Finally, Michigan newspapers seem to have awakened to Y2K, but this article seems extremely confusing to me. What about you?

Edison, business Y2K OK, but ..

Utilities, government working toward glitch-free New Year but no one's promising a problem-free transition.

Saturday, March, 13, 1999 Michigan Live (Internet edition of several statewide newspapers)

It's just what you want to hear: After midnight, Jan. 1, 2000, your lights still will illuminate when you flick their switch.

You still will be able to use your telephone.

And the police, fire fighters or ambulance still will come when you call.

These were the assurances made Friday by utility and community officials at a conference on the Year 2000 computer glitch.

(snip)

But Gerald Williams, coordinator of the Year 2000 Project Office in the state Department of Management and Budget, cautioned about appearing too upbeat.

"Telling people not to worry, be happy, is the wrong message," he said. "It's a survival issue. You either fix it or you stop doing business."

Richard Beeckman, risk management consultant for Washtenaw County, said utilities, service providers and government need to provide essential services during the New Year.

"Failure is not an option," he said.

But nobody promised absolutely no glitches when computers are confronted with the figure "00," and it means the year 2000 and not 1900. Government and companies are busy figuring out what systems are vulnerable and testing the solutions.

Officials warned that there are brigades of lawyers waiting to file lawsuits when some agency doesn't get its computers sorted out and some information or service gets fouled up.

They also warned that, despite progress in meeting the year 2000 deadline, some people might stockpile food, money or guns and create a bigger hazard than a few balking computers.

"Overall, as a whole, it's in good shape," said Mark Wesley, Year 2000 project manager for the Emergency Management Division of the Michigan State Police. "But no one is giving you a guarantee there won't be problems."

Detroit Edison Co. organized the conference to update and reassure communities and the public that vital utilities and services were making certain their equipment is prepared for the coming New Year. Federal regulations demand that utilities and vital services be Y2K-ready by certain dates throughout the year.

"If power goes out from an ice storm, I'll guarantee people won't blame it on the ice storm," Wesley said. "We have to make sure it (public fear of the changeover) doesn't create a secondary problem.

"The year 2000 is going to be as bad as we let it be." Representatives from Detroit Edison, Ameritech, MichCon, Consumers Energy and various municipalities assured those at the conference that they would be ready for the coming year.

Edison officials say they are ready. "There are a lot of doom and gloomers out there who say the apocalypse will occur on Jan. 1," said Scott Simons, media relations for Detroit Edison.

"We're certain we will not have any major problems."

Simons said Edison has had as many as 700 employees rooting out vulnerable systems, including power plants, vehicles and computer systems.

Dave Peterson, the Detroit Edison Y2K program manager, said utilities are sharing information and will be testing systems throughout the year. He said Edison already has tested seven power plants.

Most of the others at the conference had a similar message.

"Kind of like the Boy Scouts, we are going to be prepared," said Bill Pike, a regional manager for Consumers Energy. "We want to reduce the potential risk down to zero."

-- VLS (inbusiness@theoffice.net), March 13, 1999

Answers

I've noticed that the Detroit News had a spurt of front page articles in February. I don't get to read it every day, though. Have you checked out their Y2k watch site? Lots of folks asking questions, but the moderators have been sparing the answers.

http://www.detnews. com/1998/technology/y2k/

I'm gonna have to come down to one of your meetings in Kalamazoo when I get the time :-)

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), March 13, 1999.

http://hotnews.mlive.com/cgi-free/getstory.cgi?g9913_BC_MI-- Y2KConference&ML&news&year2000

It does sound a lot like what we've heard out of the federal government recently.

Don't prepare...prepare just a little bit...don't prepare...prepare a little but don't stockpile...don't prepare.

If it's OK for the government and businesses to develop Y2K contingency plans, why can't we? Maybe we should call it "personal contingency planning" instead of "personal preparedness" and then it would be an OK thing...

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 13, 1999.

Whenever I deliver a piece of code, I can guarantee that it works properly under all test conditions it was subjected to. I can guarantee that I subjected it to all the test conditions I could think of. I can guarantee that if it fails in any way in the future, I'll fix it.

I will *never* guarantee that it has no bugs! Nor will I guarantee that it will work properly under any conditions not covered by my testing. Useful, non-trivial code *always* has bugs.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), March 13, 1999.

Get Sat. edition of the Ann Arbor News, Detoit Edison is telling folks in Michigan to have water, food for 2-3 days and full gas tank.

I lived through the 67 riots in Detroit, parts of the city had gas and electric cut off. This time we are getting out into a rural area.

We will have AR-15s with plenty of ss109s and AKs. Have plenty of water for beans and rice.

My advice is to get out of urban and suburban areas.

The street gangs are heavily armed and are bad news.They WILL come out to the burbs.

If you want some EXCELLENT videos on Y2K and preparation, contact me.

Ern Been there done that

-- Ern (edsexcel@ameritec.net), March 13, 1999.

I've never understood why people think that those who are prepared will panic. It's the people that don't have food and water that will panic. Why is this such a difficult concept to grasp?

Oh NO! There's an emergency and I'm prepared! I'd better start looting! I don't have to worry about finding my next meal, I guess I'll run amok for no reason at all!

-- d (d@usedtobedgi.old), March 13, 1999.

No, No, No Kevin! If we want to be "politically correct"--and I DO mean POLITICALLY correct--we must call it "personal CONSEQUENCE planning." Isn't that a soft way of saying things? Look for that phrase in the months ahead. You won't be surprised where you see it! :)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), March 14, 1999.