The release of the Naval Y2K "Pentagon Papers" made me recall an article from May. Here's an excerpt:

... a Navy base might bring in WATER TANKERS shortly before year's end to ensure that the base's water supply is not interrupted if computers fail.

"But perception management would dictate against such a move "because people outside would want to do the same thing,"Wennergren said.

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NAVY: DOD MUST BALANCE Y2K PREPARATION, PUBLIC PERCEPTION BY BOB BREWIN (antenna@fcw.com)

NORFOLK, Va. -- The Defense Department must be careful to prepare for possible Year 2000 problems while not alarming the public, a top Navy official said.

DOD commands worldwide must take prudent steps to ensure that Year 2000 computer date bugs in critical infrastructure systems -- electricity and telephones, for example -- do not cripple operations, according to David Wennergren, deputy chief information officer of the Navy.

But Wennergren, speaking here at the service's semiannual Connecting Technology conference, added that preparing for possible interruptions -- what he called "consequence management" -- needs to be balanced with preventing public distrust and worry -- what he called "perception management."

For example, as part of its Year 2000 consequence-management efforts, Wennergren said a Navy base might bring in water tankers shortly before year's end to ensure that the base's water supply is not interrupted if computers fail. But perception management would dictate against such a move "because people outside would want to do the same thing," Wennergren said.

Wennergren said good perception management also would oppose calling out the National Guard to handle any Year 2000-related incidents. "You do not want to call out the National Guard," because Year 2000 doomsayers would see it as evidence of a large-scale public disruption, he said.

From the Navy's standpoint, Year 2000 should not cause much of a problem because the service has fixed most of its mission-critical systems, Wennergren said. The Navy has certified 612 of its mission-critical systems as Y2K compliant, leaving 53 systems requiring certification.

http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/0510/web-DOD-5-12-99.html

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), August 20, 1999

Answers

Hey Cheryl! How about you and me mud wrestle till we drop? I hear that Oregon mud is pretty slick stuff!

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 20, 1999.

Perception management?

And the Rendon group says?

-- spin (spin@spin.spin), August 20, 1999.

Thanks Cheryl,

Remember all the discussions about it. Linkmeister? Where are you?

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), August 20, 1999.

I DID NOT post above, some asshole low-life scumbag of an imposter did.

Chuck, Diane - Is there ANY WAY that you can utilize IP addresses to find out who is posting under other people's names and take action?? I know that I am not the only one having this problem.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 20, 1999.

Diane - I suggested this once before.

How about this. Put on the Response screen an extra field for an optional secret word/phrase. If the server finds this to be nonblank on receipt, it hashes the value found along with the return email address, and stores the result along with the email. The result value would then be displayed along with the email, etc, when the thread is displayed. We would recognize this hash value (around 6 to 8 digits, maybe) like we recognize names.

This gives a value that the sender cannot calculate in advance, and which therefore cannot be faked. As long as I use the same keyword and email, you know it was the same person posting the message. Anyone trying to guess the keyword would have to send thousands of trial messages, hoping to find it, each of which creates a new message on a thread, and that's a pretty brazen announcement of the attempt.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), August 20, 1999.

I live in a small town north of Boston, Mass. Down the street from a National Guard armory. For years the building only firied up one weekend a month, then back to non-use statis. Now for the last 2 months its open every day. non-military vehicles in and out all day long. In the back yard a certain amount of military vehicals whos number change almost daily. But the military vehicals dont move during the day. Im sleeping when they move...somthing a-brewwing

-- Les (yoyo@tolate.com), August 20, 1999.

Les - if you are talking about the Lexington National Guard, please contact me (or feel free to do so anyway).

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