Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Y2K
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 1999 06:29:06 -0400
To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu> Date: Thu, 05 Aug 99 11:26:46 PDT From: "Willis H. Ware" <willis () rand org> A msg had been circulated that evidently originated with some lawyers advising people to get an SSA earnings statement. The message raised the spectre that the SSA could crash and all records of past earnings lost. I guess lawyers have never heard about back-up tapes and similar precautions. From my point of view, it was unnecessary panic-type hype of the kind that we've seen too much of and I answered as below. If anyone is interested, the URL for the OMB/Y2K Council that rates USGovernment systems is: http://www.y2k.gov willis ------- Forwarded Message Subject: Re: SSA and the Millennium Bug] Date: Wed, 04 Aug 99 13:54:29 PDT From: "Willis H. Ware" <willis () rand org With regard to the message that hyped the risk that SSA might crash catastrophically, BALONEY with a capital B. Via a governemnt advisory body that I chair, we poked fairly deeply into the status of SSA in re Y2K. Of all the Federal agencies, the one most regarded as being ready is the SSA. It started on the effort about 5 years ago because it accidentally discovered the problem when trying to do 10-year projections around the turn of the millenium and finding that the systems couldn't handle them. I heard their readiness briefing, and I'm not worrying about my SSA checks being either late, wrong, or missing. Even if everything crashed, the SSA has several sets of backup tapes stored off-site in a cave somewhere in Pennsylvania. ALSO, there is an emergency procedure in place for printing checks. Even if the SSA installation were to crash completely, the Treasury (which prints the checks at several sites throughout the country) automatically repeats last month's check-run and mailing. Then any errors are corrected in the following month or so. ALSO if you look at the Federal OMB assessments of the agencies, the SSA has been the only one for a long time that gets an A+ in readiness on Y2K. The hypster message is spreading the most unnecessary and alarming kind of Y2K un-truth. Kill the mythology and hype; don't pass it around and create needless panic reaction. On the other hand, anyone is wise is to get a PEBES report from time to time, but do it as prudent fiscal management, no as a Y2K panic move. You can request it online but the results are USPS mailed to you as a security measure. And you can do it at your leisure. Willis
Current thread:
- IP: Y2K Dave Farber (Aug 06)