From Contest #13
And Now, On To This Contest's Candidates (the official list, in no particular order):
Y2k Countup:
Visit the friendly law firm of Hancock
Rothert & Bunshoft LLP to see a counter of the number of
Y2k-related lawsuits filed to date. And you can check to see if your
company has made the list yet.
Submitted by Dan McCune.
The obligatory Russian entry:
Russia's Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Valentin B.
Ivanov: "the general engineer [at the nuclear station nearest
to Moscow] promises that he'll have a New Year's party, and he's invited
me."
Perhaps he misunderstood when the general engineer told him
it would be "a
blast." Quoted on the New York Times (requires paid
registration) Reactors
Largely Free of Computers June 23, 1999. Submitted by Linda
Fitzpatrick.
Donald MacGregor,
a psychologist studying "Public Perception of Y2K Risks" through
the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Decision, Risk and Management
Science program: "Though technical experts generally predict that Y2K
problems are likely to be either non-existent or minor, they cannot
conclude with certainty that no problems will occur. To many people, it
looks like they don't know the answer to the question: 'Am I safe?' The
Y2K bug makes them feel they've been taken advantage of," he
continues. Therefore, some people actually may feel less risk from
voluntarily parachuting out of a plane than they do from dealing with an
ATM machine or utility over which they have no control."
Perhaps if you yell "Geronimo!" right before you make
a cash withdrawal you will feel better. Quoted on EurekAlert.org NSF-funded
psychologist available to explain why people do the Y2K-related things
they do June 21, 1999. Submitted by Peter Coker.
Creative Map Reading 101:
"The U.S. Virgin Islands Tourism Department said Sunday the territory
would throw a party in honor of being the first spot in the Western
Hemisphere to greet the sun on Jan. 1, 2000. "We're making this a big
deal as we usher out the old decade, the old century and welcome in the
new millennium," Ohanio Harris, special assistant to Gov. Charles
Turnbull, said in a statement. The U.S. Caribbean territory's celebration
will take place at Point Udall on the eastern tip of the island of St.
Croix, the easternmost speck of land in the Western Hemisphere, island
officials said."
We'll be celebrating along with them, since our
headquarters just happens to be the easternmost building on the west side
of our half of the block. Quoted on CNN.com U.S.
Virgin Islands lay claim to year 2000 first June 13, 1999.
John Koskinen
(again), chair of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion:
"Patients will have uninterrupted access to medications around the
year 2000 date change if they have prescriptions refilled five to seven
days before they run out, a White House commission said Monday. ...
"We can't guarantee that there won't be glitches," Koskinen
said. "But we are willing to say that the system will be able to
respond to anything that we think is going to happen." Refilling
prescriptions when patients still have five to seven days' supply on hand
is recommended even under normal circumstances, Koskinen noted."
I know you believe you understand what you think I said,
but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I
meant. Our advice: have enough prescription drugs on hand so that
you don't have to get them refilled the last week of December or the first
week of January. Quoted on Reuters U.S.
Says Prescription Drug Supply Safe For Y2k June 15, 1999.
The Russians aren't coming, the Russians
aren't coming...
"Work is nearly complete on a first-of-its-kind joint missile warning
center at Peterson Air Force Base. The plan is to have U.S. and Russian
troops sit side by side in the center, watching warning information piped
in from Cheyenne Mountain as the feared year 2000 rollover arrives.
There's one problem: The Russians aren't on board yet. Talks about the
warning center broke off as NATO bombs fell over the Balkans, a campaign
Russia strongly opposed. With a Kosovo peace plan in hand, U.S. officials
hope talks with the Russians resume, but they hadn't as of Friday."
Otherwise known as the Field of Dreams approach: if
we build it, they will come. Quoted on the Colorado Springs Gazette Plans
continue for U.S.-Russia Y2K warning center, with or without Russia
June 13, 1999. Submitted by Linda Fitzpatrick.
Marney Mason, Y2k
Project Manager for the Seattle District Army Corps of Engineers:
"People will do dumb things like shutting off all their appliances and
restarting them when New Year's arrives. Dumb people tricks can cause surges
and fluctuations in the power for short periods." The other factor is
that some people "don't want to believe in American ingenuity to fix
things. Y2K is the biggest adventure they can imagine, and they don't want
to give it up."
Y2k: It's not just a job, it's an adventure. Quoted on
the Seattle District Army Corps of Engineers web site What
if Y2K came today? April 2, 1999. Submitted by Jon Ridgeway.
We're sure there's a Stupid Politician in here somewhere...
I hate it when my PC coughs up typos all over my keyboard. Quoted on Roll Call Heard on the Hill June 8, 1999. |
China's Ministry of Information Industry Chairwoman Zhang Qi, asked at a press conference last month what percentage of
the country's power grid might fail, simply declaimed: "By order of the State
Council, the power grid will not fail."
Now why haven't our politicians thought of that? Quoted on AsiaWeek Attack of the Y2K Bug May
14, 1999. Submitted by Christine Greenwald.
Atlanta's approach to minimizing Y2k-related lawsuits:
"The PCs that will not be compliant are used in offices
that are "heavy into word processing," including the City Attorney's Office,
said information services manager [Chick] Vossen. "A lot of those are not going to be
compliant, but it won't make any difference," Vossen said."
Perhaps other developers will heed this wise decision to omit attorney's systems
from the "mission critical" list. Quoted on The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution City misses mark on
computer bug May 16, 1999. Submitted by Mark Maginity.
"Preparing for millennial chaos, hundreds of city
workers participated in Los Angeles' first Year 2000 disaster drill Tuesday at City Hall.
The one thing they were not prepared for: a real power outage. Elevators churned to a halt
and lights went out about 9 a.m., when a power surge knocked out a third of the building's
electricity. The outage forced Mayor Richard Riordan and his
large entourage to trudge up nine floors of stairs to his office and descend 12 floors to
attend the Y2K drill. ... "That bothers me," Riordan told reporters. "If we
can't take care of the elevators, what can we take care of in this city?" When he had
calmed down, Riordan said he was assured that the power shutdown had nothing to do with
the drill to determine whether the city will continue operating smoothly as the 20th
century comes to an end Jan. 1. The outage was later blamed on a short in a power
meter."
We're sure that future drills for Y2k preparedness will go off without a hitch as
long as the power and elevators stay on. Quoted on The LATimes.com Power Outage Makes City Hall
Y2K Drill a Little Too Realistic May 26, 1999. Submitted by David Mushinskie.
"Former televangelist Jim Bakker
says the much-discussed threat of the Y2K computer bug will be a "Sunday picnic"
compared to the asteroid he envisions crashing into the Earth and blocking out the sun and
moon. "All I say is don't fall in love with this world," Bakker told a capacity
crowd Sunday at the Solid Rock Christian Center."
Just what we need around January 1: a big comet appearing in the sky. Quoted
on CNN.com Jim Bakker: Warning
Solid Rock about space boulder May 25, 1999. Submitted by Linda Fitzpatrick.
And now the the unofficial list:
all those other entries whose sources couldn't be verified, but we liked anyway
Available in paper form only, so no URL:
From "Hambleton News", the annual report of Hambleton District Council in North
Yorkshire, England (James Herriott country), issued to all households in May 1999:
"The problems arise because of the inability of computer systems to deal with the
date change to the year 2000. Many are currently programmed to deal with the first two
digits of the year only."
Could someone please call the IT people and ask them why it's still the year
"19" on all our reports? Submitted by Tom Banfield.