Year 2000 (Y2K) Resources

Warning: Dates on calendar are closer than they appear.

There is already so much written about Y2K that rather than repeat any of it, this page just serves as a directory of useful information. All the links here are formatted so that you can print out this page without losing any information.

References and U.S.Government Sites

• The President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion has a site at http://www.y2k.gov/.
• The General Accounting Office of the U.S.Congress has a whole slew of reports available at http://www.gao.gov/y2kr.htm.
• The U.S. General Services Administration has a page about telecommunications at http://y2k.fts.gsa.gov/ which contains product compliance information.
  They also have a Gateway for Year 2000 Information Directories at http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/yr2000/y2khome.htm.
• Read what Dick Armey, the House Majority Leader, has to say about Y2K at http://www.freedom.gov/y2k/.
• Vice-President Gore's, President Clinton's, and John Koskinen's 1998-07-14 remarks on Y2K are at http://www.xnet.com/~msk/futuresource/clinton.html.
• Senator Bennett's remarks on 1998-07-15 are at http://home.swbell.net/adheath/bennett.htm.
• The SEC's Report to Congress is at http://www.sec.gov/news/studies/yr2000.htm. Especially note the 4th paragraph, where they clearly state that there is no such thing as guaranteed perfect compliance.
• The U.S. Labor Departments IT Y2K Job Bank is at http://it.jobsearch.org/.
• The complete transcript of the CSIS Y2K conference on 1998-06-02 is at http://www.csis.org/html/y2ktran.html.
• A list of the members of the U.S. Senate Y2K Committee is at http://www.senate.gov/committee/y2k.html. From here you can follow the links to Sen. Bennett's Y2K pages.
• The North American Electric Reliability Council has a site at http://www.nerc.com/.
• The Illinois Commerce Commission has a Y2K site at http://icc.state.il.us/Y2K/ that discusses utilities.

General Information on the World Wide Web

There is so much information available on the Web that this list contains only a fraction of what's out there, but it's a representative sample and includes my personal favorites. You can easily find enough to keep you busy reading for days just by following links from these starting points. If you are new to the Y2K issue, most of the general sites listed in this section contain good introductions to the problem.

• In addition to publishing a hard-copy newspaper, Y2K News maintains a nice list of pointers to Y2K-related news articles from around the world, updated daily, at http://www.y2knews.com/. They also have a nice archive of past articles.
• Y2K Today also has a collection of current news at http://www.y2ktoday.com/modules/home/default.asp.
• One of the best articles I've seen is a piece by Andrew Bard Schmookler in The Christian Science Monitor at http://www2.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/voices/072798/voices2_17834_noframes.html.
• If you like Andrew Tobias, check out his articles at:
  • http://www.ameritrade.com/cgi-bin/tobias_article.cgi/19980819.html
  • http://www.ameritrade.com/cgi-bin/tobias_article.cgi/19980820.html.
  • http://www.ameritrade.com/cgi-bin/tobias_article.cgi/19981006.html.
  • http://www.ameritrade.com/cgi-bin/tobias_article.cgi/19981007.html.
  • http://www.ameritrade.com/cgi-bin/tobias_article.cgi/19981008.html.
• An account of the Auckland power outage is at http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/misc/mercury.txt.
• Ed Yourdon, a well-known and well-established author of computer science books, has written one about Y2K called Time Bomb 2000. (My personal copy is circulating around the Lombard office.) Yourdon's web page is at http://www.yourdon.com/. Ed recently moved from New York City to New Mexico, which gives you some idea about his predictions for Y2K.
• You'll hear a lot from, and about, economist Ed Yardeni. His page is at http://www.yardeni.com/cyber.html.
• Be sure to check out Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Reports which are mirrored at http://www.xnet.com/~msk/futuresource/hamasaki/contents.html. This guy is a Y2K insider and pulls no punches. Some of his observations on Y2K are hilarious, and others (e.g. about Washington DC) make you want to cry.
• The stupidest things anyone has said publicly about Y2K are at http://www.duh-2000.com/.
• The Washington D.C. Year 2000 Group has a web page at http://www.wdcy2k.org/.
• Declan McCullagh writes a lot of articles about Y2K, and has many of them indexed at http://www.well.com/user/declan/y2k/.
• There is a list of problem sightings, i.e. things that have already gone wrong, at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/y2k/sighting.htm.
• Break the tension a bit with some cartoons at http://www.cartoon2000.com/ or the Dave Barry article at http://www.herald.com/tropic/barry/archive/july27.htm.
• If sarcasm is more your style, try 12 Reasons to ignore the year 2000 problem at http://www.ecl.udel.edu/~hague/ignore.htm.
• And of course, there's the related 100 GB bug, described in http://www.xnet.com/~msk/futuresource/100gb.html.
• There is even a Y2K Game at http://www.successinformation.com/game.htm.
• The earliest known article about YK2 (from 1984-02-13) to appear in a major publication is at http://www.computerworld.com/home/features.nsf/all/980803schoen. The earliest known device to exhibit the bug is an equatorium (from about 1600), described and pictured in http://www.nmgm.org.uk/bug.htm.
• There is supposed to be central collection of information about international Y2K readiness at http://www.jy2kcouncil.org/ any day now. (If that doesn't work, try http://www.bis.org/ongoing/.)
• The Year 2000 Information Center is at http://www.year2000.com/. Be sure to check out "The Laws of the Year 2000" there.
• The Westergaard Year 2000 site at http://www.y2ktimebomb.com/ has a lot of interesting articles.
• The Year 2000 Journal is at http://www.y2kjournal.com/.
• Another interesting collection of articles is at http://www.comlinks.com/.
• TechWeb has an archive of Y2K articles going back to October 1997 at http://www.techweb.com/wire/technews/year2000.html.
• The Christian Broadcasting Network has a decent collection of links at http://www.cbn.org/news/stories/y2k-links.asp. You're allowed to use it even if you didn't vote for Pat Robertson. :-)
• Granite Consulting has a short page with good links at http://www.granite.ab.ca/year2000/.
• The Disaster Center site has an extensive collection of links at http://www.disastercenter.com/year2000.htm.
• StarNet has a new site that looks promising at http://y2k.azstarnet.com/.
• Rick Cowles has a site specific to Y2K and Electric Utilities at http://www.euy2k.com/, and there is a review of Cowles' book at http://www.weyrich.com/book_reviews/electric_y2k.html.
• Ziff-Davis has a lot of information at http://www.zdnet.com/zdy2k/, including a Save Your Town! Guide.
• The Information Technology Associate of America has some Y2k information at their site: http://www.itaa.org/.
• The Embedded Systems Project is at http://home.global.co.za/~into2k/.
• The Maritime Transportation Industry has a Y2K site at http://www.ship2000.com/.
• Factory Mutual Insurance has some tips on managing property (i.e. land and buildings) for Y2K at http://www.factorymutual.com/y2k.htm.
• The IEEE has a Y2K page at http://engine.ieee.org/usab/Y2K/index.html which includes a pointer to their draft Y2K standard.
• To check out the work Software Testing Assurance is doing on standards for Y2K compliance, see http://www.stacorp.com/.
• For a sample of the many companies willing to help you out (for a fee), see http://www.survive-2000.com/.
• The Y2K Solutions Group is another; you can check out their Y2K videos at: http://www.y2kvideos.com/.
• The comp.software.year-2000 newgroup has a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page at http://www.computerpro.com/~phystad/csy2kfaq.html with a brief introduction to the problem, and the obligatory list of links.
• The newsgroup comp.software.year-2000 is dedicated to discussing this problem, but it often generates more heat than light. You can read it with your newsreader, or you can go to Deja News at http://www.dejanews.com/ and select "Browse Groups".
• I certainly don't claim it to be one of the best sites, but I do also maintain a personal web page with Y2K information at http://www.xnet.com/~msk/y2k.html.
• Web Rings are a popular way to find a group of related sites. To see the Y2K Web Ring (82 sites last time I looked), go to http://www.y2klinks.com/ring.htm and select "List Sites".

Will the Sky Really Fall?

There are lots of people who are very concerned about the possible consequences of Y2K. You may want to check out some of their sites, just to get a feel for the range of opinion out there.

While there is definitely some, ahem, "unconventional thinking" represented below, the spirit of this section is not intended to be "ooh, look at the all the weirdos out there." While I don't think the world is going to collapse, if you want to make some relatively cheap personal preparations as "Y2K insurance," there is a lot of useful information here.

• The Cassandra Project emphasizes community cooperation and preparedness. Their site, which contains extensive resources, is at http://www.millennia-bcs.com/.
• Citizens For Y2K Recovery has a site at http://www.y2krecovery.org/ which contains information to help individuals and communities prepare and recover.
• Foremost among the really worried is Gary North. He has a huge site at http://www.garynorth.com/, to which every y2k site on the web seems to be linked.
• Roleigh Martin's Paul Revere Community Alert site is at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roleigh_martin/.
• Even an organic grocery store has a site at http://scribble.com/y2k/, which, as you might expect, also pushes the community preparation angle.
• The Y2K Weatherman has a large archive of his opinions and advice at http://www.y2kwatch.com/y2kman.htm.
• The Y2K Chaos site has a such a neat name that I had to include it: http://www.y2kchaos.com/.
• If you've been following Y2K in the news, you've probably heard about Heritage Farms, a Y2K-compliant planned community. Their web site is at http://www.heritagefarms2000.com/, but they had a little problem with zoning and permits at their planned location.
• You may also have read about Candace Turner in the newspaper; her site is at http://www.geocities.com/PicketFence/3949/index.html.
• The Heckers will sell you a nice little vacation place in the Minnesota wilderness where you can sit out the Y2K madness: http://www.lakenet.com/~dwhnjh/index.html.
• Swiss America Trading sponsors a site at http://www.y2knet.com/. Guess what: they would like to sell you something. :-) To their credit, however, they will send you a free booklet that explains Y2K without a heavy advertising message.
• Tony Keyes will also be happy to help you invest your money at http://www.y2kinvestor.com/.
• Read about Jason Kelly's self-published fictional novel entitled Y2K: It's Already Too Late at http://www.y2kbook.com/. Darn, I wish I'd thought of doing that!
• Of course, no list like this would complete without at least one site with Doomsday in its title: http://www.angelfire.com/or/truthfinder/.
  And of course we can't leave out the Y2K Nightmare at http://www.y2knightmare.com/.
• If you're really, really, really scared, check out the survivalist FAQ's at http://cypress.idir.net/~medintz/surv_faq/surv_faq_index.html.
• Other folks have assembled huge lists of links, for example the one at http://www.y2knews.com/survival/_survival/00000059.htm.
• There is even a web ring just for Libertarian Self Reliance Y2K sites at http://www.bomis.com/rings/lsry2k/, and another for Personal Y2K Preparedness at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/2100/y2kwerng.htm.

Nah, Just a Bump in the Road

• Worried about the year 2000? Get Real is at http://web.lexis-nexis.com/more/cahners/11379/3725729/4.
• Area cities see no need to panic over Year 2000 Problem is at http://www.dallasnews.com/metro-dfw-nf/dfw40.htm.
• Experts say prepare for Y2K as you would an earthquake is at http://webserv1.startribune.com/cgi-bin/stOnLine/article?thisStory=50658873.
• Y2K Hype Can End Up Hurting All Of Us is at http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?INW19980824S0059.
• Relax. Millennium bug a knotty but beatable foe is at http://www.bergen.com/biz/pro23199808232.htm.
• It's Y1K All Over Again is at http://www.abcnews.com/sections/tech/FredMoody/moody64.html.

This is my personal page, and nothing in it reflects any official position or statement of FutureSource Information Systems, Inc.
This page maintained by msk@xnet.com.
Last modified on 1999-05-28.