We need truth and light. What we the doomsayers need is information not just on past failures but on the Feb, and Apr. rollovers. It is a matter of time before we see them and the truth is known. You have to sort through the hype and lies and sometimes the straight information. Verification is the key, if you can't verify it don't believe it. The plans you make are personal however make them based on facts. It would be easier to make plans if everyone would surrender the information and tell us how things are really going. I am not sure that is going to happen.

It is so easy to panic its probably in our nature. I was in Costco the other day and they didn't have a single generator, this made me wonder if everyone else was out of generators. After checking with several vendors (Homedepot, Tool Crib, Harbor Freight Tools ) I found that because of the storms on the east coast and y2k many generators were in short supply. Yet you can still find a generator if you look in the right places.

In college my friends used to call me the wildebeest because I was relentless on program compellation. I just wouldn't give up on projects. I am not ready to give up on the world, however it would be nice to see some truth and direction from the computing world.

At this point it is probably prudent to have a plan of action, store some food and water and keep your eyes open. There is still time to fix some things, however this is only my optimistic guess. Keep the faith and hope that someone will shine a light on y2k. Time will tell but most importantly look at only the facts and verify everything! Tman.

-- Tman (Tman@thetruth.com), January 16, 1999

Answers

Rollovers will take place this april in Canada, and I can tell you that the pension plan systems are not close to compliant, whatever Masse says. They are so bloody old, and there are so many subsystems that use a variety of date signatures that it simply impossible to coordinate them. Get ready for April 1, 1999, because that's when the fun begins. Sorry all you non-believers, but its time to stop watching TV and doing all those de-sensitizing kind of things and start facing up to reality.

Cheers.

-- shadow (light@dark.com), January 16, 1999.

shadow, after the govt pulled a fast one with the unemployment depts *not* looking ahead one year thru 2000 but instead stopping the benefit years at 12/31/99, I don't think April 1 will be a litmus test. All these govts will simply fiscally roll over to continuing 1999 budgets somehow. They've got stave-off tricks up their sleeve, buying time and obscuration.

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 16, 1999.

Leska, that is very interesting. It this your opinion or do you have some back up data or urls or references?

-- Tomat (tomczak@tampabay.rr.com), January 16, 1999.

Tomat, there have been many URLs & articles posted on this Forum under various threads re the govt fiddling & cobbling over the State Unemployment Agencies thru their not-ready noncompliancy by "cheating" with the dates. Look under some of the 1999 Failures threads, and there may be some threads specifically dedicated to the Unemployment "fix."

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 16, 1999.

Leska,

Here's a link to that story, Washington Post, 23 December 1998:

"13 States, District Face Y2K Problems"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/23/051l-122398- idx.html

"Thirteen states and the District will have to put electronic bandages on their computers next month so they can pay new unemployment insurance claims in the year 2000, Clinton administration officials said yesterday."

also...

"Persons filing claims for jobless benefits are assigned a "benefit year," which means that -- starting Jan. 4, 1999 -- unemployment insurance systems will be able to process dates and calculations that extend into 2000. Y2K problems may occur when computers next month try to process a first-time claim with a benefit year that covers both 1999 and 2000, officials said.

"Some states that have not solved their Y2K problem will use a simple temporary fix, such as ending all benefit years on Dec. 31, 1999, while other states will use different techniques that essentially tricks computers so they will perform accurate date calculations, officials said."

also...

"Delaware, according to the labor department, will not have all computer systems converted until the last possible moment: Jan. 1, 2000. But state officials said that most critical systems have been fixed and suggested that even experts can disagree on how to assess Y2K readiness.

"The District should have its unemployment system fixed by March 31, the Labor Department said.

"Overall the repair bill could run to $490 million for the unemployment insurance systems, according to preliminary estimates."

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 16, 1999.

Kevin, you are awesome with the gentlemanly addy hunter prowess: thank you! I'm too tired and grumpy to search today, and wouldn't put anything past the govt, although if they could tricky fixy their way thru 2000 with nobody noticing and no disruptions, I'd feel their deception had paid off ;-)

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 16, 1999.

Leska,

Glad I could be of help.

But wait, there's more!

Here is a story written by Bruce Caldwell of InformationWeek. It came out on January 6, 1999. Compare the following story with the Washington Post article from December 23, 1998. Both cannot be true. Read both and decide for yourself which one is true...

"Government Passes First Y2K Test"

http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990106S0018

"Government agencies have apparantly passed their first real-world year 2000 test with flying colors. Unemployment insurance benefits filed on Jan. 4 have been properly and timely processed by all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, according to John Sharkey, chief of the I.T. division for unemployment insurance at the Department of Labor.

"Benefit claims processing was vulnerable to year 2000 problems on Jan. 4, the first business day of the year, because the claims expire 12 months later, forcing systems to deal with dates in 2000.

""We got a clean report" Tuesday night from all the regional offices, Sharkey said. Although some states are still using computer code written 30 years ago, he said, everyone was able to process claims using their year 2000 remediated systems. No one needed to resort to a contingency plan, he adds.

"Sharkey credits the successful processing with an early start and regular follow-up. Year 2000 assessment began in 1996, followed by year 2000 project training of more than 250 state IT personnel, who were then formally reviewed on a quarterly basis and informally reviewed at other milestones in their projects."

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 16, 1999.

GIVE ME SOME TRUTH By John Lennon I'M SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING THINGS FROM UPTIGHT, SHORT-SIGHTED, NARROW-MINDED HYPOCRITICS. ALL I WANT IS THE TRUTH, JUST GIVE ME SOME TRUTH. I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF READING THINGS BY NEUROTIC, PSYCHOTIC, PIG HEADED POLITICIANS. ALL I WANT IS THE TRUTH, JUST GIVE ME SOME TRUTH. NO SHORT HAIRED, YELLOW BELLIED SON OF TRICKY DICKY'S GONNA MOTHER HUBBARD SOFT SOAP ME WITH JUST A POCKETFUL OF HOPE. MONEY FOR DOPE, MONEY FOR ROPE. UH-UH -

I'M SICK TO DEATH OF SEEING THINGS FROM TIGHT-LIPPED, CONDESCENDING, MOMMIES LITTLE CHAUVINISTS. ALL I WANT IS THE TRUTH, JUST GIVE ME SOME TRUTH NOW. I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF WATCHING SCENES OF SCHIZOPHRENIC, EGO CENTRIC, PARANOIC, PRIMA DONNAS. ALL I WANT IS THE TRUTH NOW, JUST GIVE ME SOME TRUTH. NO SHORT HAIRED, YELLOW BELLIED SON OF TRICKY DICKY'S GONNA MOTHER HUBBARD SOFT SOAP ME WITH JUST A POCKETFUL OF HOPE. IT'S MONEY FOR DOPE, MONEY FOR ROPE.

ALL I WANT IS THE TRUTH.

S Northern Songs Ltd

-- a (b@c.def), January 16, 1999.

Kevin, some govt scribblers write with forked quill ... There, there, don't try to make sense of inconsistencies, go back to sleep, sleep, sleep, dreams of Sale at Pennys! sleep and shop, sleep and shop, work, sleep, work, sleep and shop ...

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 16, 1999.