...Today's Tidbits...

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

http://www.bankinfo.com/year2000/year2000.html

(If this represents the depth of thinking in the banking industry, I'm sad to say that we are all in BIG trouble...)

Combating Customer Paranoia . . . Before the Year 2000 by Jody Noerdlinger

Y2K customer paranoia -- is it for real? You bet! And that clock is ticking, so find out now how you can assuage the fears of account holders who believe their banks will fail them when the Year 2000 arrives. . .

What's going on here? Why are intelligent people with access to the facts on the verge of panic? You'll understand much better when you see the kind of information being disseminated. If you examine what's being said about Y2K, it's no wonder that even those who were originally skeptical of the problem are nearing hysteria. . .

(the article then goes on to quote Gary North, Peter DeJager, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Y2K Supply website, even Alan Greenspan and others making statements that seem to encourage the hysteria)

Take a look at a couple of solutions banks have come up with to ward off the Y2K demons lurking in the shadows.

Y2K Coordinator J.P. Fitzgerald at American Heritage Bank in El Reno, Okla., explains that lobby posters created by the bank's marketing department have helped raise customer awareness. Likewise, the message customers receive over the telephone while on hold subtly reinforces the fact that American Heritage is on top of the situation. Early in 1999, the bank will hold a question-and-answer seminar for commercial customers, complete with an ABA video that outlines the steps businesses can take to ensure readiness. . .

In addition, according to Michele Petry, formerly technology consultant for the Kentucky Bankers Association, these are some typical activities that most banks are presently engaged in:

- Holding public information sessions to help customers understand Year 2000-related risks - Explaining what steps the bank has taken to be ready for Y2K - Working with other businesses, community groups, and utilities to ensure they'll be ready to operate as usual in 2000 - Alerting customers that withdrawing funds may mean they are at greater risk of robbery - Being available and prepared if the media asks for comments on the bank's Y2K preparedness - Speaking to community groups about Y2K

(Except for the broad statement "Explain what steps the bank has taken to be Y2K ready," this piece does not discuss banks actually disclosing real and detailed information about their remediation progress. Nowhere does it say that it's the LACK of that detailed information that is pushing "intelligent people" to the "brink of hysteria." The banking industry does not want to own up to that fact, rather it wants to up the level of public relations.) -----------------------------

http://www.y2ktimebomb.com/DSA/VP/vp9906.htm

No Problem - Or Is It? By Victor Porlier February 10, 1999

(from the Westergaard site)

Recent weeks have seen all manner of reassurances from government officials and corporate trade associations. All will be well because so much has been finished and so much is on schedule that life and the economy will continue as before -- aside from brief disturbances in some U.S. localities...

While the assurances keep pouring out of D.C., there is a major turf war going on involving the FBI, FEMA, the National Guard, and the Department of Defense as to which agency should have charge in case of widespread national disorder brought on by Y2K possibilities and/or opportunistic terrorists possibly striking our infrastructure in the winter of 99/00.

While pondering all this, I continue to get into conversations with Y2K remediators in the corporations and government agencies that are being publicly reported as finished or on schedule to finish on time, who are telling me "it ain't necessarily so." In fact, it often isn't so at all. What is one to make of all this cognitive dissonance?

---------------------------- (also from Westergaard)

http://y2ktimebomb.com/Techcorner/DE/de9906.htm

Bank Interfaces ) 1998 By David O'Daniel Eddy February 10, 1999

Joe Harpole, a Westergaard reader asks the following question:

"I am searching for information on how remediation methods match up in applications. Of the methods I've read about, including expansion, windowing, filtering, encapsulating, compression, and bridging, it looks to me as if bank A uses a method different from bank B, their exchange of data will pollute each other's data.

Am I oversimplifying this? Are there major industries that are using or standardizing on the same methods for fixing problems?"

Excellent question. I'll address a single facet. . .

. . . One of the biggest safeguards, particularly if you're thinking in terms of the banking industry, is the fact that banks are international, regulated by numerous authorities, and accustomed to the assumption of miscommunications. In practice, it is highly unusual for banks to exchange data directly with each other. They use a variety of banking industry carriers -- middlemen if you will -- such as S.W.I.F.T. (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) or the Federal Reserve system's FedWire.

These data transport highways work by having a standard message protocol or format that dictates -- repeat DICTATES! -- to both sender and receiver where what data are placed in a message, and how to interpret that data. The account number goes here, the amount of the transaction here, the currency here, the date here, ad nauseam. When there are potential choices, which is particularly relevant to things like dates that come in over 100 forms in the real world, there is an additional tag that says what specific format this piece of data is in...

-------------------- (WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES???????? DON'T THEY KNOW HOW IDIOTIC THEY LOOK?????? Sorry for yelling)

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/02/circuits/articles/11pray.html

February 11, 1999 (from the Thurday "Circuits" section)

Praying for a Year 2000 Solution

By DEBRA NUSSBAUM

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. -- At 1 P.M., on a dreary Thursday afternoon last week, the faithful gathered at the red brick First Baptist Church in this Bucks County town for a special prayer service. They were here not to ask for help achieving world peace or curing cancer, but rather to seek God's help to smite the Year 2000 computer problem. . .

--------------------------------- http://www.ferc.fed.us/y2k/minutes2399.htm

PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL ON YEAR 2000 CONVERSION

ENERGY WORKING GROUP -- OIL AND GAS

MINUTES OF MEETING (2/3/99)

Summary

Preliminary survey results indicate that while much remains to be done, the oil and gas sector has made substantial progress in implementing their Year 2000 (Y2K) plans. Survey participation increased virtually across the board throughout the sector and showed a marked movement of companies to later stages of achieving Year 2000 readiness. Discussions surrounding the agenda for the conference led to an agreement that a press conference will be held in conjunction with the technical conference to be held on February 18 at FERC, in order to more widely publicize the progress that is being made throughout the sector.

"Sarah Scheuer (American Public Gas Association (APGA)) reported only a slight increase in the response rate. Those who responded, however, showed a shift towards readiness with more being in the remediation and validation stages. Most public gas systems expect to complete testing of systems by June, and testing of contingency plans by July. Sarah expressed concern over the low response rate and what this means for the readiness of this sector, and the municipalities that operate and depend on public gas systems. APGA plans to do some further follow-up calls to try and increase the response rate...

"Katie Hirning emphasized that the President's Council is quite concerned about the reaction of the public to extremist predictions of Y2K problems. John Koskinen has stressed the importance of being more effective in getting out the message that progress is being made, that the industry expects to be ready, and the industry has plans to deal with any problems that emerge. This points to the need of the working group to plan a publicity campaign for the sector. "



-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), February 11, 1999

Answers

ps, the more I read, the worse it gets! You've given me the spur I needed to go and call Roy at Four Winds, get another solar panel and some more dried food. (http://www.infoblvd.net/4windpwr/lvl221.html)

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 11, 1999.

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