http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?EBN19990215S0026

Time is growing very short for awareness. First, though, a questionnaire.

Consortium convenes to address potential Y2K problems Jack Robertson

A consortium of OEM purchasing executives met last week in California to discuss potential Y2K disruptions in the supply chain from myriad Asian sources. The group wants to draft a common questionnaire to be sent to all foreign suppliers, especially in Asia, to assess the threat of possible Year 2000 breakdowns. The industry's scant, just-in-time inventory mode leaves almost no room for any supply losses from key vendors affected by their own Y2K breakdowns or shutdowns due to local utility failures.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), February 15, 1999

Answers

Strikes me as a lot like searching for your condom just as your wife goes into labor...

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), February 15, 1999.

Arnie --- ROTFLMAO! Check out Yardeni's interaction with Sun's CEO. McNealy's comment (which he explicitly said was on the record) is that everyone in the industry knows that Asia is one to three years behind. And, he commented that Sun might be unable to deliver computers next year! When fellow analysts scoffed that Sun was just trying to sell more iron this year, Yardeni commented that this "is ridiculous."

Yeah, McNealy doesn't know anything, he's just some village idiot ...

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), February 15, 1999.

From the South African government's Y2K site:

http://www.y2k.org.za/media/campaign/promo/yready.htm

Clicking on "World Wide Compliancy" produced a graph showing levels 0-5.

Level 0: Thailand, Malaysia, Phillippines, and parts of Russia and South America

Level 1: Russia, South America, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central Africa, China

Level 3: USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Japan, Israel, Western Europe

I presume if the country isn't mentioned, the info wasn't available. I would err on the side of pessimism.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 15, 1999.

Good one Arnie, I really needed that laugh today.

-- Lora Ereshan (artemis45@hotmail.com), February 15, 1999.