GORE Is White House Contact for Y2K

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Monday December 27 4:48 PM ET Gore Is White House Contact for Y2K

AP Photo By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House's top Y2K adviser will report regularly to Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) this weekend as part of a multimillion-dollar effort to monitor computer problems in this country and abroad.

John Koskinen, head of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, said Monday it was decided that Gore will be the White House contact on Y2K developments because ``he has been historically monitoring this issue.''

Koskinen also will be briefing President Clinton through the week, officials said.

The council's Information Coordination Center begins 24-hour operations on Thursday, collecting data on possible Y2K computer problems from about 180 countries and all 50 states. It will stay in operation through March, after the Feb. 29 leap year date, which could pose related computer problems.

Koskinen said the first focus of attention will be New Zealand, which will reach midnight at 6 a.m. EST. Of key interest is whether computer problems affect any of that country's basic public services such as power, telecommunications, air traffic control or local transportation.

He also stressed again, however, that while some countries may experience computer-related problems in the coming weeks and months, both private and public sectors in the United States have prepared well to assure that services will not be interrupted. Problems could occur in some older computers that read only the last two digits of a date and could mistake 2000, or ``00,'' for 1900.

Koskinen's office has succeeded in calming some public fears about Y2K-related breakdowns in basic services, he said. ``There is no reason for anyone to disrupt their lives in any way,'' he said.

Rumors of major failures are down, he said, and officials have seen no indication of an increase in bank withdrawals or runs on gas stations. The council's advice to Americans is to stock extra water, food and batteries as they would for a winter storm of several days.

One problem for the council, Koskinen said, will be to determine which reports of disruptions are Y2K-related and which are not. For example, about 1 percent of ATM machines normally are out of service, and people shouldn't immediately conclude that a malfunctioning ATM machine has a Y2K bug.

Since the federal government already is operating in fiscal year 2000, and credit card and other billing companies are sending out bills with 2000 dates, there have been some incidents of the 1900 date cropping up, Koskinen said, ``but these have been handled without any significant inconvenience to anyone.''

Koskinen plans to take the shuttle flight from Washington to New York on New Year's Eve to show his confidence in the safety of the nation's airways. ``I have no reason to have any concern about flying at all,'' he said. But he added that air traffic controllers could slow down arrivals, which would lead to congestion, if a computer problem appears.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991227/pl/y2k_national_1.html

-- LOON (blooney10@aol.com), December 27, 1999

Answers

Perhaps Y2K will give Al Gore a chance to re-invent the Internet...:)

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), December 27, 1999.

Been there, done that. Look before posting, please.

-- (too@much.clutter), December 27, 1999.

"Koskinen also will be briefing President Clinton through the week, officials said."

With no problems, what is it that Mr. Koskinen will be reporting to the President.

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), December 27, 1999.


"But he added that air traffic controllers could slow down arrivals, which would lead to congestion, if a computer problem appears."

WAIT..."if a computer problem appears" - ERROR...ERROR...does not correlate with polly reports for the last year...obviously a typo...DELETE!!! DELETE!!!

So, how many of these confident gubmint folks going to be in the air during the actual rollover? Or are they all just dancing close to the precipice without ever looking over? On a similar note, is there somewhere I can send my money order to contribute to the Seal-Them-All-In-Their-Bunkers-With-Cement Fund? Can I claim it as non-profit for my tax refund? (which I'm looking forward to spending hopefully in the 2020's when it gets mailed out...)

-- Ford Prefect (bring@your.towel), December 27, 1999.


Al Gore has been "monitoring" y2k eh? I'll say again... If y2k turns out ok or not..this govt. should have encouraged preparation bigtime. There are simply too many dark, silent and sinister unknowns. And if Gore is the computer genius he claims to be, he should have seen the potential dangers....For all our sakes I fervently hope that the pollies are right!

-- citizen (lost@sea.com), December 27, 1999.


Are we supposed to be comforted by the leadership of the Tennessee State Vegetable???!! God Help us!

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), December 27, 1999.

But its' SYSTEMS!! This overlooks the issue of systems. Being as Al Gore is a robot: he can't monitor a computer failure.

-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), December 27, 1999.

Gores' brain ---------> .

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 28, 1999.

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