7/02/99) tfletch's Daily Y2k Report

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For anyone who is interested ... tfletch's Daily Y2k Report ... http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7404/index.htm

Today's News: ... 7-02-99 Y2k ( Year 2000 , Millenium Bug ) News Report ...

AEP MISSES Major Y2K Milestone (read carefully) ... Agency aims to make a killing on Y2K weekend ... Cassandra Project Shows Us How to Trivialize Y2K ... Clinton, Congress Agree On Limits to Y2K Suits ... ComEd Powerless On One Y2K Fear ... Electric Utility Contingency Plans Developed ... FAA Believes It Met June 30 Y2K Deadline ... FAA Believes it Met September 1998 Deadline, Remember .... Financial markets are not ready for Year 2000 ... French Nuclear Y2k Outlook 23 days ago ... French Nuclear Y2k Outlook Today ... IBM fails to achieve complete internal compliance ... International Energy Agency Warning Of 'Inevitable' Y2K Problems ... Lucent, AT&T face Y2K lawsuit ... Memphis Holds Y2K Community Conversation Next Week ... Move to ease Y2K fears ... New Zealand Refinery Describes Y2K Threats ... North American Utilities File Y2K Compliance Reports ... Notes from Miami-Dade's Y2K Symposium ... Office 95 Goes Y2K ... Oh What Is This Great Y2K ... Old FED Document - December 31, 1998 Deadline ... Over Half of Britain's Largest 1000 Companies Are Not Compliant ... Pilots avoid Y2K Bug ... Plan for some disruptions, state advises ... Power industry claims seem scripted (Re-included from Yesterday) ... Several Utilities Report Year 2000 Compliance ... States Fiscal Y2k Switchover not really an issue ... Warning Against Stockpiling - Article #3,487 ... Wayne County Commission Hosts Congressional Y2K Subcommittee On July 9 at 9 a.m ... Web-Based Solution Created For Y2k Disaster Response Planning ... Y2K - A Chinese Puzzle ... Y2K Phone Outages ... Y2K testing brings its own trials ...

tfletch's Y2k Preparedness Finds ... http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7404/prepare.htm

-- Tracy Fletcher (y2k_tfletch@geocities.com), July 02, 1999

Answers

AEP article Fletch recommends you read carefully

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), July 02, 1999.

8-day phone outages???

man, I can't take any more good news today.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), July 02, 1999.


Ok lisa, I read every word. I just don't see any big deals. They are still working on a pipeline gas meter, and a weather station. Am I supposed to assume that AEP won't fix them before the end of the year?

And a little side note - neither of these systems should have anything to do with generating or delivering power. The meter has to do with getting PAID for gas. AEP considers that to be critical, and in their shoes I would too. But it could fail and they could still deliver gas. The weather station is required by one of the agencies in pollution control - you have to have it to be compliant with THEIR rules. You don't shut down if it has a problem, you pay a fine. You see those little weather/pollution monitors all around power plants.

Is this the disconnect between my thinking and tfletchs thinking? I know that a lot of 'mission critical' is not really 'primary mission essential'. Could it be that he doesn't know that?

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), July 02, 1999.


In re 8 day outages--only Europeans would lump North and South America together. I don't understand. To me this figure is meaningless. I would guess that some systems that go down they will fix immediately, and some will take weeks to fix. Is that a fair guess?

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), July 02, 1999.

Regarding the "Read carefully" note. I was mainly taking note that in the same breath the company was congratulating itself for making its deadline and revealing that it didn't make its deadline. My concern is that many companies are stating compliance just because of the deadline (remember the FAA and the Sept. 98 deadline?). I rather suspect they (AEP) will easily finish the task they have set out to accomplich before 1/1/00. Will others fail to make it? This is a certainty. Will AEP and the other 'compliant' companies and agencies miss something? Of course. Will it be detrimental to energy delivery and other vital services? Probably in some cases not in others, but who knows? More importantly who can say how unexpected failures throughout the various technical and economic systems will interact? I'm really not the "doom & gloomer" that I've recently been tagged by the UK Sunday Times. I just think it is unwise to leave oneself unprepared, and am concerned that the plethora of feel- good happy reports will lull people into inaction who might otherwise take reasonable steps. Thus, I tend to ignore these reports, leaving them to CNN, USA Today, ZDNet, MSNBC, etc. My Daily Y2k Report is all about balancing the mainstream press viewpoint.

-- Tracy Fletcher (y2k_tfletch@geocities.com), July 02, 1999.


Oops, forgot something. The gas measurement devices more that likely refer to systems which regulate the rate at which gas is allowed to flow through the pipes. I have read a number of accounts regarding underwater piping which has similar measurement systems. The concern is that the failure of these systems could well cause the pipes to burst (at least that's what Chevron said about underwater pipelines. I'm extrapolating here). The underwater pipelines are too expensive to check, so they are just going to wait and see. The above ground pipelines should be much easier to check.

-- Tracy Fletcher (y2k_tfletch@geocities.com), July 02, 1999.

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