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Please be advised that the New Millennium Salons Main Page has moved to the free Microsoft Super-server at;

NEW MILLENNIUM SALONS

You can also easily access the new Main Page by clicking on the 'PUBLISHER' link at the top of the forum here. On January.18.2000, I will let my account at ICA.NET expire and sign up with a service provider who has a 1-800 number to call free of charge anywhere in Canada so I can retire on the road next year (after the Y2K dust settles down, of course).

The page may take a while to download, for it's quite loaded with data, but then go more smoothly later after you have it cached on your browser.

There, hopefully, the New Millennium Salons can carry on addressing community recovery issues well into the millennium. I trust the technical staff at Microsoft will do everything in their power to keep their server up and running.

Thank you,

Gary Allan Halonen

-- Gary Allan Halonen (g_a_halonen@hotmail.com), December 16, 1999

Answers

All the computers at MIT, which this forum is based at, will be shut off by December.31.1999. (I'll have to train myself to write the full year digits :>) The staff stated that everything will be backed up beforehand. They say they will slowly and carefully start systems and try to handle problems as they arise. Hopefully this forum will come back intact.

Bill Dale can be written to at billdale@mail.com now.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years to you and your family!!!

-- Gary (g_a_halonen@hotmail.com), December 25, 1999.


Exactly at midnight Friday, one week prior to the millennium rollover, Microsoft's new 'Super server' has been crashing and spitting out server error messages. This doesn't give me a warm feeling of confidence about other organization's assurances of "Y2K? No problem!" as their programmers remediate code far less understood then the people do at Microsoft. Actually anything said now at this late stage is almost a moot point. The die has been cast. The outcome cannot be altered, only handle the problems and salvage what can be salvaged.

All I know is that whatever the outcome of Y2K disruptions, I can sleep at night with a clear conscience for I've done what I could to wake up the politicians and public with my limited resources. I hope you can too.

My dream for the new millennium is that more men and women of wisdom, courage and integrity take the reins of power on this planet. Where all Men have Rights, fair and honest justice and a safe environment without war with which to flourish and prosper. Where you can take the time to smell the flowers or listen to the beating heart of your child and wonder at the marvels of life around us.

Thank you for anything you've done to make the threat of a total computer-managed infra-structure collapse less likely. Whether it was remediating code in your organization, digging for faulty embedded systems, trying to wake up your community or just making sure that you and your family are part of the solution rather than one of the problems, whatever it was, it will be appreciated by more enlightened future generations. Anything that you've done to keep our civilization from slipping back into the barbarianism from which it came.

And an important note to the police, military and emergency personnel charged with the responsibility of insuring the safety of the people during the crucial rollover period and recovery, however a duration that may be. If you need to use force to thwart the unruly criminal or insane from wreaking havoc upon a venerable public or government body or legal institution, please, please use good judgement and pick your targets well. Those innocents hurt or killed may be your neighbor or friends. Most definitely take out the bad guys with enough force to get the job done but let's not get over zealous and take on the roles of judge, jury and executioner. You too have to live with your decisions made and actions done on a personal basis for the rest of your days despite the cloak of organizational impunity.

This has been the most amazing four years for me. When I started, there was only a small group of us and we seemed to be in constant communications within a copied-in email consortium. To name a few, Rick Cowles, Gary North, Peter de Jager, Leon Kappleman, Norm Kurland, Roliegh Martin, Martin Emery and Ed Yourdon, my mentor, and the fellow responsible for my earliest education on Y2K. In the beginning, it seemed like such a small group of professionals willing to say the emperor has no clothes. I dealt behind the scenes with the political leaders in Cabinet, Congress and Senate. Millennium Salons is actually Bill Dales baby. I only lent my name and advises.

Fortunately many, many others joined the call. We're far better off today than if we had not done nothing at all. But I will state a truth which has always remained a fact throughout. WE STARTED TOO LATE!! The remediation in all but a few companies started too late to get the job done properly tested! 'Properly tested' being the key words. Four years ago, there were too few techies in the world against too many lines of code and embedded systems to get the job done properly! That fact remains true today.

I suggest you go to Ed Yourdon's site and read his latest article to get a good idea on what we're up against going into the rollover using untested, potentially heavily buggy software.

I implore you. Please pick up another week or two of groceries and anything else you may need. Call some friends and family to network 'just in case' if the disruptions get too hard to bear in some area. You may need help or someone may need yours. It could be as simple as a senior too proud to ask for assistance if their pension money doesn't arrive before their food runs out (like what happened last week in Canada) or it could be worse.

After this is over, I'll quietly step back behind the curtain carrying on my profession in media and public relations. I'm scouting for a new campaign to tackle on an international basis. If you know of a worthy cause that needs the ear of the people at the top, well, please drop me a line.

Again thanks to all for your help and for what you may do in the future to assist your fellow Man. For those who've enjoyed my writings here and at the Canadian site, I've got a hobby site called 'Predictions' found (later) at:

Predictions

Take care and I'll see you on the other side. With this note, I'm retiring from the Y2K public arena.

Gary Allan Halonen

-- Gary (g_a_halonen@hotmail.com), December 28, 1999.


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