Interesting. I wonder why things are so different in the UK vs the US? Are they just more honest there? If the US reports of no time-related problems in equipment are true, shouldn't we hear the same things from the UK et al? Well, anyway, FYI...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_477000/477991.stm

Almost one in three large companies has already experienced millennium bug problems, says a survey.

The campaigning group Taskforce 2000 says 90% of big firms are preparing for power cuts and disruption to phone systems and computers as a result of the bug. And 31% have already experienced millennium-related failures that had already begun to occur.

It is the third survey of big businesses carried out in the last year by Taskforce 2000.

The report, published on Monday, paints a picture of growing unease about disruptions to essential services such as electricity, water and telecommunications.

Government reports due out later this week are expected to say the UK will not face any serious disruption as a result of the bug.

But this latest survey - of Britain's top 1,000 companies - shows many companies remain unconvinced by official reassurances.

Of those questioned, 98% are taking action to prevent possible disruptions affecting their businesses.

Eighty-four per cent are preparing for possible power failures, 86% for loss of telecommunications links and 97% for systems failures.

Taskforce 2000 says the government should encourage the major utility companies to provide more information about their preparations rather than issuing banal reassurances.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999

Answers

The only answer I get is that the US is ahead of everybody else and we've checked our electric companies and found few problems. The other countries haven't investigated everything and so you have the alarm. But there really isn't a problem according to the optimists. Only a few display problems exist, not the actual functioning of equipment (if that makes any sense).

Sounds funny to me, but so far that's the only answer I've ever received. Where are all these chips then? Gee, isn't it funny that all those embedded chips really don't exist after all, well especially when it comes to important things like the telephones, water, gas, oil and electricity, they just don't exist. But they may be in your VCR or toaster. Isn't it nice to know that there are NO TIME dated chips in ANYTHING related to the critical functioning of our infrastructure? Whether you want to believe it or not, this is what we're being told. Funny isn't it?

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999

I didn't see where any businesses said it (loss of utilities) would happen, or what the odds of it happening were, or that they thought it would happen. It looked like they were describing contingency plans, in which they were preparing IF it did happen.

I believe the numbers for contingency planning may not be as high here as in the UK, but contingency planning for loss of utilties is occuring. Even the NERC drill dealt in the loss of communications.

I think the line-

"But this latest survey - of Britain's top 1,000 companies - shows many companies remain unconvinced by official reassurances. "

May have been taken a little out of context if the survey asked -

"Are you preparing contingency plans for a loss of utilties".

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999

Did the [US] electrical utilities plan to announce "Y2K Ready"  ready or not?
The Answer is "Yes"

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999

Drew,

You and Lane always have such an interesting way of posing these questions. If a lot of British businesses are preparing for infrastructure problems, I would presume that they do know something from inside sources that the public does not. For instance, here in my area, Philadelphia is spending a bundle of money on diesel generators for running the water and sewer pumps. And Vanguard Investments, just a bit west of there, is putting in 6 or more backup generators too. Neither of these two had put in such backups for any winter storms. So, what do they know that we do not? Perhaps they are just being foolish scardy cats, huh? Sure, that must be it!

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999

Old Git posted both the above story and this more optomistic one at TB2000: Action 2000: UK's key services given all-clear

Regards,

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999

Sorry, the link, Action 2000: UK's key services given all-clear.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001c5u

Regards,

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999

I had not seen the other story; however, the UK government Y2K team has come under probably even more criticism for questionable optimism than some of the folks in the US federal gov't (no small accomplishment). Amusingly enough, at last week's Washington DC Year 2000 Group meeting, one speaker admitted that governments all over the world are not telling the truth about Y2K. As if this was news. Consequently, gov't assurances, such as in this story, don't particularly carry high credibility with more than a few people.

Still, that doesn't mean that the UK Y2K group is wrong. Seems to me that if the Y2K electric optimists are right for the US picture, they should be largely right for the rest of the world.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999

Drew,

Action 2000 versus Taskforce 2000. I like the way you handled that comment from FactFinder. Say, since Bonnie, the supreme diplomat, is now taking time off, maybe we could vote you in for replacement or "acting" diplomat, length of contract unknown. Would you accept that? How about it Rick, isn't Drew next in line for diplomatic recognition?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Gordon,

You're too kind, but I'm probably not qualified... :)

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

One other point here... from:

http://www.vnunet.com/News/101238

this quote:

>>But Rob Wilson, spokesman for independent millennium bug watchdog Taskforce 2000, accused Action 2000 of failing to reveal all the facts.

>>"All the names Action 2000 has named are soft targets which are hardly worthy of mention. They have a policy that public confidence is the most important priority. We understand that, but facts are important to public confidence and the public isn't getting enough facts. In the final analysis they will be found out by that," he said.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 1999

Um, Drew, basically you were sparing us with information from a non- credible group, i.e., the UK government, and brought us the truth from a Y2K activist group?

"Interesting. I wonder why things are so different in the UK vs the US? Are they just more honest there?" No, I think they are about where we are with both Y2K AND honesty....

Regards,

-- Anonymous, October 23, 1999