From: Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@stud.uni-muenchen.de>
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 02:37:53 +0800
To: "Reeza!" <howree@cable.navy.mil>
Subject: Re: SNET: United Nations plans SWAT team training to "control" citizens in Y2K crash
In-Reply-To: <199812290802.AAA28246@netcom13.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <36891A04.3CAA067F@stud.uni-muenchen.de>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Reeza! wrote:

> Sorry, yes I am up-playing, for the sake of humor. No, I'm not a
> consultant, Yes I desire to earn money, and the real problem (as I see it)
> isn't with the hardware or software, it is with what people will do.
> Regardless of anything relevant or irrelevant, what the sheeple think can
> happen, what they see happen, what really does happen and how some of them
> will over-react to it.
> 
> All the Gov't's making plans for martial law is an enormous alarm going off
> in my head,,,,

What I guess is very bad currently is that plenty of owners of the 
computer systems appear to be shy of facing squarely with the
problem and of conducting some direct tests to get at least some
real feeling of the problem that quite probably may occur. (It's
like one is not inclined to consult the doctors until the illness
becomes very grave. Certainly this is only my superficial observation. 
I may be very wrong.) Of course, such tests, if not well designed, 
may not deliver the hoped-for results. But having the courage to do 
some tests is anyway better than to avoid considering the problem 
till the day when Y2K really hurts. I am ignorant of how hard it 
is indeed to devise some realistic tests for Y2K. On the other hand, 
I can't imagine that these could be anything terribly difficult. 
If there are huge data bases involved, one could copy a part to a 
separate hardware and do experiments with it by entering data of 
Y2K and manipulating the system clock. If nothing happens, then 
one gains at least some assurance and can proceed to do more 
sophisticated tests. If something goes wrong, one knows directly 
what kind of misery one could expect to have at 2000 if the problem 
is ignored today and can thus energetically look for the remedy.
I speculate that most firms can start to do some tests with their
own staffs, i.e. without external consultants.

M. K. Shen