Electronic Telegraph:

ISSUE 1683 Monday 3 January 2000

#400bn [$600b] worldwide bill for the bug that did not bite By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent

AS the Millennium passed with few bug-related problems, a #400 billion question was being asked: was all the expense worthwhile?

Britain spent #25 [37.5] billion, more per head than any other country, to prepare for the bug. America, with an economy six times our size, spent about #65 [$97.5] billion.

The total global bill is believed to be about #400 [$600] billion. But as dawn arrived on a post-Y2K world, just about every computer that controlled vital infrastructure, such as electricity, water, telecommunications and air traffic control systems, continued to work.

Only Gambia appeared to be in trouble: almost all sectors from hospitals and telecoms to finance and food supplies reported "significant" or "major" disruptions or, in some cases, "loss of services". Their web site was later updated with a message confirming widespread disruptions but added that the Millennium bug was not confirmed as the cause.

Elsewhere, it was a non-event that left Robin Guenier, the chief of Taskforce 2000, an independent bug watchdog, admitting that maybe the danger had been overhyped.

Mr Guenier predicted before the event that Britain would escape largely unharmed but he was convinced that other countries would regret their lack of preparation. "We thought Japan, Russia and Italy had left themselves dangerously exposed but they survived unharmed," he said yesterday. "I have to admit I am surprised. The question of whether we wasted a lot of money is a difficult one."

Mr Guenier said that the crunch could come tomorrow when millions of computers controlling factories, offices and Government organisations, which were switched off over the long holiday weekend, might crash when work resumes.

Fear of the bug drove a financial analyst to flee his home in Bath and cocoon himself in a remote hideaway. Francis Kinsman, 65, feared a catastrophic Y2K computer meltdown would spark global chaos, starvation and economic crisis. But yesterday, he said: "I am not in the least bit appalled that I might have got it wrong. We are not out of the woods yet."

Mr Kinsman devoted three years to preparing for the bug, even writing two books to get across his message of doom.

Married with two children, he sold all his shares, cashed in his savings and pensions and invested the entire proceeds in government stocks. He sold his home of 15 years, a three-bedroom Regency terrace townhouse in the city of Bath, for the safety of a country retreat with a fruit orchard and freshwater well in Warley, five miles away. The neighbouring farm provided eggs, milk and wood, and Mr Kinsman stockpiled chocolate, dried foods and 2,000 candles.

Behind the headlines there is some evidence of bug disruption, albeit relatively inconsequential glitches. Three Swedish hospitals, including one at Uppsala, north of Stockholm, reported that heart monitoring equipment had ceased operation. In Britain, the only reported bug victims were a weather centre in Aberdeen and a tidal gauge in Portsmouth.

Operations of an American spy satellite were disrupted for several hours and covered up, according to some reports, while celebrations continued in Washington. Several American nuclear reactors reported faults but none was critical.

Japan reported one of the few Millennium bug incidents when alarms rang at two nuclear plants shortly after the country entered the New Year. They were the result of three malfunctions in the monitoring equipment. Italy had some problems with ship-to-shore radio telephones.

Yesterday, Y2K officials and consultants were adamant that the money had not been misspent and Margaret Beckett, the minister responsible for any potential Millennium bug problems, said that vigilance was needed up until Feb 29.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), January 02, 2000

Answers

Based on the results so far it looks like money well spent, wouldn't you say?

-- Look (at@the.facts), January 02, 2000.

600 billion dollars is chump change for this planet's economy.

-- Truk (truk@loa.moc), January 02, 2000.

The problem that people seem to be having is that it doesn't seem to matter a whole lot whether the money was spent or not. That is, a country like Italy -- which spent little and was far behind the curve -- fared, more or less, as well as a country that had spent a lot.

Of course, 48 hours is not a lot of time, it will really take a few weeks to make this kind of assessment. But you can sure understand people starting to ask, "Hey, how come countries that did practically nothing are seemingly in great shape?"

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), January 02, 2000.

KOS

"seemingly" :o)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 02, 2000.

Yeah, man, it's a big conspiracy. The insurance companies don't want anyone to know that it's all falling apart. There's gunfire outside my apartment and the gas pumps have been dry for two days. The radio stations keep playing the same songs over and over and everyone's saying, "Nothing bad to report." They've stopped delivering mail ever since the rollover; maybe it's too dangerous here.

-- Dude (dude@dude.com), January 02, 2000.

If what *bbb* posted is true, all those unfixed computers rollovered from 1999 to 19100 and kept right on computing.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), January 02, 2000.

I can't speak for the rest of my (very large) organization, but our building (>1000 employees) shut down completely last friday morning: virtually every server, PC, and workstation. The corporate website was not up as of 2200 Sunday. The Intranet server was not due to be online until 0630 01/03/2000. The Inernet server is to come on-line sometime after that. The morning of the 1st work day of the the new Millennium could prove to be interesting.

-- Spindoc' (spindoc_99_2000@yahoo.com), January 03, 2000.

Behind the headlines there is some evidence of bug disruption, albeit relatively inconsequential glitches. Three Swedish hospitals, including one at Uppsala, north of Stockholm, reported that heart monitoring equipment had ceased operation. . . .

I just bet that any heart patients in those hospitals would consider it an "inconsequential" glitch -- or that $600 billion was too much money to spend...

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), January 03, 2000.