internet company documents suggest severe problems ------- Forwarded Message Subject: Y2K Alert - 12/17/98 - Internal documents reveal telecomm truth Sent: 12/16/98 11:50 PM Received: 12/17/98 10:37 PM From: alertsend@y2knewswire.com To: Eddie Pons, ponski@soft-link.com The following is a free Y2K alert + analysis from Y2KNEWSWIRE. COM. You signed up for this. Removal / unsubscribe instructions and e-mail contacts are at the bottom of this e-mail. *Do not* reply by hitting 'reply' in your e-mail program. To reach us, you must use one of the e-mail addresses given below. ____________________________________________________________ SECRET DOCUMENTS REVEAL Y2K TELECOMM TRUTH: A MAJOR LONG-DISTANCE COMPANY KNOWS THEY WON'T MAKE IT (But they won't admit it publicly...) Y2KNEWSWIRE recently received a collection of internal documents from an employee at one of the major long-distance companies. The documents appear to be genuine. However, to avoid copyright infringement, we cannot reprint them here. But we *can* paraphrase the documents without violating copyright law, and that's what we're going to do in this alert. We feel it is our responsibility to inform the public the truth about Y2K problems at large telecommunications companies. We are withholding the name of the company because frankly, the name does not matter. We think *all* the major telecommunications firms are in the same position. The problems described by this one are not unique. Every firm is playing the same spin game, avoiding a public admission of Y2K-guilt while privately, internally, they all know the situation is hopeless. Here's what we found in one particular document: [COMPANY] SUMMARIZES THE PROBLEM In the first part of the document, the company simply summarizes the Y2K problem. [COMPANY] ADMITS ENTIRE SYSTEMS COULD BE SHUT DOWN Mid-way through the documents, the company acknowledges that corrupt data could cause the shutdown of entire systems. They quote a study of network switch components conducted by Bellcore, describing how they were completely locked up after a simulated 2000 rollover. The company then refers to this as the, "Killer aspect" of the system. Then, the documents describe the company's ongoing efforts to solve the problem, pointing out that the deadline, "absolutely cannot slip." [COMPANY] ESTIMATES ITS EXPOSURE The company then says it has between 80 and 100 million lines of code that might be affected by the Millennium Bug. It goes on to call the bug a "virus," which is technically incorrect, but close enough for telecommunications work, apparently. Then the company describes another test of a Bellcore switch that experienced a frightening shutdown due to an expiring license date problem. The switch shut down completely. Another component apparently worked until April of 2000 (in simulation), then it, too, shut down as the daylight savings time change was attempted. [COMPANY] ADMITS THEY CAN'T MAKE IT! Then, the company's internal document claims that fixing the problem is, "too large a task" to finish in time. There simply aren't enough staff hours, according to these documents. The company then goes on to describe a strategy of triage: they'll accept failures in *some* systems in order to focus on the BIG ones. And that's the big challenge, they say: identifying the big systems and getting them remediated in time. THAT'S IT! The document then ends with a warning that all documentation is for internal use only and cannot be distributed outside the company. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Publicly, this company is telling people they will complete all Y2K remediation on time. We now have proof this is a *con job* designed to deceive customers and investors. And we suspect this is the situation with *most* companies. Internally, when the engineers sit around the lunch table, they all know the situation is basically hopeless. There simply isn't enough time remaining. But publicly, these companies vigorously defend their positions, claiming *everything* will be finished before 2000 and using classic denial phrases like, "We're well on our way..." and, "... the vast majority of our critical systems will be done." This is exactly why 2000 is going to be the biggest shocker we've seen in a generation. It's the moment at which all Y2K lies and deceptions are revealed. The spin melts away to reality. IT'S BEEN A WHILE Americans haven't seen this for a long, long time. Deceptions are the norm these days, and "truth" and "reality" seem to be relative -- especially in politics. The people in power have actually come to believe that words equal reality. If they say it, it must be true. Y2K is the one event that cannot be persuaded. It does not listen to spin and hype. It doesn't have a "mind" to be subjected to mind games. It will simply happen -- precisely on schedule. Remember, bureaucrats are not used to operating under these circumstances. Take the stock market, for instance. Because the stock market is essentially a vehicle of faith, when Clinton says the stock market is good, it *is* good because people believe him. The words have a direct causal effect. Y2KNEWSWIRE thinks politicians have forgotten that Y2K doesn't work that way. If all spinsters on the planet gathered together and gave us their best hype, it would still have zero effect on fixing the Millennium Bug. This is the point they don't understand. Do you wonder why John Koskinen continues telling people the federal government will have absolutely no Year 2000 problems? He's in spin mode, not reality mode. And he seems to believe his spin will somehow solve the problem. That's why 2000 will be a reality-check for at least half the population. Here's a completely objective issue that cannot be swayed by politics or persuasion. It's a pre-programmed event designed into the system. It can't be bargained with or reasoned with. And it most certainly won't listen to spin. SOCIAL SECURITY LIKELY TO MAKE IT This is virtually the *only* Y2K-compliance claim we believe. Social Security is going to make the deadline, no kidding. Why is that? They've spent *a decade* (employing over 700 programmers) to fix the bug. And they'll be done in June of 1999. Aside from the programmers, over 2800 people worked on the problem. This is exactly why the claims from other agencies that started much later -- like the FAA -- are simply lacking all credibility. Do the math here: 700 programmers x 10 years = 1,750,000 person-days of work. That's fourteen million hours of work, and that doesn't even count the 2800 *non-programmers.* So Social Security has spent 14 million hours correcting this problem, according to their own statement. How many hours has the FAA spent? Frankly, we don't know. But to equal 14 million hours in just two years (because they really weren't seriously working on it until early 1998), they would need to employ 3,500 programmers working full time! WHY WASN'T SOCIAL SECURITY FINISHED IN 1991? If these projects could really be completed in two years, why wasn't Social Security done in 1991? Why did it take TEN years to complete the job? If John Koskinen is to be believed, *all* federal projects, no matter how late they started, will be done in plenty of time. And that means two years is quite enough for most agencies. Why did Social Security take ten, then? You already know the answer. Note, however, that without telecommunications or banking, Social Security's compliance doesn't matter. Read the details at: http://www.amcity.com/atlanta/stories/1998/12/14/focus5.html SURVEY REVEALS INSIDER PESSIMISM According to this San Diego Daily Transcript story (link below), the Aberdeen Group conducted a survey at November's COMDEX computer show. Here are some of the more interesting survey results: * Less than half are confident their organization's "mission critical" desktop computer applications will work in 2000 * 20% said their organizations haven't even finished the Y2K assessment stage * 53% said they were "unsure" whether their compliant systems could be effectively shielded from corruption by non-compliant systems Read more details at: http://www.sddt.com/files/library/98/12/07/tca.html U.N. TO DEPLOY Y2K SWAT TEAMS These are basically "crisis intervention teams" that would visit countries with the worst problems and try to solve them. Question: if international transportation is down, how will the SWAT teams get around? Read the details in this CNN report: http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9812/12/y2k.un/ NEW ZEALAND COMPLIANCE PLANS NEAR COLLAPSE As this "Radio NZ" report reveals, plans to make public sector groups Y2K compliant are on the point of collapse. Read the details at: http://www.year2000.co.nz/y2krnz01.htm READER MAIL "I spoke with my bank (US Bank in Portland) and asked them about buying gold and silver coins. The bank employee looked at me and asked, "Y2K?" and I responded "Yes". She told me that I was about the 150th person this month to inquire about the conversion on assets to gold. She advised me to call the brokerage division of the bank." ________________ "At Grand Union in Smithtown, New York, I had a clerk recently ask me if we were invaded or something because so many people had packed the store for the can goods sale. At Waldbaums's in Ronkonkoma, when they put 20lb bags of rice on sale (about once a month) they FLY out the door. I saw one lady buying three." ________________ "Just a few weeks ago, diesel generators were readily available in the southern AZ area. Now there are none to be found. We are looking for one (obviously we postponed too long) and my husband remembered a large lumber/building supply store in a smaller AZ town that has always had a large supply of all kinds of generators (they service many contractors). He drove up there today and found they had ONE generator, a small 500 watt gas-type, on the shelf." - - Webmaster _____________________________________________ Get ready for Y2K, read the Y2K Sourcebook Get the inside sources for stocking up now http://www.y2ksupply.com/index.asp?pageid=sourcebook _____________________________________________ Tell a friend about the free Y2KNEWSWIRE.COM e-mail alert: http://www.y2knewswire.com/tellafriend.htm _____________________________________________ This e-mail message is subject to the following disclaimer: http://www.y2knewswire.com/Index.asp?pageid=disclaimer All statements made herein, and made since August of 1998, are Year 2000 Statements and are retroactively protected as Year 2000 readiness disclosures under the Good Samaritan Act _____________________________________________ To be removed from this e-mail list, simply go to the following web address: http://www.y2knewswire.com/u.asp?E=ponski@soft-link.com Or: http://www.y2knewswire.com/remove.htm _____________________________________________ Join the "believers-only" free Y2K e-mail newsletter: http://www.y2knewswire.com/believers.htm _____________________________________________ Please ignore this: (for undeliverable pruning only) http://www.y2ksupply.com/p.asp?E=ponski@soft-link.com _____________________________________________ HOW TO REACH US: If you have a hot tip for us (anonymity assured): tips@y2knewswire.com If you have a compliment: compliments@y2knewswire.com If you want to be added to the subscription list (free!), visit http://www.y2knewswire.com and enter your e-mail address in the sign up box located at the upper-left corner of the page. If you have a complaint: complaints@y2knewswire.com For questions about ordering: service@y2knewswire.com For any other comments: comments@y2knewswire.com - --------------5394A0C9D7D2472270037192 Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="vcard.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for Lynford Theobald Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="vcard.vcf" begin: vcard fn: Lynford Theobald n: ;Lynford Theobald email;internet: telnet12@burgoyne.com x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: FALSE version: 2.1 end: vcard - --------------5394A0C9D7D2472270037192-- - -> Send "subscribe snetnews " to majordomo@world.std.com - -> Posted by: Lynford Theobald <telnet12@burgoyne.com> ------- End of Forwarded Message