Date: Sun Dec 26 07:17:59 1999 From: alan@BLOOMFIELDPRESS.COM (Alan Korwin) Subject: Dr. Zero #6 To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
This information comes to you from Alan Korwin, DOCTOR ZERO TM
The Doctor Zero Report TM No. 6. December 26, 1999
YEAR END WRAP UP; 113 HOURS TO Z-DAY YEAR END WRAP UP; 113 HOURS TO Z-DAY YEAR END WRAP UP; 113 HOURS TO Z-DAY
by Alan Korwin Doctor Zero
1. Only a few days to go so straight to the bottom line. Do I believe that electricity is going to end? Hey, I bought myself a new guitar amp. Just be sure to distinguish between all the reports that say there is no problem, and the truth, which is we fixed the problem, mostly. At great cost to all of us I might add.
2. Don't believe the rumors that the our government is planning terrorist explosions and such, in an effort to establish martial law. Real wackos are going to do some real wacked out things. Watch out for yourself. Phoenix police recommend you be under concrete cover at midnight to avoid getting hit by falling "celebratory" gunfire (they've even introduced a law about it, more on that next year). There are no plans for locating and examining all these spent rounds.
3. The White House has announced it will vigorously pursue gun banning efforts in the new year, through non-legislative means, having been stymied by representative politics. Expect Z-Day violence around the world to be invoked as a reason to further this anti-rights and anti-self-defense agenda. Never forget that elected officials take an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
4. In the most unanticipated effect of Z-Day Mania, parties will be underattended and hotels unbooked, as people hunker down in fear of bugs and crazies. If I was running an event, I'd shudder everytime I read police and federal warnings in the headlines, which has occurred daily here in Arizona. Phoenix expected 70,000 advanced ticket sales for their downtown bash. They have 470. In a total affront, the self-funding, privately run event plans to sap millions of tax dollars to pay for its unexpected losses. I didn't authorize this payout. Did you?
5. We're out of "Organizing for Survival" books, but we still have a few "Y2K Pillage and Plunder Team -- We Don't Stockpile" T-shirts left. Souvenir anyone?
6. So many radio, TV and cable operators are planning 24-hour coverage of global events, it will be easy to monitor the surface effects of Y2K. But these will have the usual bias, breathless overreaction, distorted focal points and editorializing in nominally named news slots. Real events will be monitored in countless "situation" rooms around the country. It seems as if no one who runs any kind of infrastructure has the day off. All you need is a friend within the police, power company, phone company, etc., and tap into their intelligence on events. Ain't got no friends? I'll let you know what I hear. Later. Congressional and other investigations of occurrences will still be on this time next year. Will blame be placed because the problems were so few?
7. One last clip for you, on MIT's Y2K prep, this one from a friend who runs the state's main cartographic outfit, Wide World of Maps. It contains advice to leave your computer off during the full 24-hour global conversion (pegged to start at 7 a.m. EST 12/31, when midnight hits New Zealand). It is a sign of the times, and a measure of the intrusion of computers into every facet of human existence (in America anyway), that many of you will have a hard time with that notion. Too many people have bought into the idea that the coolest thing you can do is be on a sunset drenched beach in Tahiti -- with your laptop, cell phone, and AT&T logo in the corner. Talk about addiction.
8. SPECIAL REQUEST: We have been able to obtain a supply of books on the gun laws of these states -- New Jersey, Tennessee and Washington (we publish guides for AZ, CA, FL, TX and VA). Do you know of similar books for other states? I'd like to buy some and make them available to the public.
Oh yes, and I almost forgot, Hap-hap-happy New Year; we'll be at a friend's house, nearby, with kids (there are no sitters -- they'll be at the good wild parties like we would have been when we had more hair). But that's OK. The place I'd most like to be when the millennium falls is in the arms of my wife and daughter.
PREPARATIONS ARE EXTENSIVE PREPARATIONS ARE EXTENSIVE PREPARATIONS ARE EXTENSIVE
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 12/17/99
CAMBRIDGE - If any organization in the world can be counted on to be ready for the Y2K computer bug, it should be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, home to more technologically brilliant people per acre than maybe any place.
And while some critics already contend that alarmists have overhyped the risk that the date change-over to Jan. 1, 2000 will cause computer chips to go berserk, MIT officials are taking nothing for granted.
MIT has not gone into panic mode, but given the technology brainpower it represents, the institute's preparations could serve as a warning to the rest of the world not to downplay the possibility Y2K could bring serious computer mishaps, power failures, and technological breakdowns.
In other words, beware.
Besides ensuring an ample supply of flashlights, cots and blankets, and hiring elevator technicians to be on site on New Year's Eve, institute officials are urging that every one of MIT's estimated 20,000 computers and servers that can be shut down be turned off no later than Dec. 30, a full day before computer clocks begin flipping over to 2000.
''If you don't need the machine on and you shut it down, you have that much more time to deal with any issues that come up,'' said Gerald Isaacson, who is leading Y2K efforts for MIT.
While it is far from an official dictate, MIT's recommendation seems to reflect a growing consensus among computer experts that people who can should avoid having their computers on and avoid surfing the Web or logging on for electronic mail during the time the world's clocks change over to 2000 - what some specialists call ''crossing the millennium boundary.''
''I think it's a smart piece of pragmatic advice that MIT is giving its community,'' said Gary Beach, publisher of the 135,000-circulation CIO magazine in Framingham, a publication for top computer systems managers.
Because Jan. 1 will arrive in New Zealand as early as 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Dec. 31, and any problems there could ripple across global computer networks, Beach said, ''I would advise people here to turn off their computers no later than 7 a.m. on the 31st and kick them back on the morning of Jan. 2. ''
Ken Donoghue of Stratus Computer Corp. in Maynard, which manages systems that must run around the clock every day for critical uses such as processing credit card and banking transactions, said he also thinks MIT's advice is wise for those who can heed it.
''If it's not going to affect your ability to do business, why not? What's the downside?'' Donoghue said.
In order not to lose MIT's trove of pioneering research, the institute, which estimates it has more than 2,200 research labs and facilities, is also urging professors and students to back up data no later than Dec. 30 on a central storage system. Automated transfers of data to the storage system regularly scheduled for the 31st of each month are being moved up 12 hours to begin at 6 a.m. on Dec. 31.
The Y2K issue relates to fears about the date changing over from 12-31-99 to 1-1-00. Some computers and microchips found in everything from automobiles to appliances might read the new two-digit date, ''00'', as being 1900 rather than 2000, and shut down or malfunction.
The theory behind shutting computers off well ahead of that date change is that should a problem develop, it would be far easier to fix when rebooting the computer a day or two after the new year than it would be if the computer were on, connected to the Net, or running a program at the moment the date changes.
Some specialists also fear that computers will be exposed to computer viruses sent by electronic mail timed to wreak havoc on Dec. 31.
Last month, university executive vice president John R. Curry issued a lengthy set of warnings and recommendations that filled two pages of the institute newspaper ''Tech Talk.''
MIT originally planned to shut down all its elevators for 30-minute periods straddling both the Greenwich Mean Time change to 2000, occurring at 7 p.m. New Year's Eve in Boston, and again for 30 minutes beginning at 11:45 p.m. on the 31st.
That plan was based on fears that power failures related to Y2K could leave someone stuck between floors if they happened to be riding an elevator right as midnight arrived in London or Boston. Tests have shown the computer chips in elevator microprocessors throughout the campus are fine, and MIT's own power plant, which serves most of the campus, is expected to be fully Y2K-ready, Isaacson said.
Isaacson said officials have since concluded that ''the cure may have been worse than the potential problem'' and will leave elevators running all of New Year's Eve. But, he said, ''We have elevator mechanics who are normally on call who will be on site'' to work on any problems that arise.
Curry also warned researchers that ''it may be safest to curtail [if possible] the more hazardous experiments during the transition weekend, as safety systems and emergency response resource capabilities may be strained.'' It also urged scheduling hazardous waste pickups early.
In an interview, Curry said, ''It's awfully hard to prepare for everything that's unforeseen,'' and added that ''we have to be sure there's not a psychological snowballing. Things go wrong in our labs every weekend. Things go wrong on our desktops every day. We've got to be sure we understand what's really inherently Y2K'' if any problems arise over the New Year's holiday.
All of MIT's residence halls already have cots and blankets in case of a power failure or civil disaster unrelated to Y2K. Just to be safe, however, MIT officials, with help from a crew of students hired to help on New Year's Eve, will be setting many of them up ahead of time.
One factor that helps the situation is that most of MIT's 9,900 students will be gone for vacation starting next week.
However, many people on the MIT campus are less than anxious about Y2K. Frank Dabek, a senior from Cincinnati who is editor of the student newspaper ''The Tech,'' said, ''I certainly don't plan to turn my computer off over the holiday, but for people who can, it certainly wouldn't hurt.''
''People that I've interacted with are not worried'' about Y2K, Dabek said. ''Most people are more worried about finding a good New Year's Eve party.''
And CIO publisher Beach said, ''Why would anybody want to be sitting at their computer on New Year's Eve unless they absolutely had to?''
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 12/17/99. Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
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