In a recent post giving a "Simple y2k explanation" it was suggested that "We know an enormous effort went into fixing the y2k problem. Maybe it got fixed. Maybe the answer is that simple. Sometimes a lot of people working really hard can fix things. ... Programmers are pretty smart people. Maybe that's all that happened here. No conspiracy, no hoax, just hard work."

If this is the explanation, what about governments (especially local) and businesses in this country and others all over the world that did little if anything preparation/remediation wise and yet (seem to) enjoy the same results???

On the surface (today) it appears that to do nothing was the wise and cost-effective thing to do. Fix-On-Failure seems to have paid off so far for Third World nations, local governments, and small businesses ... don't you think?

Isn't there a BIG piece of the puzzle still missing in all of this?

-- jas (jas@jaminmark.com), January 08, 2000

Answers

jas, I wwas thinking about just this thing this morning. NYC announced at one point that it was 68 percent remediated. What if it became, through exhausting work, 88 percent remediated? Where's the rest? Are people processing things manually? What's really going on? I am very curious and confused.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 08, 2000.

Part of that answer might simply be an effort to squash bad news. For instance, (Albuquerque, NM) Bernallilo County's payday was Thursday, Jan 6. The workers did not get their regular paychecks. Instead they got checks only for their base pay, without any overtime, differentials etc. They also received a letter explaining away that there were computer problems and they would make up the difference as fast as they could and oh by the way the W2 forms that were to be sent to the Feds were messed up also and so sorry. Of course, not one mention of Y2K after all, the city and county had spent millions on Y2K remediation and "everything is fixed". This was the first payday of 2000. This incident will not make it into national news and I bet there are a hundreds of other such incidents that do not get national or even local notice, such is the fear of sparking Y2K unrest. It is always in the best interest of authorities for the people to have faith in their power and competence. Many 2nd and 3rd world governments already have only a fragile hold on power and widespread news of Y2K failure could just be the edge the opposition needs. Just my opinion. Gene P.S.(I did personaly see the letter mentioned above and talked to the workers who were shortchanged)

-- Gene Kimzey (coyotebert@dejanews.com), January 08, 2000.

For me this is the very center of the question. I know that time may tell and problems may appear for months to come, but how did countries that did nothing or little, countries with pirated software, how did they experience no problems when we did everything, complaining along the way we weren't doing enough, and experience no problems as well?

Magic! 1+1=2 here and everywhere else 1+0=2.

I know there are differences between countries, this simply doesn't make sense in my brain. There exists only two possibilities for me. 1. Y2k was way over-hyped. 2. We haven't seen anything yet.

Either way it seems somebody is going to have problems in the future. Whether the hypsters including government (look at how much they spent) or the FOF (fix on failure) types. I simply know not what to expect nor do I believe I can listen to so called experts on either side. There appear to be questions here that no one except time can answer.

Tomas in the Timber (happy I can still enjoy a hot shower!!!)

-- tomas (timbereyes@usa.net), January 08, 2000.

will repeat myself again, Hey guys not to worry about all those billions of dollars that were supposidly spent on Y2K, they are safely salted away in secret accounts all over the world. All the hype was to get the public aroused enought to not cause any friction when it was released from the treasury. Of course there was a problem but not to the degree that we were initially led at believe. That is the reasons that little or no work on the problem by third world nations provided the same results as our "supposidly" spent billions of dollars. Granted, some probably was used for that purpose, but the lions share is salted away safely in secret accounts, never to be seen again. That is, not to be seen again untill tax time when you and I are made to replace those billions.

-- Notforlong (Fsur439@aol.com), January 08, 2000.

We will find an answer to that excellent question--but we're going to need a bit of time...

Here's my best thoughts to date:

What gives? Money wasnt spent in a lot of nations, yet few reports of failures appear. Theres too many non-mainstream media reports getting out for anyone to seriously believe all is well. But then what IS going on?

- Y2K a hoax? No, as systems deliberately not repaired failed. - Y2K overhypeda non-event? Possible, but not probable, as governments, contract computer experts and scores of scientists, systems specialists and strategic thinkers believed the Y2K problem was realthough they disagreed about the impacts and effects.

- Y2K impacts not complete? Probable, as reports continue to come in usually through unconventional (non-mainstream media) sources.

- Y2K impact media coverup? Highly improbable, as western nations dont function in secrecy. Silence from communist statesthose who spent the least on y2k remediationcould mean a coverup.

- Y2K impact govt/corporate coverup? Quite probable, given the propensity of corporations to decline giving the SEC informationeven when required by lawor the axiomatic philosophy of many governments to withold information from their citizens, for whatever reason seems applicable.

- Y2K impact media minimizing/ignoring? Probable, as the mainstream media is well-known for its short memory and bias on subjects it does not supportlike the recent discovery that the mainstream media was deliberately biasing reports on gun control in favour of the anti-gun lobby.

I thinkbut do not knowthat all of the Y2K impacts have not yet arrived

-- (Kurt.Borzel@gems8.gov.bc.ca), January 09, 2000.