...2/19/99 Y2K Media Tidbits...

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

---------- From Canada ---------

http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-02-19-0008.html

Friday, February 19, 1999

City quietly boots up Y2K crash pads

Secret list of millennium emergency shelters

By DOUG BEAZLEY, EDMONTON SUN The city's got a list of emergency shelters ready in case the millennium bug knocks Edmonton's vital information systems back to the Stone Age.

But emergency preparedness officials won't be giving out the shelter list until they've got a better idea of whether they'll be needed if the lights go out.

"We're still determining what the triggers would be (for announcing shelter sites)," said Jayne Galanka, the city's emergency planning officer.

--------------- And from the same city ---------

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/alberta/021999ab1.html

Take same precautions for Y2K as for three-day blizzard

Mike Sadava Journal Staff Writer Edmonton

Edmontonians should prepare for potential millennium bug problems the way they would for a three-day blizzard, says the head of the city's emergency services.

Despite major efforts by all levels of government, businesses and utilities to cope with possible computer problems arising in 2000, it's still uncertain how big the problem will be for Edmontonians . . .

. . . A group of civic officials has formed a Y2K consequence management group to develop a disaster plan to deal with issues such as emergency communications, public shelter and community protection.

The city will arrange places where people can get warm and find other help if they need it, including schools and community halls, which will be equipped with generators, he said . . .

. . . Melody Tomkow, spokesperson for a new group, called Edmonton Association for Y2K Community Preparedness, said the city should take a more aggressive approach to contingency planning.

"People need to be more self-reliant -- look at what happened in the ice storm last year," she said, referring to the winter storm that paralysed much of Eastern Canada.

She said her organization wants to stay away from either extreme -- survivalism or ignoring the possibility of problems -- but hopes rather to encourage neighbours to work together if there are problems.

Officials told a news conference the city has tested more than half its computer systems and doesn't foresee any major problems.

"There are no show-stoppers from my point of view," said John Mills, manager of the city's computer systems. "Nothing has been identified as a major issue that will not be rectified by year end."

Edmonton is in better shape to deal with Y2K than most cities because its computer system was replaced after 1990, he said.

---- Retailers are ALREADY getting nervous about the Christmas selling season --------

http://www.afr.com.au/content/990220/inform/inform2.html

Retailers go to the Y2K barricades

By Kath Cummins

Electronic goods retailers have embarked on a massive education campaign to boost consumer confidence amid fears that the millennium bug will drive down consumer spending.

At stake are the normally buoyant earnings of retailers in the run-up to Christmas -- usually more than a quarter of the estimated $76 billion spent by Australians on domestic appliances and home computers each year. Major retailers are already training their in-store staff, and are planning brochures and point-of-sale information detailing which products will carry warranties past December 31, 1999.

--------- Too bad they don't offer a link for this ------------

http://www.sltrib.com/02191999/business/84314.htm

SEC Offers Database Telling of Brokers' Y2K Readiness

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- The Securities and Exchange Commission has put a new database on its Web site giving investors access to the Year 2000 readiness reports filed by brokerage firms, mutual funds and other financial companies. The database now has more than 13,000 reports describing companies' computer readiness for the Year 2000 date change, how much it is costing them to prepare, and their contingency plans in case the systems fail, the SEC said this week. The market watchdog agency says it views the Year 2000 problem as a serious issue that, if not adequately addressed, could disrupt the functioning of many of the world's computer systems. To prevent disruptions, companies need to examine their computer systems, retool them, and test the systems and their interactions with other companies' systems.

The SEC recently charged 37 relatively small brokerage firms and nine stock-transfer agents with failing to fully disclose their Year 2000 readiness. And last week, the SEC's chief accountant said a check of financial reports that publicly traded companies must submit to the agency shows that many of them are still not complying.

----And finally - one of the Lisa's on the forum said the "John Koskinen is my absolute favorite object in the Y2K universe." This is why I agree with her. Find the "Fnord." -------

http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/0215/web-fedy2k-2-18-99.html

FEBRUARY 18, 1999 . . . 17:40 EST

Federal Y2K czar defends upbeat outlook

BY ORLANDO De BRUCE (orlando_debruce@fcw.com)

John Koskinen, the federal Year 2000 czar who uniformly downplays millennium doomsday scenarios, today gave a group of information technology vendors some insight into why he is more upbeat about the federal government's Year 2000 readiness than Congress, government watchdog groups and federal inspectors general.

Koskinen told a group of vendors attending a breakfast meeting held by Federal Sources Inc., a federal marketing firm in McLean, Va., that the roles of the congressional oversight committees and the General Accounting Office are to look at the weak spots in a government program or initiative, not to emphasize the positives. The auditor's role is "to continue to focus on where the risks are," he said.

For the past year, Koskinen has steadfastly contended in the face of negative reports that the federal government and the private sector would be ready for the new millennium and that few problems will occur because of computer malfunctions. Koskinen delivered the same message toCongress last month.

But Rep. Steve Horn (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology and a close follower of agencies' Year 2000 readiness, has consistently given several agencies poor grades on their Year 2000 progress. The DefenseDepartment's inspector general released over the past few months reports claiming fixes to DOD systems were far behind schedule and threatened national security. GAO repeatedly has stated inreports that numerous agencies' mission-critical systems will not be ready for the millennium, and members of Congress also have voiced their concerns that federal systems will fail in 2000.

But Koskinen said at the meeting that it is GAO's job to be critical until the end, even if progress is being made. Koskinen said he told Joel Willemssen, director of civil agencies information systems at GAO and author of numerous negative reports on agencies' Year 2000 readiness, that a recent GAO report concluding that the Federal Aviation Administration was still behind in its Year 2000testing phase was unfair. "It was more negative than I thought appropriate," he said.

At the meeting, Koskinen repeated his past statements that the majority of government systems will be fixed by the March 31 deadline that the Clinton administration has set for agencies to have all their mission-critical computer systems fixed, tested and reinstalled.

Koskinen said federal agencies that have reportedly lagged in their Year 2000 computer problem -- such as DOD, the Health Care Financing Administration, the FAA and the Energy Department -- will have most of their systems fixed by next month, and all of the systems will be fixed by year's end.

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), February 19, 1999

Answers

Thanks for the Koskinen catch, p, and FYI, if I was that clerk, that ring would have been flung far into the produce aisle...

- Got a lighter?

-- Lisa (lisa@work.now), February 19, 1999.


Oooh! A little internet flirtation! How nice...

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), February 19, 1999.

Thanks for the updates, pshannon, much appreciated.

-- Why2K? (who@knows.com), February 19, 1999.

is it just me, or is the gist of koskinen's comments basicly

"they have to tell the truth, but the president's advisor does not."

?

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), February 20, 1999.


Thanks for the heads up, Pshannon, I live in a 'burb of Edmonton, and work for a hospital there. I haven't heard of any Y2K group here before, so finding out about Melody Tomkow is a bonus! I don't often read the paper, I was so put out by the coverage of some events (and non-coverage of others).

As for Koskinen, the gov't has already missed the Dec 1998 deadline, we should believe that they'll make this one?

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), February 20, 1999.



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