This was in my local newspaper...thought it of interest. Bet he catches hell tomorrow when he goes to work !

Here we go boys and girls.....

Petro: More Money needed to fight y2k

by Misti Crane

Gazette Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS- It just may be that state lawmakers and administrators may have to think like Chicken Little if they want to be prepared for Jan. 1, 2000. State auditor Jim Petro told a House Commitee that too many city and school officials are making too little of the y2k bug and the state may get burned as a result. So far, the state has committed $ 61 million to helping out smaller governments in solving the Y2K proble,, which is based on many computer programs' inability to recognize the year 2000. Instead the computer recognize the date as 1900. In one test case in California, the bug resulted in prison doors that could not be locked, Petro said. "This is one issue where I really caution against complacency" he said. His office's contact with local government offices and schools through state audits of those entities has given the auditor a unique perspective on the situation, he said. Many of the local leaders claim they are far ahead of where they actually are in resolving the problem, Petro said. Preliminary results of Y2K compliance survey conducted by Petro's office show that many offices have a lot of work to do,despite the optimistic outlook of many officials, he said. The voluntary survey of counties, cities, scchool districs and state agencies revealed that- of the 23 percent participating - 48 percent of the respondents had not developed a Y2K project plan. In an earlier survey, done late last year, 63 percent of those responding had not developed such a plan. Other statistics show that 37 percent of the local governments responding reported the need for financial or technical assistance from the state, but only 19 percent expected to get that assistance. And the help is warranted, Petro said. "Even in our own office, we're not as comfortable as we'd like to be" he said. "Perhaps there is a need for the state to be assisting in the development of contingency plans." Petro's suggestion that state lawmakers may want to start considering plugging more dollars into the area got a relatively cool reception from the members of the House Technology and Elections Commitee. Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, said he already is concerned about the level of discretion the Department of Administrative Services , which is overseeing the Y2K compliance effort, is being given to dole out state help. The auditor, pointing out that states like California have earmarked as much as $ 250 million, suggested the need for a cabinet level official to be in charge of the issue. " There needs to be kind of a pin-pointing of absolute responsibility of a high- level manager" he said.

Note: This is the second day my local paper has ran anything about the Y2K problem. Yoeterday on page two there was an artical aboutTechnical problems evident as time ticks on...but on page 5 the second story was we are stupid to worry about the issue.....DAMN I am starting to get scared !

Bill

-- Bill (y2kbill@hotmail.com), February 25, 1999

Answers

The devil is in the details .... not the headlines. Most in the news media are untrained in investigating the details, and not trained in the technical issues involved (most may capable of understanding them if they are carefully tutored, but all are untrained) and most important - like the French secure behind the Maginot Line - unwilling to investigate the truth.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 04, 1999.

And contrast that article with the Cleveland Plain Dealer article the following Sunday, that has all of the municipalities, and schools "which were contacted for this article (who) have been working on this for months and in some cases years" and apparently told the PD that they were OK.

Journalism??????

NOT!!!

A VERY FRUSTRATED CHUCK, who just MIGHT have read what a sister paper has to say before issuing the party line spin, but then again, I'm a G** D**n Free Thinker (might just havta vote to give women the vote)

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), March 04, 1999.

Yep, I read the PD on Sunday....Very upbeat headline? Mayor's Chief of Staff says all is well......Well, what? Noting it kept repeating in the article IF electricty is okay, water/sewage, etc shall be fine. On the up side, the article convinced my sister to get ready...She WAS a former DGI, who now gets it. In my hood, I've noticed CPP (cleve public power) has been Recabling the entire area? I have CEI, asked recently if I could switch over, but was told by CPP rep there is no longer additional / new service to West Side. Yet a friend on East Side just got serviced, seems CPP is soliciting on East side, your take on this Chuck?

-- consumer (private@aol.com), March 04, 1999.