Article at Westergarred site today. Things are getting better every day. I knew it would get fixed! They would go broke if it didn't!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), May 20, 1999

Answers

link

-- cough (up@link.son), May 20, 1999.

Can anyone link or snip any of the Gartner Report? This info. may be only available to their paid newsletter subscribers.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), May 20, 1999.

FLAME AWAY (Scotty boy is that you? :-) )

Good article. Thanks!

-- Sharon (sking@drought-ridden.com), May 20, 1999.

Puddintame - I'm thinking these may be the same Gartner numbers listed in the Senate's 2/99 report. (At least the Latvia article doesn't indicate a more recent Gartner survey.)

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), May 20, 1999.

You people are embarrassing yourselves...

-- Polly (skippy@innermongolia.com), May 20, 1999.

Good article. The writer scores a good point in his comparison between Latvian and USA cities re the native's complacency over utility and food interruptions.

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), May 20, 1999.

{INSERT STANDARD POLLYANNA REBUTTAL --- HERE}

Flint: Banks are fine. But I'm taking my money out just in case.

Hoff: The indications in the cited report are ambiguous. You can bet that these companies are not going to let something like y2k bankrupt them.

Decker: My dear reader, the free market forces are at work. Rest assured that a miracle will occur.

Y2K Pro: You're using OLD DATA, you LAMEBRAIN!! Geesh. What a doomer.

Mutha: You IDIOT! This is another example of the Yourdonefor meme!! Propogated by those with small brains.

Poole: There is no evidence of this. On the contrary, business will be booming as US companies jump in to take up the slack.

-- a (a@a.a), May 20, 1999.

Sorry Flint. My mistake. That should have been:

Flint: Y2K will not be all that bad, unless its bad, in which case it will probably be pretty bad.

-- a (a@a.a), May 20, 1999.

Polly, what's your point? Is this the old data. You are not normally prone to gratuitous derision, so I assume you have a point.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), May 20, 1999.

Didn't anyone read the end of that "piece"? It's a work of fiction designed to be thought provoking. And I'm being generous by calling it that.

Do you really think that Gartner Group has or would predict that 50% of all German businesses are going to fail because of Y2K?

-- Polly (skippy@innermongolia.com), May 20, 1999.

Polly's right. Its a good description of the upcoming 7 though.

-- a (a@a.a), May 20, 1999.

The Gartner report is not a story. The author's thoughts on Latvia are;;;;;;;; MORON.

Yes it's me.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), May 20, 1999.

From the "Why maria is an ignoramus" thread:

Maria (anon@ymous.com) said:

Russia is already toast, they are already at the bottom, Y2K will have little impact to their operations.

I rest my case.

-- a (a@a.a), May 20, 1999.

Too funny. 'a', got sucked in for awhile, did we?

Actually, you should have listened to "my" comments you posted earlier.

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

Despite my generous attempt at intervention, I think this thread is about to get ugly. Being the shrinking violet that I am, and it being cocktail hour in Boston, I think I'll have to say adios...

-- Polly (skippy@innermongolia.com), May 20, 1999.

I read the end part of the article and the author's bio. It all looks real to me. Why are some of you claiming that the article is not real? Please explain.

-- Rick (doc_u_menat@hotmail.com), May 20, 1999.

How about SAP Hoff? Think you can saddle 'em up with SAP? Yeah that's the ticket -- SAP for the poor saps!

LOL

-- a (a@a.a), May 20, 1999.

Poor 'a'. Still trying to pull out a recovery?

BTW, I know at least one German company that won't be going under.

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

Nice try, though

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

No, 'a'. Never been to Russia, no real desire to ever go, and know nothing about their systems.

Unlike others, I tend not to comment on things I know virtually nothing about.

I do know, however, that Gartner Group didn't say 66% of the businesses would "fail".

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

Just because GG won't say it doesn't mean it's not in the cards. Here's some more "yarns" for ya:

- Top 100 U.S. Companies Spent 30% of Their Y2K Budgets by Jan. 1, 1999

- Cap Gemini says 22% of large US firms will not complete remediation

- GAO says 30 million in US could be without water

- Senate Report says y2k could be worst crisis every faced by US

I better watch out. Decker says this kind of talk is seditious.

-- a (a@a.a), May 20, 1999.

Polly,

It would have been more accurate to say that the GartnerGroup expects 50% of companies in Germany to suffer a mission-critical system failure. See this ABCNews.com article...

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/y2kcountries981228.h tml

"Y2K vs. the World"

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), May 20, 1999.

Dear Hoff;

You may want to check out Sangers Reveiw today. Just another source for the research challenged.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), May 20, 1999.

Hmmm. Summary so far:

_ Article claims Gartner Group says 66% of Russian and 50% of German companies will fail.

_ Author of article either has tongue firmly planted in cheek, or is taking "extreme" literary license with numbers.

_ 'a' admits Gartner Group didn't say this, yet maintains that doesn't mean it won't happen.

So, at this point in time, what we now have is just 'a' claiming it "might still be in the cards". OK by me, 'a', entitled to your opinion.

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

Sorry, "Beam me up", just because pshannon posts another link to the same article, doesn't make it correct.

See Kevin's link above.

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

Went to Kevin's link and READ it, confirms the numbers. It was from a report in late 98.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), May 20, 1999.

Hmmm. OK, then you obviously don't get the distinction between "a failure in a mission-critical system" and the failure of a business.

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

Hmmmmmmm let's see, A system critical to my mission. Hell, scrap it. Why do we need a system critical or mission anyway. We can run this damn plant without 50% of these here puters. Don't know why them morons bought them in the first place!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), May 20, 1999.

Too predictable, "Beam me up".

Of course, no one has a failure in any mission-critical systems today! Why no, that would mean they would fail, right? And heaven knows, there is know way to fix these things, either!

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

Will someone ***please*** (ohplease-ohplease-ohplease)beam him up?

-- OutingsR (us@here.yar), May 20, 1999.

Latvia?

-- Buddy (.@...), May 20, 1999.

This thread is a great object lesson. The reason you can fool some of the people all of the time is because even when you rub their face it it, they *still* refuse to see it. Airtight learnproofing at its finest.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), May 20, 1999.

You can lead a horse's ass to water but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), May 20, 1999.

...but you can't make them see their reflection, eh, Scotty?

-- Hoffmeister (hoff_meister@my-dejanews.com), May 20, 1999.

Yes it does. No it doesn't. Yes it does. No it doesn't. Blah blah blah blah

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), May 20, 1999.

Yes Buddy, Latvia. You know, where you got that mail order bride catalog.

-- a (a@a.a), May 20, 1999.

As my wife is Latvian, we've subscribed for the past several years to the Baltic Times, primarily a business newspaper. It has given very little coverage to Y2K issues. Lucas Rozsa's article on Y2K and Latvia is absolutely consistent with everything we've been reading in that newspaper.

Nearly half the population of Latvia (46%) lives outside the seven largest cities, the smallest of which is Jekabpils, pop. 29,000 (1996). Severe disruption of the infrastructure will only make the already difficult life of the rural population marginally more difficult, but they have a much better chance of surviving that than the 44% (1,101,000) who live in the 3 largest cities, Riga, Daugavpils and Liepaja. Rozsa's analysis of economic factors may be arguable -- it is a certainty that the Latvian economy depends very largely on trade with Russia, For one thing, Russia is its primary source of oil.

The only hint of humor I noticed is at the end of Rozsa's bio, where he writes

"Rozsa is a U.S. Army Reservist, too, so in case of martial law he could be coming to your town soon -- live and in person! (Don't worry, he comes from a part of America where most people carrying guns on the street are gentlemen.)"

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), May 21, 1999.

'A' here. Thanks for your wonderful criticism and praise. If the world were run by people of your wisdom, I dare say I'd have nothing but migratory birds to write about.

If any of you really do care about this region and need to know more about what isn't being done, just send me an email.

Even those of you who accuse me of being a Shatnerite charmed me with your wit.

Don't give up your computers just yet, I have more about to come onto the Westergaard site. I'm afraid you won't find GG numbers to pick at (as you so rightly did in my first article) but there should be some serious food-for-thought for you naysayers out there. There should also be something in there to offend you, too, so don't miss it!

:)

-- Lucas Rozsa (lucasedit@hotmail.com), May 24, 1999.