I found this story interesting, hope you do to.

http://www.y2knewswire.com/19990701mm.htm

SafetyOne a.k.a. Martha

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

Answers

Martha, Thanks for the posting. I read your headline and was ready to jump up and down and yet, somehow I knew that it was too good to be true. DQE is my energy supplier and it is nice to know that the line they gave me last summer still seems to be the company's standard, pat answer. When I stated this to an employee, I was immediately reminded about the macroburst that blew through our region a year ago and knocked out our power for 4 days. Point was, no guarantees will ever be given.

I think these types of explanations conveniently mix apples and oranges for Joe Consumer.This is no weather related malady, and it begs the question with regards to compliance. Compounding the issue, of course, is the obvious question: how can fixes to other computer systems take place without the power?

A PR company has apparently partnered up with the energy industry for a quick, crash course in preventive maintenance, 101. I study the web long and hard looking for credible sources, and I don't know much about y2k newswire (in other readings there, they seem to cast a suspicious eye at everything), but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that I'd better start stocking up on batteries here in the Ohio Valley...and better be praying for a mild winter and strangely cool summer.

Thanks again.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999

Hi Martha. The two arguments used in the article:

1) Power companies won't say that they are "compliant". Dan sez: Anyone who says this has not been following power companies and Y2k very closely. Utilities have stated from the beginning that they will be Y2k ready, never that they would be compliant. What's the difference? Consider an illustration. If your car has a clock in it, but the clock fails because of a date problem, it is by definition non-compliant. Compliance requires that no errors in date functionality occur. Yet if you can still get to work, to the grocery store, and take a vacation in your car and it still runs fine, it is "ready". Do you really care if your car clock is broken, as long as it transports you from point A to point B just fine? Do you care if the power company's internally generated report might have a bad date? NO, of course not! You just care that your lights stay on! And that is what utilities are saying.

2) Some of the words and phrases used by different companies are the same. Dan sez: Again, the fact that numerous companies are now reporting that they are ready is completely ignored, yet that is the point. I know of no "boilerplate" readiness statement that was issued to utilities. It's possible that one company might have used another's statement as a starting point for their own; perhaps since internal lawyers review press releases, this could lead to the use of similar phrases. But what matters is the meaning of the words. If their mission critical systems are Y2k ready, then they are in very good shape for Y2k day.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 1999