http://www.usda.gov/rus/y2k/survey.htm

hotlink

What else can the government say? . . . How about a webpage that simply says "PANIC NOW!"?

You've heard it from civilians in Senate hearings, you've heard it from the Navy ("but, that's not really what we meant"), you've heard it from de Jager (but, that's not really what he meant"), you've heard it from Yourdon (and he's tired of saying it), you've heard it from the CIA, you've heard it from the GAO, you've heard it from the Commerce Department, you've heard it from Yardeni, you've heard it from numerous foreign sources, you've heard it from y2k pop-figures (Cory), you've seen government sponsored think-tanks(Naval War College project) contemplate TEOTWAKI, you see daily headlines in the Wall Street Journal about corporate money managers running scared . . . really, how much more do you need to see before concluding that 3 days worth of supplies may either be 3 days too much or 30 days (or more, possibly much more) short?

Remember, even Koskinenbones knows that it won't pay to deceive the farmers.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999

Answers

Wow.... only 76% fully compliant by 12/31/99. Not good at all. Keep preparing folks if your not done yet.

-- thomas saul (thomas.saul@yale.edu), August 24, 1999.

Wow, those telecomm workers are going to be awfully busy between October and December!

Almost half are projecting that they will cross the finish line in time.

It's going to be so ugly in December when people start realizing that they won't finish in time.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999.

"It's going to be so ugly in December when people start realizing that they won't finish in time."

I don't think most people will realize anything, until the lights actually go out. There are too many ways to spin this.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999.

Remember, these are actual discrete companies responding to a survey. Wouldn't you think some reporter somewhere in America would be interested in investigating which rural utilities anticipate noncompliance and whether the failure could affect the larger grid (s)? This information is known to the surveyors.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999.

Folks, those remediation curves just don't fit.... [G].

I've been keeping kind of an eye on these self reported remediation curves. Most have been showing a flattening off of the rate of compliance over the quarters. Same thing here between the first three percentages.

Now, they are going to go from an increase in compliance for 3 months of 8% to 22%?? At the END of a project?????

My goodness, practice makes perfect............

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), August 24, 1999.

I was thinking any preps not done by 9/1 would be too late. Any orders would be too far down the line. Now, I don't think so. The spin is too thick.

I'm friendly with an older couple and I told her to get some food and water in for Y2K. She listened to me but she asked her husband (who scoffed), his son a computer programmer (who scoffed), and her son (who scoffed). She's smart and will buy some extras, anyway, but I know it won't be enough. How could it be? What a mess.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 24, 1999.

Lower and middle management is under incredible pressure from the VERY top to report good results, regardless. (telecoms, power, etc.)

All the top brass wants to hear is: "We are ready"

-- no talking please (breadlines@soupkitchen.gov), August 24, 1999.

glad we're off the grid- and I guess we won'r be on-line 1/1/00 huh! given we are definitely served by a rural company....

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.net), August 24, 1999.

no talking please:

Good news gets promoted...bad news gets fired.

-- Charles R. (chuck_roast@trans.net), August 24, 1999.

Where do we find the list of individual rural utilities?

-- CD (CDOKeefe@aol.com), August 24, 1999.

CD, that's one of my points. I don't think you can find the list. Presumably some reporter could devote time and resources to digging it up(through confidential sources if necessary), but for unknown reasons, they are not doing that.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999.

Most people are idiot's anyway.....

-- GoreAl (TheTurd@yahoo.com), August 25, 1999.