Here is the hard information about Y2K for those who wanted to know. I got it from "Deep Throat" :-)

1. The Y2K crisis is real, not hyped. 2. The world isn't going to be compliant in time. 3. We don't know how severe the consequences of that will be (1-10)

I'm serious that these are hard facts, the only hard facts, and the only facts we need for ourselves, other GIs, DGIs, DWGIs ....

Fact 3 leads to fact 4:

4. The mere possibility, however low, of an 8-10 consequence warrants as much preparation as possible.

Y2K is terminally boring (as is fixing it, BTW, which is a crisis all to itself). What is interesting is choosing what kind of life we want to live and how dependent we want to be, not on others (the life of the insane) but on impersonal others (gov, infrastructure). Ditto, whether we want to recover life as American citizens or consumers.

If Y2K has expanded the percentage of people who want to "choose" their lives for themselves, and it has, then the result will be positive, even if the event is Milne/Infomagic.

Continuing to watch events unfold is only prudent. But don't mistake the uncertainty of today about Y2K as shaking any of the 4 facts I name. Sure, the facts themselves acknowledge uncertainty. Life is uncertain. But the conclusions that any GI/DGI/DWGI should draw from the facts is simple: prepare for 8-10, hope for 1-2 (and a big laugh afterwards).

And, you know, even if it is 1-2, if Y2K is turning you back into a citizen, an American, the mocking of the populace won't count for a thing ....

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), January 12, 1999

Answers

Amen. Similar views are eloquently expressed in What Must Be Done, a commentary on Russia today, in many ways applicable to ourselves.

IMO only a fundamental shakeup could make such a transformation possible.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 12, 1999.

I agree completely. Our family has completely changed our lifestyle because of Y2K. From full-blown suburbia to full-blown (as much as possible) rural life. I just ate the first meat produced on our homestead this past weekend. I raised, butchered, and prepared the animals myself. Now I have to face a reality from which so many are totally insulated -- eating meat = killing animals. This is just one of many examples of the disconnect from reality that so many of us have accepted as normal. Even it's just a bump in the road (ha!), if Y2K calls folks to a greater self-reliance then it will be a very good thing indeed.

-- Franklin Journier (ready4y2k@yahoo.com), January 12, 1999.

5. No one knows how people will react...

a) if prepared

b) if unprepared

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 12, 1999.

BigDog,

Here's a question for you. You making claims on supposed hard facts but you fail to define compliant. What is the definition you are using for compliant? Depending on your answer you may well fall into the catagory of DGI.

-- MAP (M@M.com), January 12, 1999.

Arf-arf, eh Map? I've been a DGI for most of my adult life on many subjects, but that's another story ...

Compliant = system in question can function at the same level (let's not get into that, sigh) as it did before the first Y2K fix was applied.

This can be applied locally (one application) right up to globally (infrastructure, conceptualized as a networked whole).

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), January 12, 1999.

Wrong wrong wrong!! The Russians have the Y2K problem solved!!!

MOSCOW, Dec. 16, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) The Russian strategic missile forces command has developed a computer program to resolve problems related to the millennium bug, its top general said Tuesday.

"The program has been completely written and will be implemented in 1999," Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev told the press.

The millennium bug "isn't causing any worry" to his forces, Yakovlev said.

"The total needed to resolve the problem is only 10 million rubles ($500,000)," he added.

hehe

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 12, 1999.

Well I'm glad the Russians have found a cost effective way of fixing the bu, and have eben done it quicker than the Americans. But is this propaganda or is it actually a case of them getting to the goal before us? Heck, they did it in the space race.

-- Adam (Yrksrvivor@aol.com), January 12, 1999.

Or they have so few working computers left that the magnitude of the problems is no longer that great... :-)

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), January 13, 1999.