time.com / The Netly News / Afternoon Line
May 13, 1998

Boom, Boom, Out Go the Lights

The good news: Computers in securities firms and brokerages will survive the perilous transition to 1-1-00. The bad news? There may be no electricity to power them. At a breakfast briefing today, an industry representative assured about 80 congressional aides that securities companies were in excellent health. "There will be a successful conversion to Year 2000 in the United States in the securities industry," predicted David Hall, chair of the Securities Industry Association's Y2K committee. An industry-wide test is scheduled for March 1999, with a trial run this summer. As for the rest of the world, well, "when you get into emerging markets, there could be turmoil." Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, said this proves the U.S. government must show more leadership. (ITAA certifies companies as Y2K-OK for $7,700 to $9,250.) Speaking last was David Hall, an embedded-systems consultant at Cara Corporation, who warned of power outages. "Every test I have seen done on an electrical power plant has caused it to shut down. Period. I know of no plant or facility investigated to this date that has passed without Y2K problems," he said. Added Hall: "Things like this come out and the mass media gets ahold of it -- you're going to have shortages because of panic. How to communicate this to the public needs to be addressed." It's a little late now. --By Declan McCullagh/Washington

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-- Bill (billdale@lakesnet.net), May 13, 1998