YEAR 2000 WARNING TO AMERICA
By Thomas T. Scambos, Jr. & Sr.

I regret to say that the Article by Stephen Barr that appeared in the Washington Post Federal Page on Sept. 16 regarding the U.S. government agencies' "report card" for fixing the millennium bug present in today's global computer systems, did not go far enough in explaining the potential consequences and repercussions to our society implied by the failing grades earned by those agencies in their efforts to permanently fix this computer systems problem. I have been a contracted senior application systems programmer for the government for the last 10 years, and believe me, THIS PROBLEM IS MUCH, MUCH BIGGER THAN YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD. THIS IS A NATIONAL EMERGENCY OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, AND IF WE DO NOT ACT QUICKLY, AND CORRECTLY, IMMEDIATELY, THIS NATION IS GOING TO BE IN THE THROES OF A COMPLETE AND TOTAL CONVULSIVE ELECTRONIC ECONOMIC COLLAPSE OF INCREDIBLE PROPORTIONS WHEN THE CLOCK ROLLS OVER ON THE YEAR 2000. This is not an exaggeration.

IF YOU ARE AN AVERAGE AMERICAN CITIZEN WITH ANY SAVINGS OR INVESTMENTS AT ALL, YOU HAD BETTER READ THIS BECAUSE WE ARE ALL IN VERY, VERY SERIOUS TROUBLE, THAT FOR SOME UNEXPLAINABLE REASON YOU ARE NOT BEING HONESTLY TOLD ABOUT BY YOUR GOVERNMENT.

First of all, this is NOT "just a software problem". The millennium bug is present in BOTH SOFTWARE and HARDWARE, and ALSO FIRMWARE. "Firmware" are the computer chips that hold retained settings and instructions when power is turned off to the computer (like the real time clock (RTC)), but which can have new instructions written to their circuitry by special software. This of course means that to permanently correct this problem, approximately 300 MILLION computer chips, installed worldwide, have to be re-programmed or replaced in the next 2 years. Apparently, the IS MANAGERS DO NOT ALL UNDERSTAND THAT THE PROBLEM IS ACTUALLY IN THEIR MACHINES and COMPUTER CHIPS, AS WELL AS IN THEIR SOFTWARE SYSTEMS. This is NOT just a "mainframe" problem, and it is NOT just a government problem. The bug is potentially present in virtually every system in the world today, private and public. NOT ONE MAJOR COMPANY, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, and NOT ONE Government of any nation, has announced that they are now "year 2000 computer compliant" and do not have to address this problem any more. NOT ONE. To demonstrate just how pervasive this bug is, EVEN ON ALOT OF THE "NEW" micro computers still being sold today, run this simple test on your personal computer(s):

BACKUP YOUR DATA
set your date to 12-31-1999
set your time to 12:59:59
wait 5 seconds
check the date - it should now read 01-01-2000
turn off your computer
turn on your computer
check the date - if it doesn't display the 01-01-2000 date properly (with NO colon) YOU'VE GOT THE BUG IN YOUR COMPUTER, and need to address the matter if you use software that utilizes date calculation algorithms (virtually everybody does at some level).

Now you have to test every single one of your operational business and personal applications, software programs, and systems to make sure the bug isn't still in your software, now that you know (or not) that it is (or is not) in your hardware and firmware.

The bug is present in the chips that control the satellites and all satellite communications. How you gonna change them ? The bug is present in virtually every FINANCIAL SYSTEM IN THE WORLD. IT IS PRESENT IN EVERY MAJOR NATION ON THE PLANET - GERMANY, JAPAN, ENGLAND, FRANCE, INDIA, RUSSIA, CHINA, all of them, NO ONE IS SAFE. Private systems as well as government are at risk. The bug is present in the chips that control life sustaining MEDICAL DEVICES. The bug is present in the chips that control heavy machinery. The bug is present, in all three forms: SOFTWARE, HARDWARE and FIRMWARE, in virtually every major sector in the world, i.e.: Government, Military, Banking, Telecommunications, Regulatory, the Stock Market, Mutual Funds, Securities markets, currency markets, commodity markets, AND POTENTIALLY, ALL OF THEIR CONTROLLING SOFTWARE systems. The list goes on: Legal Systems, Medical Systems and instruments, Shipping and Transportation systems, Power Grid systems, energy production systems - they are all computer automated and controlled, and they all have the bug in some form, to some level present witin their systems. Personal Computers, mini-computers, main-frame computers are all potentially effected. I STRONGLY URGE EVERY PERSON SEEING THIS ARTICLE TO SERIOUSLY INVESTIGATE THESE FACTS FOR THEMSELVES. Some magnificent internet web site(s) have been created by some very concerned (and honest) members of the programming and investment communities which can supply you with many of the supporting facts, details, and specifics that can verify that the brief, summarical facts and warning presented herein ARE IN FACT VERY REAL. The web sites can be found at:

http://year2000@garynorth.com and http://www.year2000.com

PLEASE TAKE THIS WARNING SERIOUSLY AND INVESTIGATE FOR YOURSELF THE NATIONAL CATASTROPHE FACING OUR SOCIETY, LURKING IN THE NEARBY SHADOWS, NOW, JUST AROUND THE CORNER, REAL TIME.

Initially, you won't believe what's on these sites. It's too overwhelming. The threat to your way of life is too great. You'll almost certainly go into what is called denial. But they have done their best to make these sites an antidote to denial. Emotionally, you won't want to accept this analysis. But factual support is offered for the scenario -- more evidence than you are going to get from some skeptic who says, "Trust me: it's just not that big a problem." Our recommendation: trust no one who offers no evidence, and won't put it in writing.

This is a very big problem, worldwide in scope, and without historical precedent (unless we count the Tower of Babel). At the same time, the Y2k story is inherently implausible. How could a seemingly trivial computer programming tradition of the 1950's bring down the West's governments and banks? YET, IT WILL ! This possibility is not being discussed seriously today, because it is NOT believed that such a trivial problem could be so catastrophic to society, at least not in the popular media. (The one major exception was the NEWSWEEK cover story on June 2.) A computer glitch that could cause a worldwide economic depression that lasts a decade is not being discussed seriously by politicians -- at least not in public, because it is not believed to be real. The question now, has to be, WHY NOT ? The evidence is overwhelming at this point.

There is another problem: the typical large mainframe computer system has other arcane languages besides the more familiar COBOL imbedded in them (Assembler, Fortran, RPG, various machine languages, etc), in some systems, 20 or more different languages. Sadly, hardly anyone still in the workplace understands those programs any more because the original programmers are retired or dead, good luck changing them on time.

Ask two questions of anyone who assures you that fixing Y2k is fairly easy, once management decides to do it: (1) Why isn't Social Security's team of 400 programmers finished with fixing its system of (only) 30 million lines of code after 7 years of intense focus ?, and, (2) Are Citicorp (400m lines) and Chase Manhattan Bank (200m lines) likely to finish their repairs on time, since they began fixing their systems in late 1995 ? How about the IRS ?

After all, the Social Security system only contains 30 million lines of code and they began their repair project in 1991, as opposed to the IRS, WHO COLLECTS THE REVENUE FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO OPERATE, and who HAS NOT YET EVEN STARTED on their own Y2K project, and yet, have OVER 60 MILLION LINES OF CODE THAT THEY KNOW ABOUT, and more that they don't know about, AND NEVER WILL, because it is distributed within independent field systems, is undocumented, and is uninventoried (no master lists of what programs operate on what file sets, and vice-versa.). No wonder they can't find anyone to permanently take the vacant IRS Commissioner's job.

This problem is so large and so serious IT IS QUIETLY REFERRED TO IN SOME Christian CIRCLES AS "THE GOD BUG", (because it is inside everything), who they say, is coming to take His revenge on the Beast and its machinery (computer systems), which are attempting to rule mankind BY, AND THROUGH, ELECTRONIC NUMBERS and INTOLERANCE, rather than by, and through, a spiritual knowledge and faith in the Lord God, in direct violation of His Commandments (the FIRST). (If you don't get this analogy, you better just SELL NOW.)

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED,
TAKE HEED, AND TAKE ACTION,
OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.