I'll be busy but I'd love to see some hard questions posed to 'ol Koskinen (if you can get through the moderator) on ABC NEWS.com

Sorry but someone'll have to link it for me:

http://chat.abcnews.go.com/chat/chat.dll?room=abc_koskinen

Have fun!

-- gideon (gideon@zianet.com), March 05, 1999

Answers

Link

<:)=

-- SYsman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 05, 1999.

Yes, this should be fun! NOTICE - YOU CAN START POSTING QUESTIONS NOW!!! I'm off to see the wizard.. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 05, 1999.

I fired off a question, paraphrased "You've publicly stated you have concerns about the railroads and the telecommunications industry. If there are problems with either, the power grid will be effected. Why is this interconnectivity ignored? Why do you talk about business sectors in a vacuum?"

Fat chance he'll answer it, but I feel better now.

-- Steve Hartsman (hartsman@ticon.net), March 05, 1999.

Hummm... I'm not sure the messages are being posted. It still says "no new messages." I'll be back there at 11:30 tomorrow though! <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 05, 1999.

Sysman - I think what happens is that all "questions" are pooled and then the moderator chooses which ones to ask Koskinen. Our questions have most likely ended up in that pool but "no new messages are posted" since the moderator has the sole discretion of posting messages.... Hopefully the moderator isn't too soft on him...

-- gideon (gideon@zianet.com), March 05, 1999.

PS - Funny that he's opening himself to us internet wackos that should be ignored!

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 05, 1999.

Good point Gideon. I've left a couple and will see how it's working tomorrow. Yea, I hope the moderator is a GI! Could make my weekend... <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 05, 1999.

Thanks gideon.

Sysman, maybe he recognizes the "power of the internet."

Naw. Probably not.

Video conferencing. That's one I'd like to see with the "K" man. Not that his expression would change.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 05, 1999.

Attention rose growers. More over here.

The chances of the moderator doing nothing more than lobbing marshmellows at Koskinen are nil. Things like this will be just as orchestrated at Clinton's "town meetings" in which the entire audience as well as the questions are hand picked. The questions have been planned as well as the answers. Doesn't anybody remember that in 1993 a person in a crowd yelled out to Clinton, "Hey, what happened to our tax cut" and was promptly arrested by the secret service for endangering the president?

Does anybody here understand the concept of a Poltemken(sp?) village?

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), March 05, 1999.

Yes but, Ken.

It could be entertaining.

Diane, waiting

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 05, 1999.

No, actually, the questins were generally very serious - not complimentarily or puff-balls at all.

His answers were very shallow - there was no technical substance or logic behind behind any of them. His answers - roughly summarized - were constantly full of "I'm fully confident ..." or " the administrator of .. has ensured me ..." or "you can be sure of ..." remarks. In other words - his answers would satisfy a reporter who wants nice quotes - not a programmer and never an engineer who must make things run or see the system fail.

An administrator, the NERC, the FAA, and the telephone companies, and anybody else can lie - and (in this administration) nothing happens.

If an engineer in a power plant lies, nothing happens - literally - the power goes out. And stays out until the enginer no longer lies about the condition of the plant, and theprogrammer fixes it, an dthe engineer tries again. And nothing happens - again. And the programmer fixes it - again. And nothing happens - again. And the programmer fixes it - again. And nothing happens - again. And the programmer fixes it - again. And nothing happens - again. And the programmer fixes it - again.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 05, 1999.

Well I must say that I am suprised that my (fairly benign) question was the first one posed! Hooray!

His answer of course leaves a lot to be desired - notice how he ended his answer with my opening statement - Ha Ha!

Gideon from zianet.com at 12:00pm ET Mr Koskinen: Senator Bennett stated in his press conference the other day that the United States will most likely only experience a "bump in the road" due to Y2K failures. This seems to be your position as well. However it is widely acknowledged that a significant number of foreign governments and businesses will most likely experience fairly severe Y2K failures. If we are indeed part of a "global economy", how can the U.S. economy / security remain unscathed in such a scenario?

Moderator at 12:01pm ET Mr. Koskinen now joins us. Please send in your questions.

John Koskinen at 12:01pm ET We are concerned about the lack of preparedness in a number of countries in the world. However, fortunately, our largest trading partners in Europe and N. America appear to be in very good shape. So while some specific companies may have problems with their foreign trading partners, overall we do not expect a significant negative impact on the American economy from failures abroad.

-- gideon (gideon@zianet.com), March 06, 1999.