Truth starting to trickle out: D.C. Plans To Mobilize Workers

R

rifleman

New member
This is a fairly long article, I pasted the first 2 paragraphs then if interested follow link for entire article.

D.C. Plans To Mobilize Workers
for Y2K Backup
City Still Far Behind In Fixing Computers

By Eric Lipton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 28, 1999; Page A01

The District government, recognizing that its year 2000
repair program likely will not be completed on time, is
planning a massive New Year's Eve mobilization of
emergency personnel and other staff to ensure that
critical city services are not interrupted if computer
systems fail.

Police will be stationed at more than 120 locations
across the city, working 12-hour shifts, to take walk-in
requests for emergency services. Twenty-one "warming
centers," each supplied with food, water and cots, will
open. School crossing guards will be on call, ready to
replace traffic lights at major intersections. And D.C.
General Hospital will have extra staff members -- as
many as 175 -- on site.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/28/057l -062899-idx.html

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NRA,GOA,ISRA,JPFO



[This message has been edited by rifleman (edited June 28, 1999).]
 
i work in dc (district of confusion)
i expect humvees on the street corners in January.

dZ
 
From Ivan 6-28-99 1059PM EDT From 2 sources I have heard things will be a mess in DC for at least one month because of little Y2K compliance by DC Govt. The military source told me that the military is stocking up on essentials like food and water and the civilian source told me the same thing about Congressional worries concerning Y2K . But the party line from the " governmink" is that Y2k will be a weekend snowstorm! Place your bets folks.I am putting my money on the unofficial views.
 
Yup, I sure would not want to be an elected official during the first quarter of 2000. I wonder what the poaching laws are in DC.

just kidding :)

Jon...
 
i can not fathom the people that are saying "3 day event"

more likely 3 days, then 1 OK day, then 2 really bad days, then a week of OK then 2 bad days...

it is not one isolated event

it is a test of all the interconnections that make a 25 mile commute by 500,000 people possible.

and it wont all fail at once

we had a semi overturn on the beltway and 1 event screwed the commute for a whole day.

Add a riot by the underclass or terrorism and all bets are off

the Y2K programers are starting to bug out for the hills already...

i have seen some scary predictions by the coders...

consume a grain of salt & consider:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
But this one floored me: 18 who remained have gotten together, all mainframe
programmers wholly or partially dedicated to their company's Y2K efforts, and
initiated a "Death Poll."

It must be a guy thing. It used to be you pooled money to bet on the Green Bay
Packers or the Washington Redskins.... Not these high IQ brainiacs. It's a
Death Pool for those closely studying current Y2K conditions -- and it's got
very simple rules: "Let each person guess just how many people will die in
the year 2000 as a direct result of the massive Y2K failures that we all know
are coming." I asked this caller what the present "range" was ... minima and
maxima figures. I was expecting a range of, say, 2,000 to 500,000. Something
like that.

I wasn't even close.

Their range goes from 22,000,000 to 87,000,000.
That's right.... the 22,000,000 comes from this group's in-house Y2K polly.

It's gone up consistently in response to reports they are getting from
other friends in other corporations who are working in the Y2K pits and getting
more worried as each week passes and the "inside news" just keeps
getting worse. I was chidded when I asked if that wasn't a bit extreme,
especially since mainstream news was so glowing. His response: "Forget the
media. The programmers themselves are now networking and trading information
because they don't trust any other source of reports on where Y2K is headed.
The Pinnochio Factor is so widespread now that insiders are only trusting their
own kind. As Y2K remediators, we don't "spin" amongst ourselves. We have no
need to."

As it turns out, the pool is an attempt to get an accurate, consensual
assessment as to how badly Y2K will affect the infrastructure... an unusual
kind of quantitative measure as to the level of severity.

These guys are deadly serious.
[/quote]

doc Zox
 
dZ,
Where is this quote from? It seems those numbers are awfully high, even coming from programers.

If you have access to whoever or wherever that quote originated, what are the chances of getting more information?

Reliable information will help all as we get ready for this.
 
whole quote was from comp.software.year-2000

Date: 17 Jun 1999 05:38:23 GMT
From: LumenFoods <lumenfoods@aol.com>
Newsgroups: comp.software.year-2000
Subject: New Y2K Game: Death Pools

As a steady march of Y2K remediators continues to call our company
(soybean.com) and those of our competitors, making up a sizeable percentage of
those who are now leading the "preparation pack," I received this "first
person" phone report from a repeat customer: in a large company on the West
Coast, one IT department has lost over 30% of their programmers in the last 45
days. (I can't give the programmer's name or the company, so don't ask. And
anyone who is following the "Shoot the Messenger on Site" policies that
corporations are enforcing out there will understand.)

What is the leading cause of this loss? Career moves? Retirement?
The smart money already knows the answer: Y2K and the start of those who are
executing their "bug out" plans..

But this one floored me: 18 who remained have gotten together, all mainframe
programmers wholly or partially dedicated to their company's Y2K efforts, and
initiated a "Death Poll."

It must be a guy thing. It used to be you pooled money to bet on the Green Bay
Packers or the Washington Redskins.... Not these high IQ brainiacs. It's a
Death Pool for those closely studying current Y2K conditions -- and it's got
very simple rules: "Let each person guess just how many people will die in
the year 2000 as a direct result of the massive Y2K failures that we all know
are coming." I asked this caller what the present "range" was ... minima and
maxima figures. I was expecting a range of, say, 2,000 to 500,000. Something
like that.

I wasn't even close.

Their range goes from 22,000,000 to 87,000,000.
That's right.... the 22,000,000 comes from this group's in-house Y2K polly.

It's gone up consistently in response to reports they are getting from
other friends in other corporations who are working in the Y2K pits and getting
more worried as each week passes and the "inside news" just keeps
getting worse. I was chidded when I asked if that wasn't a bit extreme,
especially since mainstream news was so glowing. His response: "Forget the
media. The programmers themselves are now networking and trading information
because they don't trust any other source of reports on where Y2K is headed.
The Pinnochio Factor is so widespread now that insiders are only trusting their
own kind. As Y2K remediators, we don't "spin" amongst ourselves. We have no
need to."

As it turns out, the pool is an attempt to get an accurate, consensual
assessment as to how badly Y2K will affect the infrastructure... an unusual
kind of quantitative measure as to the level of severity.

These guys are deadly serious.

(P.S. ---- For those interested in hearing the latest reports we're getting
from "inside the REAL Y2K beltway," join our chat room session every Tuesday
night at soybean.com/chat.htm. We meet for an hour or two. Programmers make
up the bulk of our group, and you won't have to wade through any
Clinton-loving, polly-speak. It's factual. It's free. And like the old
days of this NG, you'll actually learn something. cya there.).

Greg Caton
President
Lumen Foods (soybean.com)
 
Those are really high numbers. Anyone know the number of soldiers and civilians killed in WWII? (for comparison purposes)
I can't even imagine the level of chaos necessary to kill that many people. It'd take a lot more than a 1911 and a M1A to protect me at that extreme.
If they are even half right, that would make it the single largest killer of any one event in history. (excluding extended wars)

------------------
I need more money to buy more guns and ammo.
http://www.angelfire.com/ny2/beefclub
 
some of the gloom & doom senarios factor in a death by famine induced disease

black plague
small pox
typhoid
TB

all the stuff that is under control could be online & wacking rapidly

IF we loose control of the situation

the quote did not state if the number is world wide either...

If the US is shakey on complience
How is Pakistan?
Korea?
 
Oh, I misread what you wrote. I thought you meant 22million in 3 days in the US.
22 million worldwide over the course of several months? Yeah, I can see that. The US is not fully prepared. The banks claim they are OK and have had succesful tests (I work for one). The Fed will shut down any bank that is not Y2K. They are also printing extra cash in anticipation of people drawing out extra cash right before New Year's.

I work for an international bank and while the US side is ok, all other countries are screwed. Apparently in Thailand they are just going to change the dates back 30 yrs and deal with the problem later. (Thailand uses a Buddhist calender for itself, so it doesn't care about our western problems). What about France, England and the other Europeans? I'm not sure, and neither is anyone else. Apparently the US is taking the lead in Y2K compliance. Russia....well, people are hungry now, they could care less about a computer glitch.

Not a plesent thought, 22 million or more people dying just cause some programmers wanted to save memory and write "85" instead of "1985". Wonder how it'll play in the history books.

------------------
I need more money to buy more guns and ammo.
http://www.angelfire.com/ny2/beefclub
 
From ; Ivan8883 6-29-99 541PM EDT Guys, my neighbor across the road from me is a weapons expert in the Navy.He works in DC a nd told me that the military is stocking food and water because DC system will fail! Can one imagine what happens when a metro water supply fails? Remember reading about cholora epidemics in the old days? I take this all seriously. To paraphase the Bible,those who live by electricity will die by it. Scary situation. Amish,of coarse , are proven correct. They have lived apart from this dependent system of electricity and have stuck to God's old ways. My prediction is that if y2k trashes our technology,Nwo has a alternate system ready to go for the world. But it will be a slave system with a mark needed to survive(From Revelations )
 
I'm a programmer... all day long...

I see some much unreasonable fear about the situation it isn't even funny. Do you honestly think that you car isn't going to start because of the date roll over? When was the last time you told your car about the date?

Remember those who are preaching the loudest doom and gloom scenarios are also the ones that are making $250K+/year performing the work. If they were so sure that the world was coming to an end... why are they working for something that would be worthless... money.

The facts are that this isn't a ticking time bomb that can't be tested ahead of time. Sure some systems will have problems, but it is possible to test them and know ahead of time what is going to fail. I find it rediculous for someone to stipulate that a company isn't going to spend the money to fix their companies problems... this is their livelihood we're talking about here. The business they've worked all their life to build. Of course they're going to pay for it to be fixed.

When the CEO's of large companies start screaming that they're computers are breaking and they can't find anyone to fix them... then I'll believe, but right now the only people that are screaming are the programmers... and that is for more money.
 
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