What will happen to the internet, phone lines and other communication equipment at the dawn of the new millenium? Also some info on electricity in the millenium.

-- Matthew McNamara (Darky00@yahoo.com), August 19, 1999

Answers

Matthew,

This forum isn't the place to find answers, or detailed discussions, of your question. As someone else suggested, Gary North's site is a good starting place to find some links and reports that attempt to predict what will happen to the Internet, phones, electricity, etc.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (HumptyDumptyY2K@yourdon.com), August 21, 1999.

Hi Matthew,

For starters go visit http://www.garynorth.com. That's probably the most comprehensive website I've come across about Y2k.

I'll leave it to other readers to give you more links and info, of which there are copious amounts to be sure!!

Good luck!

-- JQ (onca@hotmail.com), August 20, 1999.

Think globally and think locally.

The electric grid, the telephone system, and the internet are all highly complex interwoven systems which are composed of thousand of interlinked units, many of which can function autonomously.

The chances of a 100% collapse of any of these systems is small because all of them can fall back on parts which are still functioning. For example, a few hundred feet from our house is a small telephone switching building with a propane generator. It is possible that major problems in the telephone structure occur so that I get a busy signal as soon as I dial 1 for long distance, but that I am still able to dial a very local call using a pulse dial phone.

Even if there is only a 10% overall outage. You and your town may be right in the middle of a bad spot and to you it will seem like 100%. If there are thousands of these bad spots around the country, it may take a while till they get your local problem solved.

Even if your phones work fine, it may be impossible to reach a loved one, a customer, a supplier, your broker, etc.

Even minor slowdowns and snafus in the telephone system if they are happening in many places will put a large strain on our financial systems which are used to having timely and accurate information about pricing and invoicing.

-- Thom Gilligan (thomgill@eznet.net), August 21, 1999.