A little while ago I emailed Michael Hyatt's essay, Unfounded Optimism (see thread below) to many friends and relatives. The following introduction was from me:

For a while I sent people email messages regarding Y2K. I gave up in the frustration of not being able to find words to explain that this is not about your VCR going haywire. It's not about getting erroneous charges on your phone bill. It's about the infrastructure that keeps our large, complex society functioning. That infrastructure is maintained by computers, and soon many of those computers simply will not work. What percentage of failure can we endure and still keep our lives running smoothly? No one knows. The extensive research I've done on the Internet paints a bleak picture indeed.

The truth has been the first victim of Y2K. In August a Navy document was leaked that said a June survey showed 120 cities in the US to be in serious trouble where utilities were concerned. The Navy quickly dismissed that as old news (two months old!), and said newer data was more encouraging. Even if thats true, in June John Koskinen, the White House Y2K czar, was telling us dont-worry-be-happy-dont-take-your-money-out-of-the-bank-its-a-three-day-storm. (If they can fix it in three days, why didnt they do it three days ago?) A Government Accounting Office survey showed that fully half of the reports of compliant medical equipment were lies. There is no reason to think other government and industry reports are more accurate.

I've tried to encourage friends and relatives to put by some canned food and bottled water. (And flashlights, and toilet paper, and prescription medicines, and cash, and fire wood, and warm clothes, etc.) If youve done so and Y2K causes less disruption than I expect, Ill be more than happy next year to be the butt of your jokes. You bought insurance that wasnt necessary. (Unlike regular insurance, however, you can still use your purchases.) If you havent made any preparations and Y2K turns out like many experts predict, Ill feel very sad. The government and the media have done everything they can to make you think you would be a fool to prepare.

Yesterday a man named Michael Hyatt released the following statement. He has been in the forefront of efforts to alert people about the possible problems stemming from Y2K. (He wrote a book on the subject, and Im assuming he made money, but the fact that some people have made money from Y2K warnings will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on faulty computer programs.)

This will be my final mass-mailing on this subject.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), December 08, 1999

Answers

Our friends and relatives are told to come to us if they get scared. They don't have to call first. They don't have to bring anything but themselves. It's too late to nag them into preparing...but they pay more attention to THIS message than any other. There's nothing to argue with, nothing to make a joke over.

-- helen (sstaten@fullnet.net), December 08, 1999.

You're one of my favorites Pearlie. Addy is real. Keep in touch.

-- Carlos (riffraff1@cybertime.net), December 08, 1999.

Howdy:

Like Pearlie, I intend to make one more attempt to convince all friends and family to take some action. Perhaps in the heightening awareness that is beginning, those we've spoken with in the past will get a clue and beat the rush to the stores. But I think it's my last call as well. From here on out I'm only talking to people who listen. Oh yeah, and my parents. They never gave up on me, I'm not giving up on them! Nagging may work!

At the risk of being repetious...one more time, my collection of articles on WHY TO PREPARE.

Cut and paste...

http://rampages.onramp.net/~bcheek/y2k/What-You-Should.htm

or click!

Best to all,

-- William in Dallas (bcheek@onramp.net), December 08, 1999.

((((( Pearlie Sweetcake )))))
To all of you who have given so much to the Forum, your families, friends, and neighbors, and communities -- God sees, the Angels know.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 08, 1999.

I'm still an idiot.

What You Should Know About Y2K

-- William in Dallas (bcheek@onramp.net), December 08, 1999.

One more time...sysops may delete me at will, from here on out!

Link

-- William in Dallas (bcheek@onramp.net), December 08, 1999.

Pearlie: "It's not about getting erroneous charges on your phone bill." Rich: Yes it is

Pearlie: "It's about the infrastructure that keeps our large, complex society functioning. That infrastructure is maintained by computers, and soon many of those computers simply will not work. "

Rich: (Q)What is many? 1%, 0.1% or 00.1%? (A)The correct answer is "I don't know", so any conclusion on your part is pure speculation

Pearlie: "The truth has been the first victim of Y2K. In August a Navy document was leaked that said a June survey showed 120 cities in the US to be in serious trouble where utilities were concerned."

Rich: The real story is the computer program was designed so that no response to the survey defaulted to 'Y2K trouble expected'. The real story is the poor response to the survey. Once again, the lack of data should not be used to jump to a conclusion.

Pearlie: "The government and the media have done everything they can to make you think you would be a fool to prepare."

Rich: Wrong. Various governments have encouraged people to prepare for a "three-day storm" and a three-day storm is a possibility.

Yesterday a man named Michael Hyatt released the following statement. He has been in the forefront of efforts to alert people about the possible problems stemming from Y2K. (He wrote a book on the subject, and Im assuming he made money, but the fact that some people have made money from Y2K warnings will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on faulty computer programs.)

This will be my final mass-mailing on this subject.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), December 08, 1999

Answers

-- Richard Greene (rgreene2@ford.com), December 08, 1999.

Rich: Wrong. Various governments have encouraged people to prepare for a "three-day storm" and a three-day storm is a possibility.

The standard Red Cross recommendations to prepare to be self- sufficient for 72 hours is based on the amount of time it (normally) takes for outside help to arrive. This ain't gonna happen if there are widespread disruptions of anything over a BITR. They are also based on a "single point failure".. ONE hurricane, or ONE earthquake, or ONE ice storm. They are NOT based on earthquakes, or ice storms happening in (optomistically) 1/10th of the major cities (remember the report a few months ago that found only 2 of the major cities ready... and even those 2 weren't really ready?).

The ONLY way 72 hours of preps makes sense is if there really never was a Y2K problem (since the remediation certainly isn't done), in which case all that remediation money, and all those gov't bunkers, and all the urban warfare training.. was for naught. Only if all we have to worry about is a REAL 3-day storm, or earthquake, or hurricane (one at a time) does 3 days of preps make sense. Y2K however is not a single-point failure. It is systemic, and its not fixed. In Los Angeles, 5 1/2 MONTHS after a very embarrasing sewage spill they are still using manual workarounds 'cause the remediation STILL isn't fixed. Why wasn't it fixed the first time when they thought it was? Why isn't it fixed now, almost 6 months later?

3-day storm. Nice try troll.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 08, 1999.