There is an exceptionally capable programmer/writer from New Zealand by the name of Jocelyn Amon. She has written many articles during the last year or so about Y2k and the realities of dealing with it. A current essay is available now:

www.y2kinfo.com/journal/features/0899_amon.html

In this essay, Amon points out the many current software errors that can be pulled up on the web for many businesses. The point she makes is that programmers are often either unaware of the errors in their own coding or, when confronted with them, pooh pooh and minimize them.

This makes me think of the postings here about EDGs and battery banks. If Y2k causes individual plant shutdowns, let alone grid blackouts, the EDGs and battery banks are the last link in the chain of control. Yet, some "experts" choose to downplay this matter, or even laugh at it. As if to say that there will be *no* Y2k related failures leading to a shutdown or scram, no grid collapse, so no big concern about the integrity of the back-up systems, nationwide, worldwide.

What this essay from Amon will point out is that even as of right now there are countless software problems that are resident in countless programs that the programmers themselves are blissfully unaware of or, worse, deny that there *is* a serious flaw in their systems.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 1999

Answers

Gordon,

Great link! This industry insider makes no bones about telling it like it is.

This is a must read. Follow all the links in the article to read it all. Very good. Unfortunately very alarming as well; Ahhoooga!

Ste

-- Anonymous, August 14, 1999

Gordon,

Excellent post of very astute observations. I do computer programming now, and even though I am working on y2k and very involved with it, about 6 months ago, I found I had just accidentally created a y2k problem by the way I had designed a program I was working on. Once I realized this, I had to go back to square one and redesign the program based on a totally different logic in order to solve the problem.

xBob

-- Anonymous, August 14, 1999

Remarkable series of articles! And again, it is remarkable not so much that Y2k-related errors continue to be found, but that the action or attitude that truly shoots us in the foot is our own hubris. Responding as if we were abused children, we demand to be shown where we went wrong, and then deny that the problem even exists.

It is time we all take this to a deeper level. This is not a time to point fingers, but to acknowledge that, as a society, we have a common problem here. It will not be solved by blaming. It will only be handled by working together. Only by honestly acknowledging that the problem is as invasive and far-reaching as we did not want to believe, will we be able to do the work that can be done in the time left, as well as plan accordingly for the work required to fix it later.

This is not going to be easy, but it can change the way we work together, allowing us all the grace to understand that, bottom line, we are all Human; we all make mistakes; and we are all very gifted and have the capacity to learn so that those mistakes may be corrected.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 1999

I too am in the middle of a Y2K remediation project at an electric utility. Here's the killer: this is the second go-round for this purchased software. A previous installation/fix was supposed to have included Y2K remediation. This fix, while smaller, is "supposed" to take care of the problems that were "supposed" to have been fixed the first time.

I'm not a Polly programmer. I don't have confidence in the latest fix, nor do I have confidence in other systems or the level of work that's been done to remediate them. As with other electric utilities in the throes of deregulation, we have skeleton crews working on Y2K, deregulation, support, etc. We have no new people to help (other than contractors who blow in and out).

If we make it through the end of the year without some heavy-duty problems, we'll be incredibly lucky. I'm starting to get the feeling though that our luck has run out.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999

Dear Underground,

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999

Let's try this again!

Dear Underground,

While we certainly appreciate your participation in this forum... before the flames begin dancing over your head... can you please provide a few more specifics on the project to which you referred above? What is the general location of your facility? What type of system are you working on, and what is the perceived result of a failure of that system?

I'm sure others here will add more questions to this mix, but anything you can provide--and with as much specificity as possible-- would be greatly appreciated. In fact, without any more specifics, we'll have to dismiss your posting as just another hoax of the kind which has occurred all too often.

One additional step you could take to help your case is to e-mail me, or Bonnie Camp, or Drew Parkhill, or the moderator, Rick Cowles with some form of information that can verify who you are, and that you're really working for a utility. I am fully convinced that each of the people I have mentioned above will keep all personal information in the strictest confidence.

Thanks again for participating, and I look forward to additional posts.

Bob Allen

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999

Bob,

While I understand your concern about the underground post, there is a previous statement from Malcolm Taylor of New Zealand that they were delivered a brand new, bad, SCADA system which was screwing things up royally. They had to put the old one back in, but I haven't seen his update yet about any vendor correction for the new one. And of course, look at what the Lucent software did to MCI for 10 days, until they removed it and went back to the previous system. This stuff is happening, and when the new system is needed for non- compliant old systems, it won't be an option to reinstall the old software next year. Complex software fixes are measured in weeks, months, and years, according to Cory Hamasaki.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999

Gordon,

I am on vacation at the moment, and so haven't been in to work for over a week. When my break started the new "fixed" SCADA system was undergoing bench testing, and if it is OK then it should be installed by now. I'll be back at work on monday next week, and I'll update the group on how well the fix has been.

Regards Malcolm.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999