Here's the brief of Y2K news for March 31 from Sanger's Review

Clinton administration announces 92% of federal government "mission critical" systems have made the deadline ... Senate committee points out that many important systems are still noncompliant; columnist simply doesn't believe announcement ... FY2000 starts for Japan tomorrow as well ... FCC reports that larger U.S. telecom carriers will be ready, but smaller ones may not be ... European Central Bank effectively makes Dec. 31 a bank holiday in Europe ... Russia may not have backed out of cooperation with the U.S. on Y2K after all ... Australian companies submit reports to Stock Exchange ... S. Korea to conduct simulation testing in major industries ... columnist explains why some liberals and some conservatives want the world to come to an end: so they can rebuild it to their liking ... the psycho-physiological causes of panic ... Pennsylvania PUC deadline ... Pennsylvania small business survey

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), April 01, 1999

Answers

Hello,

I could be wrong, but I believe FY1999 begins for Japan tomorrow. Please correct me if I am wrong. :)

Jonathan -A computer glitch will not bring about the end of civilzation. It takes hordes of panicking people to do that.-

-- Jonathan Latimer (latimer@q-a.net), April 01, 1999.

Jonathan, Take away electricity, running water or beepers and you get hordes of panicking people... in my area (NE US) stores get emptied when there is a "threat" of a winter storm. With regard to April Fools day... I must be a fool because, I can't figure out what benefit the gov't expects to come from covering up the potential hazzards of the Y2K problem.

-- WebRNot (webrnot @acsworld.net), April 01, 1999.

>Jonathan, Take away electricity, running water or beepers and you get >hordes of panicking people...

I disagree. When Kauai got clobbered with Iniki panicking did not ensue. Civilization doesn't break under the weight of natural disasters, or big wars. In big wars electrical plants and water works and phone companies are blown to smithereens...and civilzation still doesn't collapse.

>in my area (NE US) stores get emptied when there is a "threat" of a >winter storm.

Does that mean civilization ends in the NE every winter? Things have deteriorated since I moved from New York... :)

>With regard to April Fools day... I must be a fool because, I can't >figure out what benefit the gov't expects to come from covering up >the potential hazzards of the Y2K problem.

Assuming, of course, that it IS covering up potential hazards from the Y2K problem, and that the hazards upon which you are speaking do, in fact, exist. Assume, just for a moment, that with some glaring exceptions (the DOD) the government wasn't covering up Y2K problems at all. What would you think then? What would you do then?

Jonathan

-A computer glitch will not bring about the end of civilization. It takes hordes of panicking people to do that.-

-- Jonathan Latimer (latimer@q-a.net), April 01, 1999.

FY1999 starts now for Japan.

Jonathan,

>> Assume, just for a moment, that with some glaring exceptions (the DOD) the government wasn't covering up Y2K problems at all. What would you think then? What would you do then?

Even if all the reports are exactly true, I'm still concerned because software still has bugs, may be tested but only in a dry run, and not in a real-world context of a complex internetwork of other newly remediated systems. Most of the reports concern mission-critical systems only. All of this adds up to unusual stress on the system. Civilization won't end. We may see both its resilience and its brittleness. Still, the lives of some individuals (like maybe me and my loved ones) could be threatened.

(What civilizations were destroyed by hordes of panicking people?)

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), April 01, 1999.

A couple of computer gliches, a bad winter storm, a hurricane, etc. all go away relatively quickly and are normally localized. No, they don't cause an end to the world. However, you multiply them enough to cover the world and reaching most of the entire population, for a LONG period of time, and they just might cause TEOTWAWKI.

-- winna (??@??.com), April 01, 1999.

Here you go acusing us of "the end of civilization" talk. Mr Latimer, As far as I can tell, you were safe and warm on Maui during Iniki.I don't blame you for not knowing the real story, since the Mayor/Visitors bureau made sure the outside world didn't know what was going on.We went to Maui for a shower two weeks after. most people didn't have a clew. It seems like a poor comparison to me. Shock is the word that comes to mind. Maybe not panic, but since most people here still don't prepare for hurricanes, the stores clear out when we go on a watch.The whole object is to do it slow, and ahead of time to not let this happen.Panic was in alot of eyes and hearts when everyone realized the unthinkable really happened. I was helping in a hotel with 1200 people.I saw. It just wasn't vented violently, since by the time everyone ran out of their "Prepare for a few day storm" food(SPAM) was gone, the military Bailed us out with those Delicious Mre's and Water(they filtered from the dirty streams)Ice(there were fights over hoarding Ice in the lines)generators to pump gas, water, ect. Security, We went under martial law immediatly, Fema gave out money for food stamps so in about a week when barges brought food in there was money besides what those fortunate enough to have bought Hurricane Insurance had.I could go on, but hopefully you get the point.Know one will be around to bail Hawaii out if there are Y2K problems.Insurance is what this is all about. Were prepared to be wrong, are you? Justin Case, (not wanting to grind those Mre's this time!)

-- Justin Case (justin case@Aloha.com), April 02, 1999.