A "forced" retraction from a y2k-programming c.s.y2k regular, followed by an exchange between Cory Hamasaki and Howard Belasco. Belasco, the eternal Pollyanna, has been changing his tune recently. Cory references a post by Jo Anne providing evidence that JAE is starting and is worse than he thought.

from c.s.y2k today:

Bill's post:

I hereby retract any and all statements made by me, in my name, or in press accounts using me as a source, concerning the personnel, projects, or remediation status of any specific company, including Zurich Insurance, its subsidiaries Universal Underwriters Group, Zurich Personal, Empire Insurance, Fidelity and Deposit, and Farmers Insurance, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its subsidiaries.

I will no longer comment publicly on the projects or status of these companies, nor answer inquiries concerning them.

Bill Hoyt

Cory's post:

On Tue, 16 Feb 1999 04:54:03, belascoh@hotmail.com (Howard Belasco) wrote: > Great news my left butt.

> I am under several NDA's myself and so can not react in detail but this > sucks.

> Howard

Oh but you can. Unless your client is one of the firms mentioned in Bill's apology, there is nothing to prevent you from discussing his post, commenting on how this is the tip of the iceberg and an example of a coverup, or not if you believe otherwise.

Here's the deal, I believe that the failures are increasing. Between lookaheads and JAE's, data from across the line is popping the gaskets of production systems, granted still on a small scale.

Yesterday's post from Jo Anne on the commercial accounting package with the JAE giving URL and details, cinches it. The JAE is bigger than I thought. As an enterprise systems guy, I was focused on the 50,000 IBM mainframes and didn't give a lot of weight to the JAE as it affects the millions of Pee Cee based systems.

As a small business, I understand how close to the wire things are. If HHResearch has to rebuild the accounting on the server, billing goes out late, reports aren't written, and I miss the payment cycle at my clients.

I saw a fifty person company convert to a new accounting system and it cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars for the software, hardware, consultants, and personnel time. The conversion took 3 months. Big deal you say, that could have been a $4,000 bonus for each of the fifty employees.

If what will happen is an Edwards 4.0, we don't know but let's pretend that it will be a 4.0. If good information is not available and the overall sense is that Y2K will be an Edwards 2.5 and no one prepares, the disaster will be much worse than it needs to be.

That's why surpression of information and broom'ing is so dangerous. The broom'ers are saying, "stand on the top rung of the ladder" and "put your hand in there, the machinery won't suddenly start."

The doom'ers are chiding people to minimize risk and have some preparations in place, "change your oil, brush your teeth, and get regular exercise, granola bars, and 1,000 rounds of milspec 5.56 or 7.62."

I include the last part because there seems to be the odd, very odd belief that preparing contingencies somehow attracts the demons. That it is the act of saving, setting aside, repairing the leaky roof, and learning to care for oneself and others that will cause the disaster.

Is it that "if you teach a man to fish, he will blow the family budget on a boat." If so, some of you are thinking too much.

It's clear that someone "got to" bill, we may never know how or exactly why.

But as long as we are thinking, so few people are ready for Y2K that it will be a disaster, think about that.

So what does howie think about bill hoyt's situation.

cory hamasaki 318 Days, 7,648 Hours, Less than 11 Months and it won't matter.

-- a (a@a.a), February 16, 1999

Answers

a

Thanks for the post. I've been wondering where the JAE reports were especially after the Jan. 31 fiscal rollover by the big corps listed by Kevin.

Can anyone report on how Wal-Mart or J.C. Penny is doing with JAE?

b

-- b (b@b.b), February 16, 1999.

If you have any applications written in Excel, Access, Visual Basic, etc., be afraid -- very afraid.

Microsuck and most Microscuk apps use and encourage "windowing", which will bite you on the ass. (Look for other threads on windowing, pivot dates, etc.)

See "letters" section (p.6) of physical magazine, Southern California Computer Currents", March 1999.

Quote: "Microsoft has dozens of partially compliant products that the company describes as 'compliant with issues.' For example, nearly every Excel, Access, and Word application has troubled date-related functions." (Then goes on to give some examples.)

I don't know if that letter response is on their web site, but the site is
http://www.currents.net

-- vbProg (vbProg@microsoftsucks.com), February 16, 1999.

thanks a -

this really sucks. anyone know how quickly tshtf now?

no more waiting for those little items I've been putting off.

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

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

Michael,

Don't panic. I expect the smoke and mirrors to continue for some time yet. Too many vested interests.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 16, 1999.

Here's a link to an excellent article on a actual problem...

http://www.afr.com/au/content/990215/inform/inform6.html

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

Diane,

I think you're right. My worry is more along the lines that awareness will take a giant but very quiet leap forward and soon supply lines will be tested while no real warning is given. All those DGI's suddenly get it when they see their own supervisors going in panic mode...

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

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

Diane, Kevin, Michael, and (a) I have stated that there are either some very sharp people or programmers on this forum and I stand by that statement! "A" this is an informative post and is much appreciated, keep up the good work. I pray that things hold together, however they may not all we can do is crank the code and hope. Keep up the good work guys and girls. Tman

-- Tman (Tman@IBAgeek.com), February 16, 1999.

A friend of mine who works at a local bank and knows NOTHING about the JAE was telling me yesterday about all of the accounting problems they are having. She said, "They have been working on this for over a week and can't get it to close out right." I don't know if it's related to JAE or not.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), February 16, 1999.

Mike,

Go for it. Panic NOW.

I have said this before. You can calm down later when you have some of you stuff. The stuff does as much as anything to calm you down. Even that is not a lot. But there are some pretty good warm fuzzies out of taking care of yourself.

For those of you who have not seen my previous posts advising Panic NOW, this is not sarcasm. I don't give a rip if some dufe or dufette wants to label MY preparations as Panic so be, I'll go with it.

A rose but any other name...

Just get it done. It ain't gonna get any cheaper.

-- Greybear

- Got flower seeds?

-- Greybear (greybear@hoem.com), February 16, 1999.

I agree with Michael. Jae has the potential to go public. It is only four months until July 1st. TP is on sale at KMart.

-- BBrown (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), February 16, 1999.

i put up a couple posts in january and february about personal experience with JAE but i will reiterate. my husband has got about 100 phone calls so far this year from companies (not his regular clients) about JAE, half were currently having problems and the other half wanted info to prevent problems (at least, that's what they said). a local accountants" group in south bend, IN has been sending them. i think most are using old peachtree version and must upgrade, one or two are using realworld and they will have more problems. those who had lookahead problems fixed them temporarily once they found out what their problem was. i have to assume it's like this all over, and without naming names, it should be possible to get some sort of count by talking to CPAs.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), February 17, 1999.