Rick,

First I'd like to thank you for all your time and effort to maintain this forum.

When I first got the gist of the depth and ramifications of this Y2K thing, and the very real possibility for extremely dire consequences I was quite shaken. This happened about mid 1998. The problem was just too darned overwhelming to wrap my brains around all of it. The massive confusion destabilized me considerably. I knew I couldn't investigate all of it. Banks, telephone systems, transportation, manufacturing, energy sector, and on and on. Of all the threats inherent in the matter I felt electricity was the big one. I chose to focus on electricity and found your forum.

There was still massive confusion but I chose to let go of it except that which applied to electricity. I felt if I could understand how the Y2K bug impacted this area then I could apply that understanding to the others.

The people you've attracted to this forum did a tremendous job of investigation, reporting, and sifting through the available information. I've met some very fine people here.

I feel much better about the situation with regards to electricity but how my understanding applies to the other areas is still very much up in the air. There were huge PR campaigns by NERC and others. Big lies basically. Winnowing through the double-speak was as difficult as gaining a technical understanding. Discovering hidden agendas, as with pre-ordained test results and the like, can still be somewhat haunting.

Anyway, you and the contributors to this forum have helped me immeasurably. If my peers have gone through Y2K elementary school by reading the papers and watching the news, then I've gone to Y2K prep school by learning through this forum. But, like Einstein said; "Knowing doesn't make you immune."

Other than making an attempt to acknowledge your invaluable contribution to our understanding another purpose to this post is to humbly request that after the rollover, perhaps not right away, that you open the discussion to those other areas.

What was the outcome for the embedded chip problem in banking, transportation, oil rigs, etc.? What went on with mainframes in other industries? What about the software remediation, or lack thereof in the rest of the world? How did other countries fare?

There's a lot more to know and I'd like to sift through the information with the contributors I've come to know here. Opening up to review all of it could get rather wooley but I'd rather go that way than to ignore it or have to wade through other forums for a broader understanding.

Malcom is an electricity man but he's also a Kiwi. I'd read whatever he'd have to say about Y2k and New Zealand and I'd come to your forum to read it. I wouldn't know where else to go to get Bonnie's input, and I'd take that on any subject,(hoping she'll get back to doing this on a regular basis). The list of contributors here is long and I know something about many of them. The point is, the stability you've offered and given so freely is still very much desired and will continue to be well into the next millenium. Please kepp up

-- Anonymous, December 17, 1999