-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.business2.com/articles/1999/06/content/y2k.html ----- COUNTDOWN TO Y2K Geeks Speak: Don't Freak While others are panicking about Y2K, many tech-heads remain unfazed. By Declan McCullagh Thomas Edwards isn't worried about Y2K. Why should he be? The Sync, a Laurel, Md.-based Internet broadcasting company he founded, likely won't notice the date change. The Sync's array of FreeBSD Unix servers will survive New Year's Eve with no problems, Edwards predicts. "I don't think it's a major problem. You should just back up everything," he says. The video encoding software The Sync uses to post daily cybercast shows, including one featuring JenniCam's popular blonde host, also should be fine. "It doesn't care what time it is," Edwards says, nonchalantly. Y2K will be the last thing on the minds of most engineers on New Year's Eve. The 29-year-old entrepreneur who is about to begin his second round of venture capital financing, is not planning personal Y2K preparations either. You won't see him stockpiling food, water, or gold coins. Edwards also is not fretting about power failures or other infrastructure disruptions. "Personally, I'm pretty much ignoring it. I don't think this is all going to be that bad," he says. The vast majority of engineers and programmers around the world feel the same way, according to a March 1999 survey conducted by Addison Whitney and sponsored by Attachmate. The study showed that computer professionals are far more likely to shrug off Y2K than their non-geek brethren. Only 13 percent of the 1,100 high-tech workers polled said they were planning to stockpile food and water, and 29 percent said they might take out extra cash from the bank. "The closer people are to the problem, the more they realize it's not a disease that spreads from system to system. It's not as pervasive as they thought," says Attachmate spokesperson Serge Timacheff. If anything, Y2K will be the last thing on the minds of most engineers on New Year's Eve. Only 12 percent of respondents said they were worried about mainframe crashes, while 62 percent plan to party as the millennium turns. Just one-fifth of IT managers say they believe that computers and equipment will fail. The general public, on the other hand, is plenty worried. A December 1998 Time/CNN poll found that 47 percent of Americans might "take extra cash out of [their] bank account" and 33 percent were considering loading up on food and water. Six of 10 Americans said they were somewhat or very concerned about Y2K. A more recent poll by USA Today and the National Science Foundation came up with similar results. Stockpiling fear Why are engineers less worried about Y2K than everyone else? The most likely reason is the public's uncertainty about technology. If you don't understand much about how computers work, you are more likely to fall prey to dire predictions of doom-and-gloom. Millennial tub-thumpers have been quick to profit from society's worst nightmares. Fundamentalist Gary North has made a living for years predicting modern society will end in panic and ruin (see "Propheteering," March '99, p26). Not helping matters is overreaction by tech-clueless officials. One Maine legislator has proposed spending $50 million to create a mammoth 13 million cubic foot pile of rice and beans that would feed every state resident for three months. If dumped on a football field, the pile of rice and beans would rise 36 stories and weigh 124,000 tons. The National Guard commander says he has no armory space to store it. Why are engineers less worried about Y2K than everyone else? The most likely reason is the public's uncertainty about technology. Fortunately, the public's worst fears appear to be subsiding, at least for a while. Six months ago, Steve Portela, general manager of Idaho-based Walton Feed, was swamped by a flood of Y2K orders that he could not handle. "All in all, I don't have a real pleasant experience with people yelling at me when I come to work in the morning," Portela said last November. But now, he says, orders have dwindled. Might the reduced fears be just the calm before a storm of jittery, credit card-maxing shoppers descend on the local camping supply store? The U.S. government has long worried about Americans emptying their bank accounts as New Year's Eve approaches. Even gun and ammunition supply companies predict a sharp upswing in demand in late 1999. "What we're trying to do is gear up for the second six months of the year," says Kristi Hoffman, a manager at Black Hills Ammunition in Rapid City, S.D. Other tech entrepreneurs say it's prudent to be prepared. After Montreal suffered through a debilitating ice storm last year that resulted in a two-week power outage, Austin Hill vowed his company would be ready for any future catastrophe. As president of Zero-Knowledge Systems, which sells tools to protect privacy online (see "Cookie Monsters," p16), Hill asked his human resources department to tell his employees where to buy food and water. If Y2K causes disruptions - or another ice storm arrives - he'll be ready. "If something happens, our employees are taken care of," he says. Declan McCullagh ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) covers Y2K for Wired News and is the editor of Y2Kculture.com. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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