Doesn't responsible reporting on Y2K cut both ways? This was posted on Yahoo News today. The quote was made by a Y2K Research Director at Internation Data Corp.

"Some people are afraid their lights will go out. I made a study of large electric utilities, and discovered that they are already 99.987 percent Y2K compliant. The country has been divided into 10 councils, or grids, and there is a less that one percent chance that any one of those grids will go out during the entire years, and then ony for a matter of a half hour or so.".

Why didn't somebody ask this guy in the first place and then we could all turn over and go back to sleep.

article at: http://www.impressionmag.com/y2k.html

-- Anonymous, February 03, 1999

Answers

Jeepers, this guy should get out there and tell those large utilities that are 99.9 percent compliant that they should put this info in their SEC filings. Those big utilities that are only talking about "readiness", not compliancy, must be just trying to pull a fast joke on all their investors by stating they're not anywhere near 99% compliant. He needs to go straighten them out and tell them to quit joking to the SEC, not to mention pulling NERC's leg.

-- Anonymous, February 03, 1999

Isn't a chicken-little better than a cuckoo.

-- Anonymous, February 03, 1999

Reporter,

Not really. One is about as fowl as the other.

Steve.

-- Anonymous, February 03, 1999

I was just about to post the article mentioned above when I came across this thread.

>>Doesn't responsible reporting on Y2K cut both ways?<<

Do you define this as responsible reporting? I don't. The guy at IDC lists no sources - remember he is a research director, so all he is doing is collating stuff that is already out there.

When the rubber hits the road, who are you going to believe is reporting more responsibly: Rick Cowles (and other people who actually know the subject area) or a lazy journalist (I encourage you all to read the entire article - it's a peach) quoting a researcher who doesn't cite his sources?

Mike Coulter

-- Anonymous, February 03, 1999

Reporter, Steve,

Your conversation is getting a little bird-brained.

-- Anonymous, February 03, 1999

Mike,

I was being facetious...;) Obviously this guy falls into the "cuckoo" category... LOL to all your other posts! \

-- Anonymous, February 03, 1999

Linda, I suspect, though I can't say for sure, that in his article, Mr. Chandler was quoting the utilities' ASAI, Average Service Availability Index, or, perhaps, some other measure of service performance. The percentage quoted is typical of ASAI.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 1999

Hey, guys!!

I'm getting email here about this. I was being sarcastic in my first post. I do not believe the statistic either! I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't being as cute as I thought. I do NOT BELIEVE (forgive the caps, Rick) the statistic used by this person in the article. I am preparing. I have a generator, food, wood stove, hot water bottle, and lots of xanax. Thanks.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 1999