From 5 to 7 to 9

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

On my most optimistic days, I've been a 5- 7.

Thanks to a rather interesting conversation I had last night, I can no longer go below 7 on my happiest day.

I was speaking to a police officer. He made the interesting statement that in the Y2K committee (which he apparently sits on), what scares him most is that our electric utility is the only utility contacted NOT willing to state that they will be prepared, even provisionally (ie We'll be prepared unless a key supplier goes down). The gas and water utilities have stated that barring unforeseen circumstances, they expect to be ready. The electric isn't willing to go even that far. This on top of inside information leading me to believe that the second largest wholesale grocers is toast (maybe burnt toast). :-(

On the good side, this officer pointed out that unless infrastructure is completely toasted, Y2K may have a war-like effect on the economy - lots of job creation, big boom. Might be as good as the cold war for Wall Street. This could be true, after an initial slump; my guess is that it will depend on how shaken things get.

If you're from Alberta, keep prepping!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), February 14, 1999

Answers

Thanks Tricia,

There actually was a lot of good news in that posting -- the other electric companies are coming along and the water and gas are getting there. This may not give me hope for Y2K, but maybe Y2K+1? Unless the human animal forgets the human and becomes more animal. (Oh well, back to Costco for more beans.)

-- Lois Knorr (knorr@attcanada.net), February 14, 1999.


Hold on there, Tricia. Go to Rick Cowles' links to see TransAlta Utilities listed as a source of prototype fix!

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), February 14, 1999.

"The other electric companys are coming along and the water and gas are getting there." Lois, what kind of statement is that? The water and gas are "getting there," but when will they get there? Sounds like something Clinton said not too long ago, "All depends on what is, is." See, when you've been at this kind of stuff long enough, you can read right through the crappola and know when your being given a line of BS! Am I suppose to be feeling secure about the above statements?

"Anyone living within 5 miles of a Burger King, will be hamburger."

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 14, 1999.


Well, this was posted here Feb. 12, and tells the story of how things are going with a LARGE power co. in New Jersey... <:(= Iceberg? What iceberg?


-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), February 14, 1999.

Sysman: Thanks for the reminder, I'm printing it right now for my husband to read. He just read an article in the Sacramento Bee in the editorial section and basically it says "all is well."

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 14, 1999.


Tricia:

Do you have Alberta Power or TransAlta? TransAlta is apparently operating some plants in the 2000 mode. Nova Scotia is operating all their generation plants in 2000 mode.

-- Rick Reilly (rreilly@home.com), February 15, 1999.


Tricia,

It is possible that Y2K could have a war-like effect on the economy with lots of job creation. After all, railroads might have to hire extra people to figure out how to schedule trains, or businesses might have to hire a lot of extra people to figure out interest payments for customers with credit.

The problem is, these jobs would have to pay below minimum wage...otherwise the extra workers could quickly bankrupt a company. Companies used to high productivity due to information technology would suffer greatly.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 15, 1999.


I don't know which company he was talking about, he just said 'electric'. I've heard good things about TransAlta, too, and was feeling that we might scrape by with a 5 here. However, I wondered if the problem was being tied into a larger grid - as usual I didn't get enough information; I'll try for some follow-up, but I'm not sure how much the officer will be willing to say. He may feel that he's already said more than he should. He did say that all police forces in Canada have been told no vacation, as well as the armed forces. I hope also the EMT and Fire, but haven't heard.

He also said that his temporary posting in the southern part of the province has been a real eye-opener, that there's a large section of the area that has Mormon majority, and that preparation is already done by huge portions of the population. I wish I could remember the name of the store in the nearest small town - something like 'Stock Up' :-)

Kevin, what you're thinking is prolly right; I just think that even minimum wage for many is better than 50% (or higher) unemployment.

I propose a toast: Here's to recognizing society in 18 months!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), February 15, 1999.


lol

"Anyone living within 5 miles of a Burger King, will be hamburger."

-- bardou

Not too far from me, about a mile, is a nice street corner. On one corner there is a 7-11. On another there is a Burger King. Now I have a choice.

Thanks bardou... I gotta get outta here.

Mike ==============================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), February 16, 1999.


By the way, a new article about the Canadian military and Y2K...

"Military plans to keep millennium training top secret - Forces hopes to avoid reoccurence of Royal Flush fiasco"

http://www.nationalpost.com/news.asp?f=990215/2277339&s2=national&s3=n ews

"Still smarting over the disclosure of a war game that envisioned an independent Quebec, the Canadian military is preparing a strategy to avoid negative media coverage over its massive preparations to deal with the millennium computer bug."

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



Thanks Mixe.

"At the meeting, Col. Lemieux was to discuss the specifics of the Y2K-related training exercises and the media spin to be put on them."

We can only assume that the US military will be even better at controling the spin, perhaps to the point where we wouldn't read such an article in a mainstream publication as this one, here in the US ;-)

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), February 16, 1999.


That article was interesting. The exercises generate controversy because of their scenario suppositions. So the PRs are going to change the language. Didn't they think those scenarios might make ppl uneasy? Maybe they're in their own world of "games" and do not realize how sensitive ppl are to practice for violence. Both USA & Canada recently, the intimidation factor ... sending that not-so-subtle message ...

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

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


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