A 20 minute drive. But I'm lazy so I have not been to one of these meetings before. I accepted this time because I wanted to hear the Senator. I was off work and drove down around 4:30 this afternoon.

From 5:00 to 6:00 there was food and drink. Looked like most people were stocking up. The place filled with a hodgepodge of government people, systems people, and reporters. There were a number of geeky types wandering around also.

This takes place in the Fannie Mae building on Wisconsin Ave in NW DC. There is a large hall with seating for about 400 to 500. It was full.

The Senator spoke for 45 min to an hour. What follows are not quotes but my impressions of the points the Senator made. I took few notes.

I think that the point the Senator wanted to stress was that information on embedded chip technology has shown that we are not as susceptable to the major problems that were initially thought to exist. He based this on the percentage decrease of problems in embedded technology that have been reported by those industries dealing with the issue.(Do not shoot the messanger.)

Senator Bennett went on to discuss the utility industry, the transportation industry, oil(we will have enough.. the oil reserves etc.),telecommunications, shipping etc. In these we may have a few problems but we will be alright.

Defense Dept will be functional though some of the problems will take years to fix. Health care is a problem. Chemical industry a problem.

All in all it was a very nice speach. Good delivery coupled with the right amount of humor. Hardly noticed the one line referral to the banking industry. Had something to do with the amount of money they have spent and the fact that they started first so there should be no problem. Never heard testing mentioned. Not once. I guess I could have missed it.

Then came the questions and half the hands in the room went up.

Why does the GAO differ in outlook from Kosky? answer..Kosky works for Clinton and the GAO works for us.

Chemical Plant says there are (cannot remember) 15-20% embedded chips. answer...we are going to study this special issue.

Beach mentioned..

Some other questions with expected answers.That means I'm getting tired.

Oh, the Senator made a major point of saying the will be problems overseas.In the USA he thought there could be an "inventory recession" as the result of companies stocking-up on supplies. This recession could last through the first or second quarter of 2000. This, he said, will happen even if nothing goes wrong.

This I found interesting and though I have suspected this is happening this is the first time I have had someone verify it. Senator Bennett said there is a shift in money currently underway. He called it a "flight to quality" where international investment managers are currently pulling money out of countries where they expect problems and putting it in safer locales.

January 1st is not the date to watch. January 20th will give us time to see how things will work. "It will take that long for things to deteriorate."

These are just my impressions of the meeting this evening. Little bits and pieces.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), April 22, 1999

Answers

Good work Mike...looks like you stole Cory's thunder. :)

-- a (a@a.a), April 22, 1999.

Thanks Mike!

Arlin

[who has even less distance to drive and who *still* hasn't been to one of the meetings.]

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 22, 1999.