I haven't posted to this forum in a number of days. I have been, and still am, watching the sector of crude oil production, delivery, and processing. Gartner said a few days ago that compounding errors will begin to make themselves known by the middle and end of January. I don't know if these problems will affect crude oil. For one, computer error compounding could affect ports in the area of insurance and assurance paperwork. That must be done before tankers leave ports. I am waiting to see if all the dots keep working, tankers keep moving and oil processing continues.

The lesson I learned, I learned early - Don't depend on others for my survival. That is up to me.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2000

Answers

Marcella,

Do you remember where you sew/heard this Gartner Group information? I would like to look into it.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2000

Go to gartner6.gartnerweb.com Two articles, "As the Date Changed, Why Didn't We See More Year 1-2000 Related Failures," and "Year 2000 Boundry: You Get What You Pay For."

Also, go to www.humanitarian.net/challenges Article, "Overview of Year 2000 Technology Challenges," report from International y2k group.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2000

Marcella, I agree, there remains a major risk in this area, and many others like it. A little soon to sound the all clear from my point of view.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

Marcella,

I wouldn't worry about this any more. The major crisis has passed. The main plants still run. The rest the failures will be mostly covered up.

My opinion is:

This is a case where diversity truely is great. Each plant is an individual specially designed plant, no two are quite alike, therefore, if there are some failures, they will be like normal failures, scattered in geography and time. There are enough people available and enough plants running that there will be no crunch type problem. It is all handleable now, like a light rain falling onto a field of lush green grass, a few blades may be hit wrong and be crippled, but no damage to the vitality of the field overall.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000