countries. There will be impacts of unanticipated duration. There will be unpredictable events and sequences. Supplier and buyer issues add an entirely new dimension.>>

Oops.....there's goes another....

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 27, 1998.

This is the link referred to as the 'Colorado govt embedded system' info. You need the acrobat reader to access it. Have fun!

http://www.state.co.us/Y2K/embedded/index.html

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), December 02, 1998.