Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report V2, # 6
"February 5, 1998 - 694 days to go." WRP62
FINAL
(c) 1997, 1998 Cory Hamasaki - I grant permission to distribute and
reproduce this article as long as this entire document is reproduced in
its entirety including this notice. I do not grant permission to
a commercial publisher to reprint this in print media.
As seen in
USENET:comp.software.year-2000
http://www.elmbronze.demon.co.uk/year2000/
http://www.kiyoinc.com/HHResCo.html
Please fax or email copies of this to your geek pals, especially those
idiots who keep sending you lightbulb, blonde, or Bill Gates jokes,
and urban legends like the Arizona rocket car story.
If you have a Y2K webpage, feel free to host the Weather Reports.
Don't forget- April 2, 3 1998, Geek Out.
Project Dumbass needs you.
1. Worshington Post dot com
2. IRS, Rossotti accepts Gross's "resignation"
3. Y2K Chat
4. I read Triple Ought and hammy stuff
5. The Company Dolt
6. Looking ahead, DC Y2K, Feb.
7. Update from bruce, DC Y2K and Fannie Mae
8. New Jersey
9. CCCC, more clueless than usual.
This issue isn't very technical, I'll get back to code and MVS soon, bear
with me, I need to vent. Between the FAA, SSA, and other govie orgs, I'm
frothing at the mouth.
----------- Worshington Post dot com -------
This Sunday, February 8th, the Post is running yet another mega hi-tech job
issue. Those of you who bought last week's Post and were disappointed by the
few pages, hit http://www.washingtonpost.com or be a big spender and drop a
full buck and a half on your own copy.
The Post has been running 40-50 pages of Computer Jobs during these special
issues. The normal weekly page count is 15-20. During holiday weekends and
after a promo, the count drops off to 5 pages.
The historic average is 3-4 pages with a historic high, during promotions, of
10-15 pages.
They used to run one or two mega hi-tech job issues a year. They ran one in
January and are doing it again in February.
----------- IRS management ---------------
I was wrong about Gross being fired in 82 days; Rossotti "reluctantly
accepted" his resignation effective in 63 days. How completely clueless of
me. I told you I was confused.
"You can't fire me, I quit!"
Don't celebrate yet in the Geek slave pens, wait for the bonuses, improved
benefits, training, better wages and conditions that Mr. Rossotti will get for
you. Mr. Rossotti's people at AMS speak very highly of him, ah, Chuckie.
<This is from the DC Geek network.>
----------- Y2K chat room----------------------
http://www.ntplx.net/~rgearity lots of hot Y2K talk, I'll squeeze my bulk in
from time to time, -hey, that's my foot you're stepping on- -who's grabbing
my butt?-
The other week, the Y2K chatters watched the State of the Union address, the
best line was art's, when Bill started to talk stern about Iraq....
Art> Help me, Saddam, hep me.
----------- I read Triple Ought and some hammy stuff --------
I read it, it's a better story than a how-to manual. A better story in that I
wanted to find out what happened to the characters as the story unfolded. As
a how-to, it was too ammo-centric, too gun-loving for me.
Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett ran all over this area with black power rifles;
the indians survived with bows and arrows and stone axes; Yes, they knew what
they were doing and didn't have to duck muties, depraved bikers, and swarms of
ex-cons (including the pants dropping, crack loving, mayor of DC). Why does
anyone need more than a .22?
The mutie bikers are attacking and all you have is your Supermatic.
You hollar out, I've got a gun. They keep attacking. You fire a round
-pop- They stop, hey, he does have a gun, maybe we'll go down the street,
we'll be leaving now, sorry to bother you.
Technology overlooked in Triple Ought -
A Drake R8 is mentioned. Drake made good second tier ham gear. Not as good
as Collins or Signal/One but pretty darn good. For less than a thousand
dollars, you can have a world-reaching ham radio station built on used Drake,
Heath, Icom, TenTec, etc products.
The good thing about Heath is that it was designed to be built and maintained
by the owner, the manuals detailed the assembly sequence down to the last nut
and bolt. I own both a Heath SB101 tube SSB transceiver and an Icom 720A
solid state, all band, multimode transceiver... modified for WARC operation.
My antenna, which isn't up, is a hygain TH3JR, three element, triband
yagi. I have 2 meters using a Wilson Electronics WE-800, 10 Watt FM
synthesized rig, Icom IC2, and an Icom 202 VXO SSB two meter rig.
I faxed a letter to Wayne Green, the guy who started Byte Magazine and
publishes 73 magazine, about Y2K. Wayne mentioned Y2K in his last 73
editorial. Maybe he'll get the hams working on a Y2K emergency
communications network.
I know that hams are active in civil emergency exercises but it's like the
recent cross-thread between c.s.y2k and the EMT's. The EMT's and the hams
assume that the disaster is localized, their services will be delivered in
intense, short term bursts, that help is available from outside the immediate
area, that key components of the infrastructure will be available, that they
won't be performing under extended conditions.
Step back, examine your assumptions and question their validity. For example,
the assumption that cell phones are a back up to landlines. In a landline
failure coupled with a disaster, civilians instantly swamp the cell system.
Just because every EMT, firehouse, emergency vehicle has a working, checked
out, tested every Sunday morning, cell phone with back up power, phone
lists in plastic sheets, rules for who calls who, and a redundant phone,
doesn't mean that it will be of any use during Y2K.
I'm not saying that we'll be reduced to signal flags but it might be good for
ex-eagle scouts to practice, to have contingencies that assume a complete
collapse.
Lots of interesting stuff from the ham, make it yourself, fix it yourself,
world...
Ramsey Electronics, http://www.ramseyelectronics.com, has wireless video and
IR illuminators for CCD cameras. You can assemble a remote video rig that can
see in total darkness.
----------- The Company Dolt ---------------
There's a dangerous kind of geek out there, the company-dolt. Watch out
for him. The company-dolt is a plodder, has to be told what to do...
this isn't in itself bad. The CD may have some technical expertise, a
few have achieved modest skill levels but they never combine a
flare for imaginative design, high risk-high payoff innovation, and
solid technical and management expertise.
The CD's stay with employers for decades, and are surprised when they
are fired or laid off. They worm their way into mid-managment where they can
snooze away, safe, secure, not making waves, dressing not for success but a
little below the standard for the firm, rumpled but not in full Geek battle
regalia, no faded jeans and Deadhead T-shirts, it's cheap suits and white
shirts for the Company Dolt.
The CD is the enemy, more than the horn-hairs, more than HR, more than
the CEO/CIO. The CD is actively working to keep salaries down, reject
consultants who dare to ask the going rate, and the CD feeds denial into
the enterprise consciousness.
The CD does not want to make waves, expects everyone to stay in his
geeky place, the nerve of you ... suggesting that we cancel the C/S
project and spend five million dollars to renovate and rehab the
production systems. How dare you... asking $150/hour when the CD earns
$85K/year...
The CD's loyalty is to himself and to other company-dolts; they fear us,
the geeks who dare to think for ourselves, who question, dream of more
than 40 years and a gold watch, and work to better ourselves. They
wonder what we are loyal to, we are as alien to them as they are to us.
When I walk in to speak to the CEO or CIO, the Company Dolts quake in fear,
what is he going to say, -whine-, there goes a loose cannon, -whimper-,
I'm so afraid... and who does he think he is... ...he should send his report
to me and I will report only what I know the CEO or CIO need to hear....
Bzzzzttt, wrong, that game's over, I've been telling it straight too long to
work through a CD, there is so little time left that I will only take
engagements that meet the following specs... the organization knows it's in
trouble; it wants to fix things; the issue is IBM mainframe systems and
Y2K.
The CD's never understand their limitations. We can see it because we are
architects and they are draftsmen, we are poets and they are typists, we
are engineers and they are pipefitters.
The danger is they worm themselves into responsible positions in
corporations and obstruct anything that they don't understand. They
don't understand Y2K, they didn't see it coming, they think it's
business as usual.
Even now, the CD's are still in denial, if they are working on Y2K, they are
attending meetings... ...because someone told them to. They are
piddling around, wasting time that we don't have... ...because nothing
is urgent to a CD. If you walk in with a solid proposal, priced fairly
at current market rates, the CD will say, a little high, we'll have to
check around, we can do better... I want to be safe, I'm afraid of
taking a chance, you scare me, you show me up for the fool that I am.
Beware the Company Dolt.
-------- Looking ahead, DC Y2K - Feb --------
The DC Y2K group is in solid panic. Yes, half of the group is made up of
beltway bandit marketeers, dressed in their power suits, nosing around for
contract leads but the other half is working the problem and are a clinched
jawed, this is a slow motion car wreck, there's no solution, why doesn't
everyone see, bunch.
I've attended marketing pitches where they've said, we can solve it,
hire us, we have the technology. Well... no. At this point, there
isn't enough time to solve Y2K. If they say they can solve the
problem, they don't understand the problem.
There are things that can be done. Stop by the next DC Y2K meeting,
we can have a pre-meeting meeting of c.s.y2k realists.
For those of you with reading comprehension problems, do not RSVP to me.
The point of contact is a fanniemae address.
Here's the announcement:
-- START Announcement from: Bruce Webster <g8ubew@fanniemae.com>
This is a call for RSVPs for the first WDCY2K meeting in 1998. The meeting
will be held on Tuesday, February 17th, from 5:30 pm to 9 pm at the Fannie
Mae headquarters at 3900 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, D.C.
For security and planning reasons, you _must_ supply as soon as possible the
following information for _each person_ from your organization planning to
attend. Information on directions and parking will be sent out to all who
RSVP a day or so before the event.
Name:
Title:
Division:
Organization:
Phone:
E-mail:
IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm going to be out of the office from tomorrow to Monday
the 16th (though I may be in this weekend to catch up). All communications,
questions, etc., during that period should be directed to Helen Drew,
Co-Chair of the WDCY2K Group. She can be reached at 202.752.4756 or
helen_drew@fanniemae.com.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: if it appears that we are going to have an overflow
crowd (we had standing room only, last month), then I may again contact
consulting and Y2K vendor firms that have submitted several representatives
and ask them to reduce their numbers. In the meantime, we'll do our best to
fit yet more chairs into the Great Hall.
=====================
TOPIC FOR THE FEBRUARY 17TH MEETING:
The topic of our meeting this month is: "Year 2000 Problems in Embedded
Systems". We are fortunate to have again an excellent set of panelists:
-- Rick Cowles, Year 2000 Program Manager-Utilities, Digital Equipment
Corporation (rcowles@water.waterw.com). Rick will focus on embedded systems
and power utilities.
-- Peter H. Himmelberger, Director, Technology and Y2K Programs, GTE
Information Systems Division (Peter.Himmelberger@GSC.GTE.Com). Peter will
focus on telecommunications issues.
-- Diane Shields, CACI. Diane has been supervising repair of embedded
systems on military weapons--specifically, nuclear missiles on
submarines--for the past three years. One hopes all her comments will be
reassuring.
-------- END Announcement ---------
This is an important one. Rick "do you have your generator yet" Cowles
will be terrorizing the suits.
Those of you with media contacts, alert them to this event. It would be
terrific to have CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN covering this meeting.
We don't have time to fix the enterprise systems, too few days now, good luck.
There are a couple things that can be done but it's gonna take real pro's,
and well, I'm not interested in giving out the ending of this story yet. That
answer is gonna cost. Stay tuned to the DC Weather Reports and c.s.y2k.
-------- Update from bruce, DC Y2K and Fannie Mae ----------------
I have had several complaints about vendor behavior at the last meeting. One
attendee, for example, noted "an extremely aggressive sales person who was
both rude and obnoxious in his approach to the individuals I was speaking
with." Another spoke of being "flooded by area vandors beltway bandits and
commission salesmen."
Fannie Mae is not spending the substantial money and resources that it does
to hosting this meeting each month in order to provide a marketing
opportunity for Y2K vendors or to help people meet their sales quotas. This
is why no vendor literature or product presentations are allowed. Vendors are
allowed to attend provided they are on good behavior; most of them are, and
they add significant value to the discussions, which is why they're welcome.
That said, let me make this very clear: any vendor whose representatives
engage in aggressive, obnoxious, rude, persistent, or otherwise inappropriate
behavior will be permanently banned from all future WDCY2K meetings--not
just those representatives, but _anyone_ from that firm. That is exactly what
will happen if I am able to track down the firm of the particular sales
person mentioned above.
Here is my request: if you encounter such a person, please note their
company name (if they have no name tag, get a business card) and pass it on
to me or Helen, and their firm will be placed on a "do not admit" list. If I
happen to be at the meeting, come find me, and I'll escort them from the
premises right then and there. This behavior will absolutely not be
tolerated.
Any questions? ..bruce..
-------- End Update from bruce, DC Y2K and Fannie Mae ----------------
If I were spending the big bucks on steak, barbeque chicken, shrimp, not to
mention the incredible work that they put into setting up the conference, I'd
be more than pissed. Rather than eject the rude, obnoxious, aggressive,
sales person, make them sit next to me and I'll start in on them about MVS
system control blocks, ASCBs, SCBs, TCBs, DEBs, if they try to leave, I'll
have DD grab them and I'll start on the JES control blocks. Help me,
..bruce.., hep me, they'll cry.
Even though I am a freeloader and world class chowhound, I consider my DC Y2K
meeting reports a service to c.s.y2k. In addition to the DC WRP coverage, I
supply two clients, one government and one private industry, with meeting
summaries, it's the same info that shows up here, just no rude noises and
written in a more formal style. <No, I'm not charging either client for
attending the meeting... although I'd like to. Let's see, if I charged
both...>
At the DC meetings, I have been amazed by the number of 'suits' and
marketeers, I have also overheard their pitches. In some cases, they're
simply enthusiastic, in others, they're pitching out of habit.
-------- New Jersey ------------------
We're pressing on with the Time Machine. I've been assigned to look into
capacity issues. I'm not a believer in MIPS, my S/370 is a 2 MIPS box,
about the same as a S/370 168. Seems like lots of S/370 power to me. We're
looking at 30, 60, maybe 100 MIPS for the Time Machine. The real issue is
DASD, tape, and comm gear.
The center already has a lot of comm, T1's and T3's to the members, routers,
mux's, channel extenders, how much more will we need? What kind?
An even larger issue is DASD and tape, I'm guessing DASD in the 1,000 gig
range, depending on how full the tests are. Minimal tape processing but lots
of tape for restoring images.
Security - We're processing financial data, so we're looking at block time, a
week on with no overlap. Scrub down the machine or lock out the RAID boxs
between weeks.
What about integrated testing between organizations? Our members will
schedule tests with their service providers and trading partners. If multiple
members have the same trading partners, they can't both test at the same time.
How will that
work?
Work space for the test teams, work stations, 3270's on site or do we use the
comm gear to connect back to the members.
Print capacity, based on Arnold's experiences we'll be installing an IBM "Tree
Eater", a used 240 page per minute laser printer. Siemens makes Enterprise
scale printers too.
-------- Cory's closing clueless comments -----
This issue has been all clueless comments. I don't know if you've figured it
out but I'm working 4 or 5 part-time jobs, I spend almost every waking minute
on some aspect of work and I'm still falling behind.
I look down at my OS/2 desktop and see that we have 694 days, 16,661 hours
and get worried.
What are we going to do?
Are you meeting regularly with your fellow geeks? If you work for a large
company, is there something that you can do to help prepare. Even if you are
not on a Y2K team, even if they don't believe that there is a problem, can you
start the remediation as part of your normal duties. If you pop the hood for
some maintenance, can you do some work on Y2K as long as you are in the
module? Start a notebook on the changes required.
Can you do it now rather than under forced labor conditions next year? I'm
getting reports of stunningly high rates, higher than the rates I negotiated
with a commercial client late last year, the time they said, "We'll pay you
a full day's rate to be available each month and an hourly rate for every hour
you work including travel. How much do you want?" and I stuttered, "a-ha,
abba, a-hun-hah " while they looked at me. ...so much for my tuff-talk of
"Stick 'em up!" 10 minutes later a contract came off their Laserjet 6,
locking me in until September 1998.
Network, network, network, call your half dozen closest geekiest pals. Set
up a dinner meeting w/ them. Is there a cheap-eats (or even better a buffet)
restraurant that you can meet at. At least one of them may be a survivalist
nut-case, perhaps they've been thinking about Y2K already. You can't do it
alone. Chat it up with them, get them on board the Y2K remediation train.
Set your priorities, if you work at a public utility, a financial services
company, a distribution or transportation company, your pals may want to
help you and your company. Does your big hearted boss pay a finders fee?
Even if he doesn't, if your work is important and you need help, your pals are
the best resource, you know them, get them into your company so you can take a
day or two off. Don't blame your boss for the deathmarch, he's probably
pulling longer hours than you are. We've got 15 years of work to do in less
than two years. Don't cry that you haven't seen your family, your kids are
asleep when you get home, get your pals to help you.
If you come on board a new company, put your head down and crank code. I want
to see those fingers flying over the keyboard. PF8, PF8, a-ha, PF3, =3.1.
Every line that you fix now is one minute earlier that you can go home in
December 1999. Crank code so you can go home for Christmas. Crank it, I say,
the code, crank the code as if your life depends on it. If you don't crank
the code, I'll come out and give you a crank.
Fast Eddie Yourdon - Dang it, Eddie Yourdon was at a book signing last night,
Feb 4th at Tysons Corner. Was it posted on c.s.y2k? Noooooo0. and why not?
Where was it publicized? Did any of you know? I didn't but then, I am
the king of cluelessness... how do I know? Everytime I try to sound the
alarm about Y2K, the programmer shortage, someone calls me clueless... it
must be true.
Late breaking news, the FAA admits it's hosed, air traffic control problems
expected....
Also Sally Katzen is gone, history, adios; running like a rat from Y2K,
squeee-squeeeek.
cory hamasaki 694 days and counting.