> Considering that its related to computing science I felt it was relevant.
Strangely enough, it's pertinent as all get-out, just not for the
reasons you espouse. If we succeed in the next year with some of the
things we seek here on Keelynet, we might just avert a global
catastrophe
that Y2K will not be the cause, but the catalyst- and not in the way
you've been lead to believe.
> Especially when you consider that Keelynet is made possible by
> the internet (linked computer network) that could come to a halt
> within about 500 days. If the worst case scenario does occur...then perhaps
> a known timeline where we all need to work together to get some real answers
> fast might be useful in knowing about. Right now the many bright minds
> of Keely are connected, while they are, perhaps some great good can be produced.
> In a year and a half they may no longer be connected should the systems go down.
> In my mind this is VERY relevant but perhaps the possible demise of such communication
> services isnt important enough or relevant enough to mention on Keely.
This implys that the systems that comprise the Internet will have a Y2K
issue. As a person that's been using the Connected Internet (the
"proper"
name for the Internet) I can safely say that unless the phone grid gets
shut down out of stupidity or the power grid gets shut down for the same
reasons- that Y2K will come to pass and everything will still be there.
A *majority* of the Internet backbone and all of the phone system is ran
off of _UNIX_ boxes. UNIX boxes don't have a Y2K problem within
themselves.
(However, there is an issue with 32-bit UNIX systems that occurs on the
year
2038- the rollover date for 32-bit systems running UNIX.) The Y2K issue
is
big, yes- but, unlike a lot of the doomsayers' prophesies, the problems
and
chaos will _NOT_ come from most of the sources they claim.
> true... however this problem also relates to many other lingo's
> not to mention psuedo-lingos, i.e. auto-scripting in biz apps.
> Another really nasty problem though is the chips, wherein coding is
> hard wired or burnt in... that means they have to be manually fixed
> and cannot be as easily 're-coded' as software code in writable storage
> mediums like drives etc...
The chips issue is nowhere as bad as the pundits for Y2K claim it is.
The reality is this- almost all embedded systems do not care from adam
what day of the week or month it is, let alone what year it is. Anyone
that claims to the otherwise is trying to sell you something- period.
These systems go off of how many seconds, minutes, or hours have passed
since the last event- or at most what time of the day it is. Systems
that schedule self-tests normally don't go off based on the time of the
year, but rather how many days have elapsed since the last self-test was
ran, etc.
> think about the loop back self running diag and main. tests that
> PLC's perform or have performed on them. You get a large clustering
> of nodes on an industrial WAN that regulate power distribution...
> well you only need a critical number of these to get 'stuck' in their
> 'overdue' servicing flag to have the whole grid jeopardized.
Read the above comment again. Simply put, this will not happen. As
I've
told others, if the grid is shut down, it'll be because the company in
your area was stupid (in various forms) or something more sinister is
going
down.
> As for fincanial institutions...they're screwed. Citycorp, if I understand
> correctly has about a half a billion lines of code that still have to be searched.
> No way they will even come close by 2000. Aussie govt., doesnt know if they even
> be able to have essential serives online for sure.
Citicorp supposedly has their "critical" software corrected. This means
that
money may be "lost" (and then "found" 6-12 months afterwards) but things
like
credit transactions will still work, etc. The governments are the ones
that
you need to worry about- they're going to be screwed up pretty bad by
this, and
possibly by the middle of next year (Start of Fiscal Year 2000...). The
situation
IS bad- but not as bad as the pundits are making it out to be. The real
risk
from Y2K is not the software failures, but rather from the mass hysteria
world-wide
that was whipped up by all the wives-tales about Y2K that the pundits
keep spreading.
Mass hysteria such that we have a run on the banks and stock markets.
Mass hysteria such that we have rioting.
That's what you've got to worry about with Year 2K. Not planes coming
out of the
sky. Not the power or the phone system dying. Not from Y2K causing the
financial
sector to collapse. It'll be from people freaking out over the "Y2K"
thing and
pulling money out of the system, causing it to collapse. It'll be
because stupid
companies that are so afraid that the power plant's going to "blow up"
that they
shut down the system. It'll be from people rioting and looting in the
streets
because they see the situation as an opportunity like the verdict on the
LA cops
was- and, the riots _if_ they happen, will make LA's riot look like a
Sunday
picnic. If the riots do happen, there will be those to see to it that
martial
law be imposed on the whole of the countries of the world- possibly for
good.
A new dark age approaches with all speed. Why do I claim this? Well,
the last
"dark-age" came because of ignorance, not unlike what we see coming
before us
in the next year. Can we forstall or prevent it? Perhaps. Can we
lighten the
blow- definitely. We need to quit telling Y2K fairy tales and get to
the _REAL_
meat of the matter and start telling the _REAL_ truths every chance we
get to
every person that will listen.
-- Frank Earl