At first (and second) glance, embedded controllers really bother me. No electricity, water, fuel, communications? Not good...

However, do we have much evidence of a problem? I have heard of a few problems (most notably auto plants having all robots freeze, and power-plants in Australia fail the roll-over test), but do we have anything more to go on?

On the one hand, some folks say that the world's oil production is going to plummet, maybe 70% (I believe Strom Thurmon on Capitol Hill was asking DOD what they planned on doing in this environment). As a side note, the US will go to war over a 10-30% price differential. Who really believes that Iraq is really our biggest threat, on any level (Israel's maybe...). My point is, if 70% of the world's oil production is threatened, that alone is "news-worthy". Far less starts wars.

On the other hand, our "fearless leaders" say all is well. Bump in the road. As a techno-geek, I somewhat believe articles that say that most controllers don't care about dates. Even those that use them internally don't necessarily have the "correct" date in them (no need to have ever set the date!). For many (most?) controllers, 1/1/2000 could come at any time.

I know about Perl Harbor & other subtle "issues", but will so many people (besides Clinton...) really tell us such obvious bold-face lies (which time will tell)? If they are knowingly lying to us, do they expect "business as usual" after a recovery? With something like immigration, or budgets, our leaders can lie and mislead into infinity. Who can PROVE anything. But Y2K is different. If it is real, these folks will be caught in bold-face lies (at least the ones such as world leaders, Exon, AT&T, GM, etc. in a position to know).

Somebody is lying their *SS off. But who? Is there any historical precedent where a nation's leaders lied about something this big, and history then illuminated the lie?

If so, what happened to those leaders?

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@anonymous.com), January 11, 1999

Answers

KEVIN ALERT!!!

Try reading some TRULY AWESOME links off a government web-site:

http:/ /www.mitre.org/research/y2k/docs/Y2K_LINKS.html

They recommend this embedded chips article: The World's Biggest Easter Egg Hunt, a good, comprehensive embedded systems article in PlugIn Datamation, September 1998

http://www.datamation.com/PlugIn/issues/1998/september/ 09y2k.html

Time magazine, move over!

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 11, 1999.

Anonymous99...your speculation brings up a very salient point. Why would our government lie to us about such a collosal problem on our horizon? It doesn't make any sense. If it going to do the kind of damage to the economy that is speculated, not to mention a major dessimation of the unprepared populace, then why on earth wouldn't they voice early and loudly (no-panic with this scenario) in order to create awareness and move toward staving off the worst. It absolutely doesn't make sense unless you factor in ulterior motives. Most readers can't stomach the idea of conspiracy and will turn away in disgust upon presenting a topic of this nature. This phenomenon is being counted on to keep the collective lid on the issue. Only time will tell. The only recourse those of us who "believe" have is to educate ourselves on the issue.

Awareness beats the heck out of ignorance any day.

The Shadows of Power by James Perloff ISBN 0-88279-134-6

The Planned Destruction of America by Dr. James W. Wardner ISBN 0-9632190-5-7

-- (mass@delusions.com), January 11, 1999.

Example of big lie:

Lie: Nasty, cowardly Japs attacked us for no reason at Peral Harbor. Fact: Roosevelt knew it was coming, engineered it coming, to get us into WWII against Germany (and Japan). Outcome: Roosevelt re-elected Does this give you any hints?

-- d (d@d.com), January 11, 1999.

In my 75 years, I do not recall any truth coming out of washington.

The liars all get reelected, and eventually retire at my expense,with great public honor.

I know of only two honorable men in Congress, out of 535.

-- dave (wootendave@hotmail.com), January 11, 1999.

Hello Dave: Do you know of any honorable women in congress?

-- j.c. (jcb@newtimes.com), January 11, 1999.

"I did not have sex with that woman", "Social Security is ready for y2k, you will get your checks.".......

Check out a previous post on the devaluation of the dollar and getting off the gold standard.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), January 12, 1999.

just off the top o' my head, on the topic of historical big lies, I'm pretty sure there's been plenty of times where statesmen have told the populace that "we're winning this war! The tide has turned etc" , when the opposition was steamrolling them. Tired, so I can't thinka no specifics, but deception from government is standard operating proceedure.......Doesn't everyone just take that as a given? They oughta. The truly biggest Big Lie would be the UFO coverup, but people just roll their eyes, so pretend I didn't mention it.

-- humptydumpty (no.6@thevillage.com), January 13, 1999.

"Most readers can't stomach the idea of conspiracy and will turn away in disgust upon presenting a topic of this nature. This phenomenon is being counted on to keep the collective lid on the issue."--mass

From "Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation - The Politician Credo"

Rule #5 - Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule. This is also known as the primary "attack the messenger" ploy, though other methods qualify as variants of that approach. Associate opponents with unpopular titles such as "kooks", "right-wing", "liberal", "left-wing", "terrorists", "conspiracy buffs", "radicals", "militia", "racists", "religious fanatics", "sexual deviates" and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 13, 1999.