Datum	Länk	Egen kommentar
1999-11-30	Japansk rapport: Internet sårbart	A Y2K taskforce organized by the Internet Association of Japan has developed a comprehensive analysis and simulation of technical problems that could occur on the Internet due to Y2K. The findings of the report have been published on the Internet and are available for Internet service providers and network engineers, along with countermeasures to any possible problems. The authors emphasize that the nature of the Internet - as a collection of mutually connected networks - means that problems in other areas of the Net may influence other networks, no matter how well prepared each provider may be. The case studies looked at individual Net-connected servers, the routing of traffic between computer servers on the global Internet and the DNS and how servers behave in conjunction with the directing and transferring of e-mail and other Internet traffic. Problems were identified in servers that use and rely on Internet protocols like HTTP and FTP as well as computers that require access to worldwide DNSs. Under certain scenarios e-mail and news group articles could be discarded, e-mail could build up on a mail server and be delayed and IP addresses may not be found. Also older operating systems on routers may have Y2K problems and certain sites may become congested. Recommendations include: ensuring server software is upgraded to the latest version, be aware and plan for abnormal traffic loads over New Year and adjusting clock sources and DNS settings. On a global scale, the taskforce called for more international cooperation on Y2K contingency matters for the Internet infrastructure. They particularly called for an investigation of all major DNS servers and the running of simulations to see under what circumstances mail and other servers could fail. The IAJ taskforce's report is available on the Web, at http://www.iaj.or.jp/y2ktf/r01e.html.
1999-11-30	Fler uppmuntrande fakta från USA...	Bara 13,5% av små- och medelstora kemi- och petroleumföretag är klara med y2k-förberedelser. Det är dags att inse fakta. En månad kvar till årsskiftet... Det här är från ansedda Computerworld. Industry association and government spokesmen have proclaimed the Y2K problem dead. People believe this because they ignore published status reports to the contrary, see no personal connection to the problem and listen to pundits while doing little research for themselves. But when problems emerge, companies and governments will take the brunt of the criticism. Assessing the reality of the situation will allow organizations to respond to the public relations challenges ahead. Reality is different from what the media tell us. In September, Cap Gemini America, an information technology consulting firm in New York, found that 44% of major companies wouldn't have their mission-critical systems compliant by January. A CIO magazine poll found that 81% of large companies weren't yet finished and that half the companies surveyed had no contingency plans. A National Federation of Independent Business study found that 40% of small businesses had done nothing about Y2K. ...Only 13.5% of small and midsize chemical and petroleum firms have completed Y2K preparations. The Food and Drug Administration said 4,053 high-risk biomedical devices remain noncompliant. More than half of all health care providers won't be ready. And 70% of schools are unprepared. What does this mean to consumers? In statements made in early November to CBS News, the State Department inspector general said, "80 countries are at moderate to high risk, and there will be failures at every economic level, in every region of the world." Nick Gogerty, an analyst at London-based International Monitoring, predicted in October that Y2K would lead to $1.1 trillion in damages worldwide, not including those from litigation and insurance costs. These costs, along with many inconveniences, will affect us next year. Why is the government telling us that most industries are 100% Y2K-compliant when bug-free systems are a myth? The answer is that the government and selected industries don't want people to panic. But when things go wrong, people will demand answers.
1999-11-30	"Nobody knows what will happen, but things will be fine"	"Ingen vet vad som kommer att hända, men det kommer att gå bra". Detta motstridiga påstående upprepas av ledare världen över inför y2k. Har du hört det förut? Det spelar ingen roll vilket land eller vilken sektor. Budskapet är detsamma. Risken för besvikelse är givetvis överhängande om/när befolkningen inser att de blivit förda bakom ljuset. Denna AP-nyhet är från Jamaica. Typical of many countries that got a late start in preparing for the millennium computer bug, this sun-dappled Caribbean island presents neither a nightmare scenario nor an easy ride. Jamaica is among more than 60 countries analysts rank in the middle ground for Y2K risks—where government officials tend to paint a rosy picture of readiness that could mask a potential for serious disruptions. Whether computer glitches will produce catastrophes, fatalities or merely inconvenience a few hundred tourists can't be predicted. But clearly, all is not ready in Jamaica. The country's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management is responsible for handling any emergency arising from the Year 2000 bug. Yet six weeks from the deadline its contingency plans are still in the works and its own disaster management systems are not yet Y2K complaint. ''We're still collecting information,'' director Barbara Carby says of contingencies for coping with possible disruptions such as power and water outages, bank runs or riots. The police emergency radio communications network has not been adjusted to handle the date changeover, admits Carby. Nor has the computer program that tracks resources, shelters and emergency personnel, forcing a fallback to a slower manual system. . . . There has been no independent assessment of public and private efforts to vanquish the Y2K glitch — a product of computer programming that expressed years with two digits, meaning uncorrected computers could interpret ''2000'' as ''1900'' and crash or garble data. No one can say for sure whether traffic lights will go out, whether government pension and payroll checks will get printed and distributed, whether utility billing systems won't foul up, whether people will panic and rush to withdraw money from banks. Seemingly manageable problems could pile upon one another, Y2K experts say, snowballing into major headaches that might not appear until days or weeks after Jan. 1. Judging by their preparations, multinational companies in Jamaica are not especially confident of government assurances that the rollover to 2000 will be a nonevent. . . . Citibank has installed a satellite uplink and set aside a two-week supply of water and gasoline. It is also stockpiling high-denomination bank notes, reducing lending to other banks and minimizing deposits with the central bank. Preparing for possible panic by depositors, the central Bank of Jamaica has printed extra money — it plans to have at least three times the normal end-of-the-year volume on hand — and declared bank holidays for Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. . . . In Kingston, Jamaica, port officials exude confidence about their nearly two years of Y2K preparations. There's much at stake for a country that imports most of its food, and Kingston's wharves are also a major transshipment point for cargo bound for all corners of the earth. At the port's Customs Department office, however, the Y2K work is far from done. Programmers are just beginning to install new software for tracking duty payments. A revenue accounting system is to be installed by the end of November. And with the clock ticking mercilessly toward an immovable deadline, several mission-critical systems are still in testing. Systems could well fail, says Y2K coordinator Kareen Waugh, but delays in processing goods wouldn't last more than a few days. ''We don't know what will happen. Nobody knows what will happen. But we should be ready with the critical part,'' she says. . . .
1999-11-30	Cory Hamasaki summerar	Cory Hamasaki ser det uppenbara: The economy is at risk. Much of the efficiency and prosperity that we enjoy is based on the large legacy systems. It's not the Internet, palm pilots, or Windows. It's the big systems that move the money, food, fuel, and do it so efficiently that few people are required to make it happen. We've spent 30-40 years building systems so that people don't have to do the drudge work. The semi-educated Yuppies can sit in cube city and imagine that they're working. What nonsense. Work is fixing cars, planting gardens, cooking food, delivering mail, figuring it out, and making it better. Work is not expressing your opinion and smoozing with the boss. Frågan är: Hur plågsam blir denna insikt för merparten av Jordens befolkning? Computerization and automation has made life so easy that millions of Yuppies live better than kings did 40 years ago. We've paid a horrendous price to achieve this efficiency. I have friends and acquaintances who have lost good jobs as automation swept in. The efficiency was painful to achieve. When we lose it, it will be more painful because it will happen in an instant, at computer speeds. Instead of the suffering of the 20 or 30 year rightsizing, we're looking at a few vicious months of adjustment.
1999-11-30	Edward Yardenis sista Y2K Reporter	I sin senaste och sista Y2K Reporter före årsskiftet skriver Yardeni att han fortfarande tror på 70% sannolikhet för en recession och 40% sannolikhet för en mycket djup recession. Han baserar detta på enkätundersökningar och sammanställningar av företagens rapportering i Y2K-frågan. Yardenis senaste Y2K Reporter är MYCKET LÄSVÄRD och jag REKOMMENDERAR Er att läsa vad han skriver. Det är kloka ord. Vi kommer få en global recession som en följd av 2000-problemen. Det är naivt önsketänkande att tro något annat. Du behöver Acrobat Reader för detta dokument.
1999-11-30	USA:s handelsdepartement uppmanar företag att dubbla omfattningen av tester	Okidoki. Det blir två gånger noll för 40% av företagen... (Pssst. 40% av företagen har inte och tänker inte genomföra tester...) Vi läser: They conclude that it is possible that many important systems have not been tested adequately. NIST strongly recommends that all critical systems be tested literally from end to end.
1999-11-29	Bill Clinton väntas utlysa 'National Emergency' 1 januari 2000	Mer än 50 simultana y2k-kriser inom USA väntas utnyttja befintliga resurser till bristningsgränsen. Om USA - som är ett väl förberett land och är vant att hantera större kriser - kommer att uppleva 50+ allvarliga y2k-kriser, hur många kriser kommer då att uppstå utanför USA? 1000? 10000? Hur allvarlig blir recessionen år 2000? Det här är från WorldNetDaily: Clinton set to declare national emergency More than 50 simultaneous Y2K crises expected, stretching resources to limit By David M. Bresnahan President Clinton has already made plans to declare a national emergency because of expected disruptions caused by the Y2K computer problem, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency documents. A final training session followed by a mock Y2K disaster exercise will include the actual disruptions and problems that Y2K emergency planners believe will take place during the change to the New Year. Plans for the emergency declaration were made known to Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and other federal employees in preparation for use of the Information Coordination Center, set up by the President's Council on the Year 2000 conversion. The plans were also given to the Senate Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem. The staff on hand at the Information Coordination Center have been told to expect a presidential declaration of a national emergency. FEMA staff who will run the regional emergency operation centers have also been told the same thing. "Should it become necessary, a presidential 'emergency,' rather than a 'major disaster,' will be declared, and assistance will be focused on addressing threats to life, health, safety, and property," the Senate committee was told in a report from Lacy E. Suiter from the Response and Recovery Directorate of FEMA. A national emergency will be declared because FEMA officials have concluded that there will be more than 50 simultaneous Y2K-related disruptions throughout the country, which will stretch the nation's local, state and national emergency resources to the limit. The Department of Defense is so concerned that the deputy secretary of defense, John J. Hamre, has issued a memorandum to commanders in the field to be very cautious about using the military to assist civil agencies. Hamre said local requests for help might seem appropriate, but he warned local commanders to be cautious about using the military to help with Y2K disruptions. "Immediate responses that appear rational from a local perspective, but could collectively undermine the department's ability to execute operational missions" should be ruled out, said Hamre. Hamre has ordered commanders to avoid using the military for Y2K problems unless there is a threat to life or damage to property. The warning applies to domestic as well as international requests for help. The anticipation of a multitude of simultaneous problems that would stretch the ability of the government to respond is the driving force behind the plans for declaration of a national emergency. Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, told WorldNetDaily there is a very real fear that the enemies of the United States could conduct domestic terrorist attacks because they will expect the country to be weakened due to the military's having to deal with Y2K disruptions. He said there is also a possibility that cyber-terrorism attacks might even try to sabotage computers to create what appear to be Y2K computer failures, in order to enhance opportunities for terrorists to conduct further attacks on U.S. cities. Suiter says many small, localized disruptions are expected to occur. Response should come from local and state agencies "to the maximum extent possible," he said. FEMA has been conducting training for local police and fire officials in an effort to help them be better prepared for Y2K emergencies and reduce the need for federal assistance. FEMA officials who attended training in each of the 10 FEMA regions were told a major disaster declaration was ruled out because the Y2K problems will not "involve a natural disaster," according to the presentation materials used and provided to WorldNetDaily. "A presidential 'emergency' rather than 'major disaster' declaration will be made if Y2K consequences exceed state/local response resources," FEMA staff and other federal agencies were told at the regional meetings. Peter Kind of the Information Coordination Center sent a memorandum to staff members to guide them in preparations for final training exercises Dec. 6 to 9. He wants the exercises to be as real as possible, and asked for recommendations on what Y2K problems are actually expected. Although Suiter claims "no one knows for sure what will happen following rollover to January 1," those who will staff the Information Coordination Center have been asked by Kind to submit a list of the most likely Y2K disruptions for use in the final Y2K disaster training and exercise. "We want to exercise the rollover sequence with special emphasis on what could happen when, as midnight and subsequent critical periods such as business hours, opening of financial markets, etc., follow the timeline westward. We invite you to help identify the high probability and high-risk items that might occur, by time zone, both for use in the exercise and to help prepare us all," requested Kind. Past exercises conducted by FEMA and other emergency organizations have always stressed that they do not know what problems to expect when the New Year begins. "In order to make the December exercise as realistic as possible, we ask that you provide your ICC core staff contact with your best estimates of possible incidents, anomalies or other systems operation events most likely to be seen during the Millennium Rollover (sic). Receipt of this type information by November 24 will ensure that it will be incorporated into the exercise scenarios when and where appropriate," said the instructions to ICC staff. "We are hoping for the best, but taking necessary and prudent steps to prepare for any contingencies," said Suiter. Although emergency planners may be planning for the worst, their Y2K preparation materials provided to the public do not suggest that the general public take the same precautions. The Federal Emergency and Management Agency and Red Cross Y2K disaster planning guides recommend preparations that, in effect, advise the public to have a 72-hour kit similar to what would be needed for a winter storm. The Information Coordination Center is scheduled to be staffed 24 hours a day beginning Dec. 28 and continuing at least until Jan. 7. Plans include an option to extend the date if the national emergency continues. Virtually all federal employees, including FBI and members of the military, have had vacation time canceled to enable them to be ready for action if needed. Civil agencies all across the country have issued similar restrictions for police, fire and other vital services to be on call or on duty. "The emergency management community may be facing a potential disruption scenario that it has not dealt with before: simultaneous disruptions in all 50 States and six territories that may require federal emergency declarations. In addition, we may have numerous weather-related major disaster declarations to address during this time frame," explained Suiter. John Koskinen, head of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion, is concerned there may be problems caused inadvertently. He is warning people not to pick up the phone just after the start of the New Year and make a call "just to see if it works." He said too many attempts to make calls all at the same time would shut down the entire phone system. He also warned that the public may be fooled by normal failures and think they are caused by the Y2K computer bug. ATM cash machines, phone service and electric services all have localized failures on a regular basis. One of those types of failures may happen right on Jan. 1 and create a mistaken belief that a Y2K failure has occurred when it really has not. "The presumption is to blame all failures on Y2K that weekend," Koskinen said, and Bennett agreed. He said the public must help to reduce the demand on the system at a difficult time. WorldNetDaily has learned that a computer hacker was able to alter the website run by the Commerce Department recently. A message was displayed that said: "Run for your lives! Hit your computer's power button and never turn it on again." The hacker was reported to be making a statement about potential Y2K problems and trying to illustrate weaknesses in the government computer system that would permit a computer terrorist access to government systems. The hacker identified himself only as "Comdex0r." Koskinen said there are many such attacks on government computers all the time. He said hackers will be easily detected during the Y2K rollover period because there will be tighter security at that time. Koskinen asked "recreational hackers" to stay away during the date change rather than complicate what is anticipated to be a difficult time for government agencies. "This is not the best time to do that," Koskinen said.
1999-11-29	Ett memo inom Chicagos polismyndighet har nått allmänheten	Ett internt memo inom Chicagos polismyndighet nådde allmänheten i förra veckan. Det innehöll en uppmaning till poliserna att bunkra upp med mat och vatten, pga sannolika problem med övergången till år 2000 i staden Chicago. Men officiella företrädare förnekar innehållet. Förstås. Annars skulle det ju bli panik. Lika bra att spara paniken till efter årsskiftet.
1999-11-29	Ännu en Rysslandsvarning	Det här är från PC för alla: Ryssland nonchalerar År 2000-problemet 1999-11-29 Trots varningar från väst om att Ryssland är ett av de minst förberedda länderna vad gäller Y2K så ignorerar de ryska politikerna problemet. I undersökningar gjorda på olika länders förberedelser inför År 2000-problemet så hamnar Ryssland högt på listan. Trots detta så uttalade sig Rysslands vice premiärminister, Ilya Klebanov nonchalant om problemet. - Vi kommer att uppleva en lugn genomgång till år 2000, precis som alla tidigare årsskiften. Jag tror att det är bäst att inte skrämma upp Rysslands befolkning för mycket. Ingen vet med säkerhet vad som kommer att hända i Ryssland vid övergången till år 2000. Skräckscenariot är att landet med sina 148 miljoner innevånare kommer att bli utan el under årets kallaste period, och därmed lämna större delen av befolkningen i isande kyla. Experter är ense om att kärnkraftsolyckor med största säkerhet inte kommer att inträffa. Däremot kan det bli problem med tillgången på naturgas som flera europeiska länder är beroende av.
1999-11-24	Är du beredd att ha fel om y2k?	Antag att du har haft inställningen hela tiden att y2k bara är hype och inget att bry sig om. Vad gör du om det verkligen inträffar saker som får dig att djupt ångra att du inte tog varningarna på allvar? Är du beredd att ha fel om y2k? MEn om du har gjort vissa förberedelser och det visar sig att y2k verkligen var hype, skulle inte det kännas bättre? Michael Hyatt skriver om detta i en kolumn.
1999-11-24	Hur går det för Saudi Arabien?	Hur kommer landet att drabbas av y2k-problemen? Enligt denna rapport ganska hårt uppenbarligen, eftersom det enda "positiva" är att de bunkrar upp olja... Det här är från Reuters genom Yahoo News. Gulf Oil Giants Brace for Y2K Showdown DUBAI (Reuters) - Giant Gulf oil producers are scrambling to exterminate the Year 2000 millennium bug with no guarantees that they will be able to thwart the potential computer glitch from sabotaging millions of dollars in exports. From Saudi Arabia -- the world's biggest exporter -- to smaller Gulf oil countries like Oman, state firms seem confident they will keep the oil flowing. But experts say Gulf states, which sit on nearly half of the world's oil reserves, cannot afford to let their guard down in the countdown to 2000. Industries around the globe are bracing for a potential coding glitch that could cause computers and embedded chips to misread 2000 for 1900, threatening economic chaos. The Y2K frenzy has spread to the Gulf, where a disruption in exports would hit oil-dependent economies and leave customers in key consuming markets without crucial fuel supplies.
1999-11-24	Till och med Dagens Nyheter har fått nys om y2k nu	USA varnar för resor till öst på nyårsafton MOSKVA. Utkylda bostäder, vattenbrist, döda telefoner och datorer. Det kan bli följden av millennieskiftet i Ryssland, om man får tro en rapport från det amerikanska utrikesdepartementet. Amerikanska UD har personal i över 100 länder världen över. Av dessa pekas fyra ut som extra utsatta inför millennieskiftet: Ryssland, Ukraina, Vitryssland och Moldavien. Amerikanska medborgare avråds från att besöka dessa länder i samband med millennieskiftet och ambassadpersonal kan i vissa fall få fri utresa hem i samband med nyårshelgen. Moskvaambassaderna för Kanada, Australien och Nya Zeeland har givit liknande råd till sina respektive landsmän. Enligt UD-rapporten har Ryssland varit för sena i starten med att säkra olika funktioner inför millennieskiftet, något som ryssarna själva harmset tillbakavisar. Och uppfattningarna om eventuella datorproblem i Ryssland inför år 2000 går sannerligen vitt isär: "pessimisten" pekar på de 16 reaktorer av Tjernobylmodell som fortfarande är i drift, och de omkring 2.500 missiler med kärnstridsspetsar som finns i beredskap. "Optimisten" menar att Rysslands låga datorberoende i själva verket gör landet mindre sårbart än andra för eventuella millenniebuggar. På USA:s ambassad i Moskva påpekas det noga att man inte tror på något skräckscenario med kärnkraftsolyckor eller skenande missiler. - Vi har sagt att smärre störningar i energi- och vattentillförseln inte kan uteslutas och att det kan innebära obehag av övergående slag, säger ambassadtalesmannen David Firestein. - Vi har därför uppmanat amerikanska medborgare att vidta de åtgärder de finner nödvändiga. Det kan innebära att resa bort under perioden kring millennieskiftet. De transatlantiska ambassaderna planerar att sätta upp "kriscenter" med satellittelefoner som kan utnyttjas av dem som väljer att stanna i Moskva. Vissa multinationella företag har försett sina anställda med detaljerade beredskapsplaner inför millennieskiftet.
1999-11-24	Ryssland ignorerar fortfarande y2k	Ryssland ignorerar fortfarande y2k-frågan. Landets ledare och beslutsfattare samarbetar inte med Väst i syfte att åtgärda eventuella fel. En del ryska ledare betraktar y2k som en säkerhetsfråga, så de vägrar kommentera.
1999-11-21	Industriförbundet glömde visst nåt	Så här skriver Industriförbundet: Vi drar slutsatsen att 2000-säkringen i år har lett till ett allmänt uppsving för investeringar i mjuk- och hårdvaror, vilket i sin tur bidragit till den relativt starka tillväxten i svensk ekonomi i år, med de positiva spridningseffekter på t.ex. uppdragsverksamhet och sysselsättningen som det medfört. Varför i tar de inte hänsyn till de ekonomiska effekterna EFTER årskiftet för? Det är ju det som är det intressanta. Självfallet ökar företagens investeringar INFÖR årsskiftet, men hur påverkas företagen/Sverige av en internationell konjunkturnedgång som följd av faktiska millennieproblem? Inte ett ord om detta.
1999-11-21	Svårt för Microsoft	David Eddy menar i sin krönika att även om Microsoft som företag är 2000-säkrat så är långt ifrån alla deras program 2000-säkrade. Och det drabbar oss och företagen som litar på sin programvara från Microsoft.
1999-11-21	Universitetsekonom menar att bankerna kommer att klara y2k	...Conclusion While it is too much to expect that every bank will be ready for the Year 2000, the banking system as a whole seems on track to handle the transition without major problems. Most banks will have only minor problems. The clearing system and other interbank transactions should function well, though with some increase in errors. Customer and counterparty difficulties will cause some trouble, but resulting failures should be isolated. Even the wildcard of bank runs seems manageable given the tools and efforts of the regulatory authorities. Yes, the banking system will survive the Year 2000 Problem. Så bra.
1999-11-16	Likviditeten på valutamarknaden minskar drastiskt inför y2k	Pre-Y2K liquidity crunch to spur erratic FX moves LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - With just seven weeks to go to the end of the millennium, liquidity is drying up on foreign exchanges, making traders reluctant to hold on to positions and generating more erratic currency moves, dealers said on Monday. Concerns about the millennium bug (Y2K) computer problem mean foreign exchange activity is falling off earlier than is usually the case before the end of the year. The market's ability to absorb large transactions without triggering price distortions, as a result, is expected to be even further reduced next month. ``It is highly likely that the markets will be unpredictable -- thin and volatile -- over the last few weeks of the year,'' said Graham Cocks, manager of corporate treasury at Mellon Bank in London. ``Given one never wishes to risk more than a certain amount of money, the positions one can hold are going to be reduced.'' He said the unpredictability of the markets would also make investors cautious. As liquidity diminished, business would either dry up altogether or the number of transactions that needed to be done relative to the liquidity of the market would be greater than normal, creating volatility.
1999-11-16	"Y2k-buggen är väl inget. Det är värre med de som luras."	Det tar tydligen tid att få folk att inse vad det handlar om. Ok, det är givetvis inte bra att en del utnyttjar folks rädsla, men det är inte här huvudproblemet ligger. Storföretagen har tillsammans spenderat 2 biljoner dollar för att säkra sina system inför årsskiftet. Är inte det en indikation på allvaret?
1999-11-16	Turister flyr exotiska destinationer runt nyår	Lyxhotellen i Västindien räknade kallt med fullbelagda hotell över nyår, trots rekordhöga priser. Men de glömde kalkylera med y2k-problemet (som så många andra). Beläggningen är långt ifrån vad hotellägarna hade räknat med.
1999-11-12	Matsushita förbjuder sina anställda att flyga	Från IDG: 1999-11-11 12:00 Det japanska elektronikföretaget Matsushita har förbjudit sina anställda att flyga under nyårshelgen. Japans största tillverkare av hemelektronik Matsushita, som är mer kända under namnet Panasonic i Sverige har gått ut med en annorlunda order till sina anställda. Ingen av Matsushitas anställda världen över får göra några flygresor under nyårshelgen. Elektronikföretaget som precis har avslutat ett genomgående År 2000-test av alla sina produkter verkar inte lita på datorer och teknik. Det har resulterat i att de helt enkelt har förbjudit sina anställda att flyga under riskperioden. Dessutom har de 100.000 tekniker som kommer att campa utanför deras olika kontor om någonting skulle gå galet med deras nätverk eller fabriker.
1999-11-11	Bill Clinton garanterar att USA klarar sig bra	Vad har han att förlora? Han får ju ändå inte kandidera till presidentämbetet vid nästa presidentval i USA. "Hoppsan, jag hade visst fel. Så synd." Och det är nästan komiskt att se Bill Clinton spela vidare på synen: "VI är i bra kondition. DE ANDRA, däremot, vet vi inte så mycket om." Just det. After receiving the final report on the nation’s Y2K-related repairs, President Bill Clinton reassured Americans on Wednesday that there will be “no major national breakdowns” because of computer failures at the end of the year. But he noted that local areas and other countries could face problems when computer clocks roll over to 2000.
1999-11-11	Atlanta ohjälpligt efter	De dåliga nyheterna kommer från en y2k-konsult. "The City of Atlanta does not know the true status of its Y2K program. "There is no master program plan and schedule; the proper documentation has not been completed. "Y2K testing of applications is terminally behind schedule with little hope of making a positive course correction. "Assigned management does not have the skill or expertise to do an adequate job. "Even though contingency plans are being developed, the disarray of the remainder of the Y2K program will negate the effectiveness of the plans. "Atlanta leadership is not taking the necessary corrective steps with the proper urgency. "Atlanta's city leadership (e.g. Mayor, City Council) and citizens are unaware of the current Y2K Program status and are not prepared for potential problems." Hans två memos avfärdades som produkten av en missnöjd man. Stadens byråkrater är, likt alla andra byråkrater, officiellt missnöjda. Staden följer sin 2000-plan, insisterar byråkraterna. McCall won't promise the city's computers will be glitch-free, but he steadfastly maintains the Y2K program is on track. De är hoppfulla. "We are confident that, to the extent humanly possible, we will not have any Y2K compliance problems," said Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Larry Wallace. De säger att de är hoppfulla och att de följer sin 2000-plan. "Den som säger annorlunda är missnöjd". Typ.
1999-11-11	GAO ifrågasätter NRC:s uppgifter	The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, har utfärdat grönt ljus för alla 103 amerikanska kärnreaktorer. General Accounting Office of Congress, GAO (ungefär motsvarigheten till Statskontoret) ifrågasätter nu om NRC kan hävda detta utan att ha låtit någon oberoende granskare undersöka. Men kommer något att göras för att kontrollera om NRC verkligen har på fötterna för att hävda något sådant under de sex veckor som återstår till 1 januari? Givetvis inte. Som borgmästaren i Nagasaki kunde ha sagt 8 augusti, 1945: "Förbered er på en 72 timmar lång orkan. Och ta kopior på viktiga dokument." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says all 103 operating U.S. nuclear power plants are now ready for Y2K. But the U.S. General Accounting Office testified before Congress October 26 that the steps the nuclear industry has taken might not be enough to prevent problems at power plants. . . . Nuclear reactors provide about 20 percent of the power supply in the U.S., serving more than 65 million homes.
1999-11-11	Företagsledningar är rädda för y2k	. . . Many companies are addressing the issue effectively, but their disclosure statements read like something out of a legal nightmare. Perhaps this is because no one can guarantee the stability of systems, equipment, facilities, infrastructures, interfaces, suppliers or business partners as the year 2000 unfolds. The most interesting aspect of this research focused on the companies that really aren't prepared. Several organizations doubled or quadrupled Y2K budgets over the past year. Others have done little supply-chain research beyond the obligatory letters. Some companies have contingency plans, but many more are still working on them. Most troubling are those companies claiming to have contingency plans limited to anticipated problems, like unprepared suppliers. Maintaining business continuity in the face of the unexpected is a core principle of every good contingency plan. One thing my research assistant and I discovered is that few companies are willing to speak about Y2K directly. . . . One or two dogs in the group would be no big deal. But when company after company showed up as a high-risk candidate, my concerns began to grow. As I sat in my office contemplating the lack of preparedness at these companies, I received a phone call from a friend who markets Y2K remediation services. He told me that his factory has more year 2000 remediation work now than it ever had before. One company recently sent in 50 million lines of source code to be fixed by year's end. More surprising was the allegedly compliant financial institution that just sent in 20 million lines of code to be made compliant. . . . The underlying theme found in these disclosure statements, regardless of how well companies have prepared themselves for the year 2000, is that their executives take Y2K more seriously than most of the rest of us. . . . In spite of the happy talk from industry associations, the federal government and public relations firms, the year 2000 won't go away. Fortunately, most corporations already know this. It's too bad that the rest of the world doesn't.
1999-11-10	Den dolda kemiska infrastrukturen	Consider the hidden chemical infrastructure of modern living in metropolitan Portland: Cold milk? Fred Meyer stores up to 25,000 pounds of ammonia, a corrosive liquified gas, to refrigerate its Portland dairy. White paper? Boise Cascade keeps as much as 720,000 pounds of chlorine, a corrosive gas, to bleach pulp at its St. Helen's pulp-and-paper mill. Cheap computers? SEH America Inc. stores up to 46,000 pounds of hydrogen chloride, a corrosive liquified gas, to make the wafers that become computer chips. Comfortable chairs? Hickory Springs of California relies on 10,000 pounds of toluene diisocyanate, a carcinogen, to make polyurethane foam for furniture, bedding and carpet backing. Government and industry know a lot about these and hundreds of other hazardous chemicals. What they don't know -- and, in fact, what literally no one knows -- is how many of the facilities that make, store, distribute, use and discard these chemicals are immunized against the Year 2000 computer bug. The International Association of Fire Fighters, for one, calls hazardous materials the real wild card of Y2K. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an alert in August, warning companies that Y2K problems could lead to the accidental release of hazardous chemicals and other pollutants into the air, water and soil. Y2K issues could place workers, communities and the environment at risk, the EPA said. How can a computer problem wreak havoc with chemicals? The so-called millennium bug, in which computers may mistake the year 2000 for 1900, is hard-wired into a small, but significant, percentage of computerized equipment used by chemical handlers. Confused by the date, errant chips could trigger failures in process controllers, air monitors, security systems, laboratory instruments, safety-shutdown equipment and explosion-suppression systems, among others. The problem is that no one -- not the government, the public or even the industries themselves -- knows for sure how many companies are vulnerable to Y2K problems. Moreover, several recent studies zero in on what they say is the greatest vulnerability: small and medium-sized businesses whose owners don't understand -- or don't believe -- the implications of Y2K for their operations. "It's a bunch of hype," grumbled the operator of a small Portland company that makes cleaning and sanitation supplies. Of his own business, he said: "It's all under control."...
1999-11-10	"Y2K? Bara hype..."	Det är väl därför företag och myndigheter spenderat biljoner dollar för att åtgärda sina system inför årsskiftet... Tre självutnämnda experter från CNET skriver ett debattinlägg som i stora drag handlar om att det har varit helt bortkastade pengar att 2000-säkra sina system. Allt är bara hype, igångsatt av företagen i Silicon Valley för att tjäna pengar på folks oro... Mmm, just det. But if the ballpark estimates for the overall costs of the Year 2000 problem are anywhere near true, they would tax even the most nimble mathematical mind. Some place the figure somewhere between $1 trillion and $2 trillion. That's more than the combined market capitalization of the top ten Fortune 500 companies, nearly twice the cost of the Vietnam War, or more than enough to fund ten Apollo space programs, adjusted for inflation. Perhaps the most visible Y2K impact won't come from bug itself, but from the vast amounts of money spent on related products, lawsuits, and preparation--as well as on canned goods and gas-powered generators. Två biljoner dollar... och det är viktigt att inte glömma generatorerna...! Undrar om de tre författarna kommer sitta på ett flygplan med destination Frankfurt 1 januari, 2000..
1999-11-10	Kraschar Italien?	Kan Italien kollapsa? Nej, säger experterna. En del problem kommer att uppstå förstås. Ja, landet startade sina y2k-förberedelser sent. Men det spelar ingen roll. Varför inte? Ingen vet. Marknaderna ignorerar att möjligheten till kollaps finns. Precis som andra europeiska regeringar. De problem som Italien förväntas uppleva är av samma karaktär som de problem som förväntas drabba USA och Storbritannien: lokala områden med bortfall i elförsörjningen och telefoniproblem - inget allvarligt. Y2k är egentligen inget problem och behöver inte åtgärdas. Ingen förväntar sig att Italien skall lyckas åtgärda sina millennieproblem i tid. Ingen bryr sig. Detta förhållingssätt är universalt idag. Åtgärdat eller inte, allt är (nästan) bra. Det här är en Associated Press (AP)-nyhet. ROME -- Critics joke that Italy has a divine contingency plan when it comes to coping with any Year 2000 computer bugs: Hope for a miracle. Italy, millennium ground zero for the world's 1 billion Catholics, is among the worst prepared countries in the West for Y2K, experts at home and abroad warn. ``They have a very good connection ... Maybe that's the reason why in Rome they're not worried,'' said Paolo Tedone, head of a university-based Y2K advisory group, nodding toward the Vatican dome across the Tiber River from government offices. ``It's true it's a Jubilee. But don't expect miracles,'' Tedone added. The government insists the country has caught up after an admittedly late start. But experts say no one can start late fixing Y2K problems in software and electronic devices and expect the fixes to be in place on time. Italy's best hope now is focusing on emergency plans in case of failures, they say. ...A U.S. Senate committee, mindful of American travelers, called breakdowns in health services and communications particularly likely in Italy. Even Rome's own Y2K point man concedes there ``very likely will be some problems'' -- but minimizes them. ``The ones we fear are little suspensions of electricity and brief interruptions of telephone services,'' said Mariella Gramaglia, head of the city's Y2K task force, emphasizing the very little and very brief nature of any crises. Given the scale of the software fixes needed, information technology experts say, governments should have started debugging at least 18 months ahead of 2000. But Italy waited until 1999 to create a national Y2K committee. Journalists kept track of how long it took to get its phones hooked up: late February, maybe early March. ``Italy is very, very far behind,'' said Nick Gogerty, an analyst at International Monitoring, a British-based technology consulting group that rates countries' Y2K preparedness. Stung by international criticism, Italy announced this fall that it had caught up. ``You know how we Italians are -- to react to a problem we have to have our backs put to the wall,'' Franco Bassanini, chief of the government's Y2K efforts, joked at a mid-October news conference called to announce Italy was now Y2K-ready. ...``It's a joke,'' declared Tedone, faulting Italy's leaders for not doing more, and sooner. ``I don't believe ... they understand the real magnitude of the subject.'' Part of that is the Italian way of life, Italians themselves say. In an economy still heavily monopolistic and government-run, people are simply used to essential services not working. They complain, but they cope. Undvik Italien en tid framöver...
1999-11-10	Europeiska flygplatser i fara	Åk inte till eller från Frankfurt under januari... THIRTY major European airports, including the second busiest in the world, were last night branded safety risks after a United States Government millennium bug report. Passengers flying into Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland next year will land at terminals that have not yet updated computers controlling airside security, public safety and fuel supplies, according to the report published on the Internet by the US Department of Transportation. The failings stand little chance of being fixed in the eight weeks that remain before the millennium and are likely to compromise passenger safety, bug experts said on viewing by far the most comprehensive guide to flying over the millennium yet published. British airports, airlines and air traffic control get a clean bill of health from the report. Frankfurt, however, which handles 42 million passengers a year and more international flights than any other airport bar Heathrow, emerges particularly badly. Robin Guenier, the executive director of the independent watchdog Taskforce 2000, said he was "completely staggered" by the findings. "If I were the chief executive of an airline, I wouldn't want to be flying into any of these places," he said. The American data suggested that ten European countries were "at serious risk" of millennium air trouble, he said. The report says Frankfurt has still to overhaul most of its key computer systems, has set no date by which it promises to be bug-compliant and has yet to finish drawing up contingency plans. Updates still pending at other airports include the access control and security system at Geneva and Zurich's navigational and approach aids. A spokesman for the International Air Transport Association in Geneva denied that any European airports would face safety problems: "The data collected by IATA shows Y2K readiness in all regions."
1999-11-10	De amerikanska småspararna börjar agera och de amerikanska bankerna börjar låna pengar hos Federal Reserve inför y2k	Det första konkreta "beviset" på att vanligt folk verkligen agerar inför årsskiftet. De amerikanska småspararna har börjat ta ut pengar från bankerna... Banks draw from special Y2K discount window-Fed NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Thursday banks had made the first significant borrowings this week from the discount window using special terms set up to handle year-end liquidity needs. The Fed said banks borrowed $210 million on Wednesday at the discount window under the special facility which allows for expanded collateral. Fed officials said it was the first time they had seen ``significant borrowings'' under the facility which was created to address any year-end liquidity problems related to concerns over the Y2K computer bug. Discount window borrowings under the special facility up until now had been minimal, the Fed said. The New York Fed, the U.S. central bank's arm in financial markets, announced in September it will accept a broader array of collateral at its discount window. The bulk of financial markets' daily operations is usually easily financed by borrowing against top-grade collateral -- mostly U.S. Treasuries. Now a broader array of debt instruments may be used as collateral in discount window borrowings. Fears of Y2K computer glitches may make liquidity harder to get or more expensive than usual in the computer-driven banking system.
1999-11-10	"Det är inte vårt fel!"	Det federala amerikanska styret har gjort fullkomligt klart att OM (inte när!) det uppstår några fel är det inte deras fel. Det är de lokala styrenas fel. Rapporten talar om att y2k kommer att passera i princip obemärkt förbi i USA, Kanada och i andra utvecklade länder. Infrastrukturen är felfri. Oljeexportörerna är i gott skick. Allt ser ganska ljust ut. Fast nästan inga organisationer är 2000-säkrade. Lös den ekvationen! AP rapporterar: Local governments, schools, hospitals and small businesses continue to lag on repairs needed to avoid possible Y2K computer problems, the White House warned in its final report on the nation's preparations. With just over 50 days left, the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion cited surveys showing more than one-fourth small businesses don't intend to do anything to get ready for the New Year's rollover. The worst among them are adopting a "wait and see" stance toward expected failures, said the report. John Koskinen, the president's top Y2K adviser, previously warned that 911 computer failures probably wouldn't prevent police or fire departments from taking calls. But they could force employees to use manual dispatch systems, meaning it will take longer for rescue workers to respond. "It is clear that a significant amount of work remains for all centers to be ready," the White House study said.
1999-11-10	Öppet brev till Alan Greenspan	Ett antal y2k-experter skriver här ett öppet brev till Federal Reserve-chefen Alan Greeenspan med en uppmaning till honom att inte förlöjliga eller tala nedlåtande om människor som gör personliga förberedelser inför år 2000-störningarna. Här är inledningen på brevet: NEWS RELEASE Y2K Experts Issue Open Letter to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan This morning, many of the nation's leading experts on the Y2K problem issued an open letter to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan. The letter requests that he assist them in their efforts to inform the public about how Y2K could disrupt our lives, and how to prepare in order to minimize the consequences of any problems that do occur. The letter was signed by technology experts, emergency management experts, policy analysts, academicians, community organizers and ordinary citizens. Many of the signers have been participating for over a year in a group which assists the President's Council on Y2K's Sector on Civic Preparedness. The technology experts signing the letter include the Society for Information Management (SIM) Year 2000 Working Group. Several community based Y2K groups signed the letter, including Coalition 2000, a network for community preparedness. Chairman Greenspan has recently given speeches about Y2K that were interpreted (perhaps misinterpreted) to imply that it is socially irresponsible to prepare for Y2K by stocking up on essential goods. "Unfortunately, evidence continues to mount that indicates that many remediation projects are not as complete as they should be so close to the end of the year," the letter states. "Given the uncertainties surrounding Y2K outcomes, the only reasonable action for businesses is to develop contingency plans for potential disruptions. A key element of many such plans is the stockpiling of essential components and raw materials. Implementing such plans will assure that, should disruptions in those areas occur, the consequences will be an inconvenience rather than a crisis. The same logic applies at the household and community level." "With precious little time left before the end of the year, it is important to focus our energies on those areas that still pose the greatest risk", said Leon Kappelman, Co-Chair of the Society for Information Management's Y2K Working Group. "For example, by all measures, the financial sector moved early and aggressively to deal with its Y2K vulnerabilities. However, risks to the public still remain from small and medium sized businesses that handle hazardous materials. Also, not enough information is known about the readiness of municipal water and sewage facilities. As a nation, we should be directing our efforts towards dealing with these important issues, and preparing for the inevitable disruptions that will occur, rather than basking in the successes we've had so far." On the issue of community preparedness, the letter states, "Clearly, the more prepared communities are, the less severe any emergency will be. Furthermore, to the extent that others have already provided for their own needs, greater attention can be placed on restoring services and providing goods to the most severely affected areas. In the remaining weeks of 1999, we want to build up sources of strength around the country so that, when the inevitable Y2K problems hit us, we have fewer sources of need to deal with, and greater ability to deal with them."
1999-11-10	Skulle det inte vara enklare om programmerarna var överens?	Osäkerheten om vad som kan inträffa vid årsskiftet skulle minska betydligt om programmerarna gemensamt kunde gå ut och tala om att allt kommer att fortsätta fungera som normalt. Men tyvärr finns inte denna konsensus bland programmerarna. En del av dem hävdar dessutom att det kan gå riktigt illa. Vad ska gemene man tro?
1999-11-09	Action 2000 och Taskforce 2000 oense	Taskforce 2000 menar att Action 2000 sprider felaktig information. "Skitsnack", ryter Action 2000 tillbaka. Om den brittiska allmänheten brydde sig om y2k så borde den vara konfunderad. Men ingen bryr sig. "Alla" tror att saker och ting kommer att fungera som vanligt. Som det alltid gjort.
1999-11-09	155 mjukvaruprogram fick ändrad status från 2000-säker till icke 2000-säker	Allt enligt Infoliant Corporation som följer 2000-status bland mjukvara.
1999-11-07	Tyskland, Spanien och Finland på lista över länder som inte kommer att vara säkra att vistas i under januari 2000	Det här är från IDG. 10 länder ligger på svarta listan 1999-11-06 16:00 10 stycken länder i Europa finns med på en svart lista över de länder som inte kommer att vara säkra inför år 2000. Taskforce 2000 är en oberoende grupp som rapporterar om länder som kan ha problem med sin datorer år 2000. Gruppen varnar för att resa till de länder som är med på listan under en femveckorsperiod som sträcker sig från början av julen till slutet av januari. De tio länderna som finns på Taskforce 2000 svarta lista är: - Tjeckoslovakien - Finland - Tyskland - Ungern - Italien - Polen - Portugal - Ryssland - Spanien - Schweiz Kritiker menar att Taskforce 2000 målar upp en alldeles mörk bild av situationen. Flygtrafiken kommer att flyta på som vanligt med vissa förseningar uppger den internationella flygindustrin. Mer information hittar du här.
1999-11-07	Ryssland ska köra kraftförsörjningen manuellt över årsskiftet	När ni har återhämtat er från skrattsalvorna (de verkar verkligen mena det) kan ni gå till ursprungsartikeln i Washington Post. Russia's electricity monopoly will shift its huge grid to manual control on Dec. 31 to ensure it avoids "millennium bug" outages, system officials said Wednesday. . . . Managers at United Energy Systems, the country's electricity monopoly, said at a news conference that they are 95 percent ready for the date flip-over. The company has checked about 50,000 computer systems which guide the flow of power across the country. . . . "We can't give a 100-percent guarantee that not one of these many systems will fail," said Remezov. He said generating plants will have a week of coal or fuel oil reserves on hand at the New Year. Earlier, authorities have said that nuclear power plants are safe from potential problems computer problems. . . .
1999-11-07	Nasdaq-börsen ska försöka övertala investerare att INTE sälja sina aktier inför årsskiftet	Vad är klokast? Att sälja nu, innan den förväntade säljvågen? Eller att vänta och sitta med Svarte Petter och ångra att man inte sålde när man hade chansen? . . . In separate testimony before the House panels, J. Patrick Campbell, chief operating officer of the Nasdaq stock market, disclosed plans for a public relations blitz designed to prevent any panic sell-offs as 2000 approaches. The securities industry is taking out ads in major daily newspapers -- including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times -- in the next few weeks to ''separate Y2K fact from fiction,'' he said. The text of the ad call on investors to ''stay invested for the long term,'' adding: ''We believe the market will continue to reward prudent investors with the patience to stick to sound investments over time.''
1999-11-07	John Koskinen: "Y2k-problemen är inte över 2 januari"	John Koskinen är utsedd "y2k-tsar" av Bill Clinton med ansvar att informera om USA:s y2k-arbete. Så här oroligt har jag inte sett honom uttala sig tidigare. President Clinton's chief adviser on the Year 2000 technology glitch warned the nation Thursday that Jan. 1 would not mark the end of Y2K-related concerns. . . . The President's Working Group on Financial Markets cited concerns about small- to medium-sized enterprises worldwide, including in the United States, and about ''the financial sector in several small European markets'' that it did not name. ''One risk is the potential for a 'domino' systemic effect brought about by significant disruptions to these groups because of the Y2K rollover,'' said the working group, which consists of the Treasury, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. . . . John Koskinen, Clinton's Y2K czar, told Congress that one of the most troubling Y2K myths ``is the notion that January 1 is a seminal date on which everything, or nothing, Y2K-related will occur.'' In testimony to a joint hearing of House of Representatives subcommittees, Koskinen said Y2K problems ''can happen any time a computer that is not Y2K-compliant comes into contact with a Year 2000 date -- before or after January 1.'' Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 conversion, said experts would have to monitor automated systems ''well into the new year for flaws in billing and financial cycles and possible slow degradations in service.'' ''So I think it is important for the public to know that January 1 is just one of the important dates in the life of the Y2K issue,'' he said. . . . ''We also expect failures in sectors where large numbers of organizations were late in starting or, even more troubling, are taking a wait-and-see approach,'' Koskinen said. . . .
1999-11-07	Moody's varnar för att y2k kan sänka kreditvärdighet	Kreditvärderingsinstitutet Moody's varnar för att y2k riskerar att sänka företags kreditvärdighet. Moody's man warns Y2K bug poses a credit threat Doom-mongers are at it again. With only 58 days to go they are warning of the havoc the dawn of the new millennium could wreak. The soothsayer this time is Kenneth Pinkes, chief credit officer at ratings agency Moody's, who has cautioned that the millennium bug still threatens to lead to credit downgrades. 'The Y2K millennium bug is a legitimate credit concern which, although not catastrophic in nature, can hurt a debt issuer's creditworthiness if not adequately addressed,' Pinkes told a think-tank in Washington.
1999-11-04	Y2k-problemet är inte en bug, det är ett systemfel vars effekter kommer att överraska många	To get rid of this little annoying pest — Indubitable Cause Of Mere Inconveniences — all we have to do is...grab that fly-swatter...whack! All gone. Nonsense. The Millennium Bug — Not The Y2K technology problem, endlessly described as the omission in data storage of the first two-digits of the year, is not a bug: it is a systemic design flaw. Think of it this way. A systemic design flaw is not a bug. Let's say you are building a house. Your brother-in-law is also building a house. To save money, he decides to use nails too short and too skinny, everywhere. You use nails too short and too skinny in one wall, accidentally. Your brother-in-law's mistake — a deliberate choice, affecting an entire structure, which can be surmised to have potentially bad consequences though the exact fall-out might not be predictable — is a systemic design flaw. Your mistake — a simple oversight, immediately affecting only one part of the structure, with unforseeable consequences on a much smaller, perhaps negligible, scale — is a bug. The systemic design flaw becomes popular. A friend of your brother-in-law likes his idea of using nails too short and too skinny. Saves money, don't you know. And his friend's friends like the idea, too. They all start building houses using nails too short and too skinny. Some of their friends start putting up apartment buildings using nails too short and too skinny. Some other friends do the same with malls and shopping centers; others, with dog houses and garages and children's playhouses. Many of them don't realize they're using nails too short and too skinny, or why it might matter. They just do it because that's the way it's done. And most of the buyers and users of these buildings have no idea that they were constructed using nails too short and too skinny. The systemic design flaw has become ubiquitous, out of sight, and usually out of mind. Some folks wake up and start to think. Unaccountably, in this strange situation, nobody has been thinking about the possible ramifications of numerous buildings having been put together with nails too short and too skinny. When, say, a big storm will come through, some of them might become unsafe. Some of them might collapse. Some of them might collapse into a building next to them. A few people actually start to think about it, though, and they try to get the defective buildings repaired. "What!?!?!?!" the buildings' owners shriek. "The buildings are fine just the way they are! Nobody is getting killed. Nobody is even getting hurt. Everything is fine. Go away." But the warners insist that a big storm could come, and the buildings really ought to be repaired. "What!?!?!?!" the buildings' owners shriek. "Let's get this straight. Do you want us to spend lots of time and money to increase revenue? No. Do you want us to spend lots of time and money to decrease costs? No. You want us to spend lots of time and money to maintain the status quo. What kind of idiots do you take us for? Go away, before we start to call you nasty names and sic the junkyard dogs on you." Time is running out. Eventually, word comes that a government agency has conducted surprise inspections of buildings elsewhere: heavy fines, even prison sentences, were meted out to those who had constructed buildings using nails too short and too skinny; some of the buildings were declared unsafe, and therefore unusable. Taking this as a clue, some folks start to repair or replace their buildings constructed that way. Some start sooner, some start later. Many scoff at them. Until the government inspectors arrive. Mercifully, they are all given a year to repair or to replace their buildings. No more, no less, than one year. Those who had already started...well, they got a head start. Some of them finish with plenty of time to spare, while the others are working right down to the wire. What about those who had scoffed? No head start for them. No matter how big a job they have, no matter how small, no matter how many buildings or of what kind, they still have the same amount of time in which to get done as those who had started long before. Of course, the inspectors will take a few days to get around to all the buildings, and rumors have it that the inspectors might allow a grace period of two or three days to those who have very nearly finished. That might, indeed, be all that's needed by those who have already made a good effort to get the buildings repaired or replaced. But, the scoffers somehow comfort themselves with the knowledge that they might actually have two or three extra days in which to finish — or to miraculously accomplish the entire task — though others have spent months and years trying to get the job done.* Get the picture now?
1999-11-04	Wall Street-analytiker kallar företagens förberedelser inför 2000 "one of the biggest deceptions in 30 years"	D. Paul Cohen menar att företagen i USA lyckats tuta i börsanalytikerna att allt är y2k-ok. Men i själva verket är det det största lurendrejeriet på 30 år. TWST: So as you see it, Wall Street thinks that Y2K is a non event, and that all is well within corporate America. Mr. Cohen: Wall Street generally believes what it wants to believe, that Y2K will be a benign non issue - a blip with no major problems. Corporate America sold the Street that bill of goods. Corporations regularly promote themselves and deceive. It is human nature. The art of competent securities analysis is to separate self-serving promotion and deception from the truth. But in general, U.S. corporate Y2K compliance progress is one of the biggest corporate deceptions I have seen in 30 years of analytical experience. The problem is that Wall Street didn't have the analytical experience of IT competence, nor the IT infrastructure values from which to ask intelligent questions. The Street simply couldn't do comparative analysis, get relevant answers, give the companies little or no wiggle room to respond inadequately, and conclude in an intelligent and informed manner. It just plain didn't happen.
1999-11-04	Y2K - dyr gambling	Här är några tänkvärda tankar från Westergaard Year 2000. Gästkolumnisten heter Chris Gilbey. With Y2K, very few people can claim ignorance. Whether we prepare or not remains a gamble. Yet, ironically there is now probably a lower interest in preparation than at any time I have seen in the past year. Unfortunately I don't think that this is because our preparations are so well advanced that we can all relax. The Y2K odds go something like this: There is a 1 in 25 chance that there will be a failure in a chemical factory in the U.S. How many chemical factories are there and therefore how many factories will fail and do damage to the local population or the environment? There is a 1 in a 1,000,000 chance that there will be a problem with an airplane. How many airplanes are there in the world flying to how many places? So what are the chances of you being on a flight or under it or affected by it? It's easy to ask the questions. The real question is "What are the real odds?" When was the last time that you bought a lottery ticket? What were the odds on winning? 1 in 10,000,000? Yet you thought you had a chance, otherwise you wouldn't have bought the ticket, would you? So how much of an impact do you think that Y2K may have on you? How much of a gamble are you going to take on the life of your family?
1999-11-04	NASA chansar inte	In an exclusive interview with space.com, Dittemore said NASA is not taking any chances when it comes to the Y2K computer bug and the potentially dangerous effect it might have on an orbiting spaceship and an astronaut crew. After all, NASA's $2 billion shuttles rely heavily on flight computers and software - not to mention computers in the agency's Mission Control Center in Houston - to safely carry out piloted space voyages. "We've gone to great lengths to certify ourselves so we can say with certainty that we can operate in a Y2K environment," Dittemore said. "But good common sense and prudent judgment says if you don't have to do it, don't do it."
1999-11-04	Stor virusvarning	Från IDG: FBI och en rad andra myndigheter har fått in över 30.000 hot om datorvirus som kommer att släppas lösa på Internet för att "fira" det nya millenniet. Enligt Lou Marcoccio på konsultfirman Gartner Group så kommer antagligen majoriteten av dessa hot att rinna ut i sanden. Han påpekar dock att om exempelvis 5-10 nya virustyper släpps lösa på samma gång kan det skapa problem för antivirusföretagen att hinna med. Det betyder att flera företag kan råka ut för allvarliga produktionsbortfall om de blir attackerade. Oavsett om det ligger någon sanning bakom dessa virus eller inte så ser det ut att bli en spännande nyårsafton detta år.
1999-11-03	"Minst 1000 brittiska småföretag kommer att gå under pga y2k", säger Federation of Small Businesses	De kommer inte att "bara" uppleva störningar. De kommer att gå under. Konkurs. Over and out. Och det påverkar inte ekonomin? Recessionen är snart här. CNN rapporterar: MORE than 1,000 small firms face financial collapse because of the millennium computer bug, a leading business support organisation warns. The forecast by the Federation of Small Businesses is the first to estimate the number of likely casualties in the small firms sector. It says the bug, caused by computers' inability to recognise the digits 00 as the start of the new century, will increase business failures by 10% in the first quarter of next year. Business collapses on this scale would hit the economy, which is increasingly reliant on small companies to provide growth and jobs. The victims would almost inevitably drag down scores more with them because they would be unable to pay suppliers and other creditors. The federation's warning comes on top of last month's State of the Nation report by Action 2000, the government body set up to tackle the Bug. It said a 'worrying' 27% of small and medium firms had not taken the necessary steps to prepare for 2000. Another 37% had no fallback plans if their preparations failed. Action 2000 chairman Don Cruick-shank said: 'Those who have done next to nothing will face problems with suppliers and customers that could make their businesses fail. 'Firms should use the valuable time left to put down on paper what they will do if something unexpected disrupts their operations.' Companies are also warned not to be complacent even if they have installed 'safe' computer equipment and software in the past few years. Petfood maker Pascoe's of Bridgwater, Somerset, had to replace computer accounting packages and hardware bought just five years ago because it was not millennium compliant. 'It cost 30,000 to replace,' said John Crispin, 57-year-old company secretary and its Year 2000 project co-ordinator. Even low-tech businesses that do not use computers risk going under if they fail to check that suppliers are geared up to squash the bug. The Phoenix Walking Stick Company of Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, makes its sticks from chestnut saplings using traditional methods. But it had to check that the supplier of the rubber ferrules for the ends was ready for the bug. Managing director John Faulkner said: 'All our accounts and customer information is also held on computer. It has taken two weeks to make sure we are compliant.' The federation believes most firms will survive the first week of the new century because of the New Year holiday. But the second and third weeks will expose any gaps in firms' preparations, and by the fourth week these may be too late to rectify. 'The fourth week will be crucial,' it said. 'Some companies may not be able to invoice, or they will be faced with other difficulties producing an immediate cashflow problem. This may push them over the edge.'
1999-11-03	Prominent ekonom förutspår valutakris med efterföljande global recession nästa år "De finansiella bubblorna världen över kommer att spricka"	Den amerikanske ekonomen Hans Hennholz har excellenta referenser. Han var en av få som examinerades av Ludwig von Mises. Det är inte många ekonomer som tror att y2k kommer att påverka finansmarknaderna på ett avgörande sätt. Hennholz tror annorlunda. Den här uppsatsen publicerades den 28 oktober och är läsvärd. Europeans may soon finance their trade in euros rather than U.S. dollars, which may result in a huge shift from dollars to euros around the world. It would signal a shift from dollar hegemony or dollar standard to a bipolar monetary world. The transition may depress the exchange rate of the dollar, boost the prices of all imports, and generate an upward pressure on inflation and interest rates. It could trigger a dollar crisis, burst the Wall Street bubble, and usher in a deep recession. The situation is not likely to change for the better given the global electronic infrastructure which will be at severe risk of collapse in the coming year. Commonly called The year 2000 (Y2K) Problem, it threatens most financial institutions especially on the international level. The computer omission of the century digits from dates has erected computational ambiguities that corrupt individual computer systems and then multiply to endanger inter-related systems. It is quite certain that many millions of computer systems around the globe will fail at the beginning of the new millenium, which will have a serious impact on the ability to conduct business. It is likely to deflate all financial bubbles.
1999-11-01	Dale Way från IEEE ger Ed Yourdon konstruktiv kritik	Dale Way från Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE, är expert på inbäddade system. Ed Yourdon har argumenterat för att problem med inbäddade system kommer att uppstå efter årsskiftet i uppsatsen The Y2K End Game. Dale Way har en del synpunkter på innehållet i uppsatsen. Bl a kan vi läsa att Dale Way tror att världen kommer att drabbas av stora problem en lång tid efter de första två veckorna i det nya årtusendet. Eftersom jag inte är dataingenjör har jag inte tekniska kunskaper nog att avgöra om det han säger är logiskt. Men jag vet att om han har rätt i det han säger så kommer det få mycket stor negativ påverkan på ekonomisk aktivitet världen över. Några utdrag: ...When considering the real concerns of Y2K to society as mentioned above, it is not so much the number of system element failures. It is their duration that poses the largest threat; their Mean Time To Repair (MTR). It is in longer duration failures that the breach of containment and the probability of cascading failures of other elements, technical and economic, rise in an exponential-like fashion. We could tolerate a lot of failures if they lasted only a short time. If your phone service is out for a minute, you might not even notice it. If for an hour, it may be an inconvenience. (If it was out for a critical hour when some important call was supposed to take place, that could hurt, but again, that’s a probability game.) If it was out for a day, that could very well hurt your business. But if it was out for a month or six months, you would be in serious trouble in many ways, and if the outage was widespread, so would many other people and institutions. ...Y2K problems or failures do not necessarily mean system failures. System failures do not necessarily mean business function failures. Business function failures do not necessarily mean business or economic failures. There are many levels of containment that work to keep any problems from becoming things that actually impact people in a way that matters to them. And most of these containment layers and efforts are outside of the domain of Y2K remediation efforts. As this non-technical realm is a battleground that will engage many employees in almost all organizations directly or indirectly, and most people as individuals and families, not just us techies, and because the battle is likely to take many years to be decided, it is the ultimate reality of Y2K. If an organization goes off half-cocked, without complete, detailed knowledge of how its ‘system of systems’ works altogether in all normal and possible abnormal situations, as the vast majority of remediators have done, yet make wholesale changes as if it did have that knowledge, they are doomed to failure unless it had many more years than the three of four most organizations have been at it. (Some agencies of the U.S. government were not being fallacious when they first said they would be ready as late as 2014. They were just being honest. Of course, that "politically unacceptable" response was quickly squelched.) It would be better for the whole world if this could be admitted. Then non-technical contingency planning would have the urgency at all levels of society it deserves. But technical management and the Y2Klatura collectively do not have the brains or the guts to do that DEFINITIVELY. We will hew to our baseless confidence or pussyfoot around the obvious until the end. Collectively we are going to drive the ship right into the iceberg and not say anything until the screaming starts and then claim we did all we could to make everything compliant. We will burn in Hell. ...If this sounds harsh, it is only what history has in store for us, the self-appointed Y2Klatura. For we have taken it upon ourselves to define the problem and the solution. We have allowed or encouraged civilians to believe we knew how to handle it. We have buried our own doubts or mealy-mouthed them to the extent we allowed others to believe what was most comfortable for them. Though we have often ranted, we have allowed apologists and scare-mongers to each have their audience. We have given little to leaders that they can use on their terms in their world. We ourselves have been wrong about much. We have not examined ourselves nearly as much as we are demanding others examine themselves. We, too, have believed our own PR. It is time to make amends and do more to undo the damage we have inflicted. Until we do that we cannot expect others to trust us. Rollover/End is a dangerous anthropomorphism that mischaracterizes and misdirects, Compliance the siren song that calls us to the rocks. Other concepts more firmly grounded must be embraced. Other things more firmly grounded must be done.
1999-11-01	Amerikan som jobbar i Saudi Arabien hävdar att katastrof väntar i landet pga Y2K	...och det bådar inte speciellt gott för oljepriset. Ny global energikris? Blir recessionen till och med värre den här gången än 1973-74? Det här är från ett diskussionsforum. Here is an update filed this morning by the same contact who has provided us previous updates on the Saudi oil ports. "Allow me to offer some first hand, in the trenches, up close and personal observations. In case you havn't kept up with current events I am curently in the mid-east at the behest of a major petroleum company frantically attempting to alleviate the Y2k impact here. Factoid: Here on the Saudi Peninsula there has been little to no Y2k work done at all. Reason? There has been a perception that it isn't a problem because the American Media has consistently disregarded it. So, it isn't a problem for the international set. The Mid-east is now awakening to the potential and will have it fixed soon right? Ehhhh... Wrong!!.. most of the oil ports here rely nearly 100% on computer (PLC's not COBOL) controlled systems for the preliminary cracking of the crude and for the control for shipment. These are the "embedded systems" that we keep hearing about. First problem...identification. over half of the systems are in areas that do not allow ready access to the unit for testing. So we have to use statistical analysis of type failures. Bad news. 100% infant mortality of the most common PLC. So replace them, right? Ehhhh... another wrong answer... at this rate you will never win the Ronco electric dog polisher... The ONLY way to replace them is to take the WHOLE facility off line for about hmmmm.. 4 months... Now, it should be noted that this is the "premier" facility in the mideast accounting for about 45-50% of petro shipments. Contingency plan.... BUILD (yes I said build) a series of work arounds that could be put inplace with manual controls to attempt to keep the facility running. But even with that we are going to have to let the master system fail and the cut the manual valving into the system one location at a time (manpower problem)Otherwise we are right back at the same problem of taking the whole facility down.. OBTW we can't test this first so it is gonna get dicey as we attempt to guesstimate pressure and flow (previously handled by the computer) and will probably have the system operational in 30 to 40 days. THEN we will begin to replace the PLC's. And just in case you haven't caught on yet that means NO Crude from this facility AT ALL!! for at least 30 days. The Iraqi facility up at Basra is gonna crap out as well as the Yemeni port. Oh yeah, it is only a three day storm cum "bump in the road" right??"