By The Associated Press

Release date: January 28,1999

BONN, Germany (AP) Dr. Richard Kepling, who has a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering has come forward and announced that a well known TeleCommunications Corporation has been placing operatives in live chat room and forums, particularly America On Line.

The mission of these operatives, Dr. Kepling says, is to "contain Y2k information awareness by spreading misinformation and by discrediting anyone who speaks up about the possible effects of the so called Y2k or Millenium bug".

Dr, Kepling went further to describe what he considered "...a grave injustice" as the Corporation's Y2K Remediation Team provided the public with information that was at the least "...one sided..." and more accurately "...bald faced lies".

When asked how the operatives were going about debunking the Y2k theory he said that they were instructed to disrupt chat rooms, provide links to overly optimistic web pages, and give the impression that Y2k theories were "hyped up" and a scam by industrial leaders to line their pockets with survival supply profits from the panic that the Millenium bug has stirred up in some people.

This news comes to us after a shocking character assassination from a renowned German Computer/TeleCommunications Firm, Geige Apparat Inc., and the news that Dr. Kepling was fired from the firm on Tuesday, January 26. Gaige Apparat Inc. has been in business since 1982 providing uplinks with satelites and building mainframe telephone systems for as much as 20% of German Industry, mostly the Military.

Dr. Kepling says this is an attempt by the Germans to discredit him because now that he has been "uduly" fired from the corporation he is free to reveal trade secrets.

This news is particulary bad as it comes just a week after the German Government has announced that many of it's Mission Critical systems will not be remediated in time of the 1/1/00 deadline and that a majority of the public utilities will experience major disruptions leading up to and after the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1999. Invovled particularly are the Power, Transportaion and TeleCommunications Industries.

The Y2k bug is a problem created by programmers in the 1970's when they decided to use a smaller character field to save costly computer memory. Instead of viewing the new date, 1/1/00 as January 1, 2000, the computers will think it is January 1, 1900 and begin to crash or spew out bad data and corrupt compliant systems.

article by: Otto Muller

Associated Press

-- (News@USADaily.com), January 28, 1999

Answers

Hmmmmmm. Wonder if JBD speaks German?

-- Vic (68rdrunneris@compliant.com), January 28, 1999.

Aaaccckkkkk! Diane was right! The trolls are planted.
Well, maybe. Gotta go scan AP and see if this post is on the up-and-up or some other troll trying to get some Aacckkks outta us.

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 28, 1999.

Why am I not surprised?

-- Not Me (NotReallyMe@1984.com), January 28, 1999.

Leska,

please get a url if you can...this is important for dealing with some dwgis...

thanks, Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), January 28, 1999.

You can't be serious! Read the above carefully. It is ungrammatical and not at all in AP style. An obvious hoax.

-- Ned (entaylor@cloudnet.com), January 28, 1999.

Any more info (or links) on last week's announcement by the German government or what they mean by "major disruptions"?

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), January 28, 1999.

Ned's right. Take it from a guy who has the AP Stylebook on his desk.

-- Vic (68rdrunneris@compliant.com), January 28, 1999.

This is nothing new or different than what the media does in the US. They play down and dis-inform because that is all they (reporters/media) can get out of "corporate" America or the Govt. Qualified people in the computer industry are intimidated into demure statements or silence by the "don't rock the boaters". The media is consistently chasing this story, but all they get is some weak looking moron spouting illogical theories while saying "there SHOULDN'T be many, if any disruptions" in whatever industry they are "discussing". There are a few who have bucked the system....but out of millions of people, it is a lonely job for them. (good job Yourdon)...

-- Mr. Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@MotivatedSeller.com), January 28, 1999.

May be wrong, but this appears to be a hoax. Somebody *sick* out there.

Searches reveal no such people/companies/articles. Poster USADaily must provide a working URL. Kevin and or/Diane, wanna take a stab at this one?

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 28, 1999.

Ned, you're right. There's no way this is legitimate. I count seven grammar/punctuation/spelling/capitalization errors in the first paragraph alone.

-- Don (GotGrammar?@AP.com), January 28, 1999.

Sequence of these two posts coincidence?

German TeleCom Corporation accused of planting operatives in live chats/forums! READ THIS (News@USADaily.com, 1999-01-28) HEY THERE ALL YOU Y2K CULTISTS, YOUR ALL WRONG AND THE ARYAN RACE WILL WIN THE SECOND CIVIL WAR, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (-william casey jr., billysucks69@aol.com, 1999-01-28)

-- Other Lisa (LisaWard2@aol.com), January 28, 1999.

Troll alert! This isn't anywhere near AP style or attitude. For one, it uses first person at least once, a big AP no-no, and AP would never editorialize something as "shocking" without attribution. Nor would any reporter last long at AP by writing it's when the correct usage is its. I can't find this on any of AP's wires. Unless someone comes up with a URL, there's only ne conclusion possible.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), January 28, 1999.

one more reason not to cut and paste articles without posting the source URL

-- cite sources (.@...), January 28, 1999.

Here's more...

AP style is the word percentage, not %. Also, punctuation goes inside quotes. It would be German government. Also poor syntax throughout.

-- Vic (68rdrunneris@compliant.com), January 28, 1999.

hmmm...puzzling. It can't be william casey, cause I've got the Ass Sucking Troll Style Book right by my side and it clearly says that at least 60% of the text must appear in uppercase.

-- a (a@a.a), January 28, 1999.

Leska,

I've just used a news search engine on some of the words in the "article" above. No results. Perhaps someone thinks we're of a mindset to believe any and all bad news without verification...

...but we're not.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 28, 1999.

Yep, Kevin, we don't believe nuttin no more widdout dem working URLs an even den gotta verify verify. :) :)
Right off did a search, got nada. Thanks for searching too. You da link man!

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), January 28, 1999.

Now I know why that bitch Troll Maria keeps hanging around!

-- Troll Hater (akejh@asjd.com), January 28, 1999.

Having been "under fire" from several sides for a long time, it would surprise me if there "weren't" forum plants.

Always verify.

Trolls are also pretty easy to spot. Even the subtle ones.

Doncha just LOVE the wild wild internet!?

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 28, 1999.