I've asked, and seen others ask for opinions and personal assessments on Y2K related questions and the typical answer is usually (instead)some quote or link to a govenment source. On a larger scale, headline after headline is just repeated from some other news organization as if printing the same report over and over in different papers makes it more true. "FAA is A-OK", "Phones will work in 2000" and "Government Expert says 'your money is safe in the bank'".

One thing we can absolutely be sure of is that the govenment does lie when it's in it's self-interest. That reduces to (nearly zero) the knowledge value of the information they disceminate.

Where's the knowledge? Where are the reports from programers working on FAA problems, Medicare, the Post Office, nuke powerplants...? How about the National Guard troops, cops, and spooks?

We're inundated with information, but it has no value.

I'd love to hear first-hand accounts from the trenchs along with company names, not just "a major chip maker in Califonia".

So guys, how's it coming on that Y2K thing?

-- Randers (Randers@MSN.com), March 31, 1999

Answers

I mentioned this topic in talking with some GI's today. Government and industry can spare us the conclusions and predictions, we'll draw our own conclusions if they give us the salient facts.

About the only facts we're given is about y2k remediation budgets. Unfortunately those facts do not allow solid conclusions.

I'd like to hear about nos. of programs, nos. of lines of code, what was done to assess, what was done to remediate and test, what errors were found, what contingency plans are, etc, etc. Unfortunately for me, I would have liked to have heard this in 1995!

For some odd reason journalists as a whole are simply not motivated by the potential fall of western civilization . . . I guess it's really not all that important. Corporate and business leaders have persuaded the herd of journalists that they're out on a limb by giving credence to y2k excitement.

Randers, you might as well sit back and enjoy the show . . . but don't look for any facts out of the Fourth Estate or their "clients."

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), April 01, 1999.