2000: Consumer Solutions for the Worst Techincal Blunder in History: A Survival Guide for the Year 2000 Problem - Softcover
Synopsis
A Survival Guide For The Year 2000 Problem, is a practical, consumer guide to understanding and preparing for the Year 2000 (Y2K) Computer Crisis. The book examines the effects of Y2K on the economy, government, investments, employment, banking, public services, and computerized data such as credit reports, medical records and Social Security records. It provides detailed information on how to protect yourself, your family, your job, your assets, your home and your personal safety from the worst technical blunder known to man.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Jim Lord is a retired Naval Officer with 24 years active service who came up through the enlisted ranks. His career was spent in the electronics field, including a tour as the Electronics Maintenance Officer on an aircraft carrier. At age 33, he earned a degree in Business, graduating with honors from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Following his military career, Mr Lord was involved in shipbuilding, communication systems design, satellite systems, software engineering, training and marketing. This experience has included nine years in the software industry. For two and a half years, he taught business courses at a community college in southern Maryland.
Married for nearly 37 years, Mr. Lord and his wife, Betty have eight children and five grandchildren. They reside in Davidsonville, Maryland.
Mr. Lord is the author of "A Survival Guide for the Year 2000 Problem," a practical, 200 page, consumer's guide to preparation for the Year 2000 Computer Crisis. It describes the effects of Y2K on virtually all aspects of society and the economy. Particular emphasis is paid to government at all levels, employment, the financial sphere, and public services. Specific and detailed guidance in provided on how to protect yourself, your family, your assets, your job, your vital private data, and your personal safety from the greatest technical blunder in history.
He is also the publisher of "Jim Lord's Year 2000 Survival Newsletter," which provides continuing updates on the progress of the Year 2000 Crisis. This bimonthly publication closely tracks the status of government and industry efforts to repair critical computer systems. It also reports on new strategies for protection against the effects of the Year 2000 Problem.
Additional information can be found at www.SurviveY2K.com
From the Back Cover
HOW THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM COULD AFFECT YOU ! - Your home might go into foreclosure because of errors in your property tax records - Your local traffic signals could stop working. All of them, all at once - Your friendly, neighborhood ATM machine might fail to operate - Your water, electricity and telephone could be turned off in error - Your bank might shut down and refuse to give you your money - Your credit report could become contaminated with false data - Your driver's license might be invalidated accidentally - Your insurance company could declare bankruptcy - Your credit cards might be rejected by stores - Your doctor could lose your medical records - Your employer might go out of business - Your pension could just disappear
IS THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM REAL ?
Washington Post, September 15, 1996. We could end up with a real catastrophe that could affect many people's lives around the globe.
Newsweek, June 20, 1996. Almost everyone who's looked at the problem agrees ... it's profound and potentially disastrous,.
Sacramento Bee, July 14, 1996. (A) doomsday clock is counting off the seconds.
Business Week, August 12, 1996. (T)he absolute worst case ... is a global financial meltdown.
Congressional Research Service, June, 1996. Many managers initially doubted the seriousness of this problem. .... (I)ndependent research firms, however, have refuted this view
Congressional Record, August 11, 1996. (A) study by the Congressional Research Service ... substantiates the worst fears of the doomsayers.
YOU WILL LEARN THESE VALUABLE TECHNIQUES:
- How to safeguard your investments - no matter what happens to the stock market - How to pay your bills - even if you don't have a job - How to detect the "early warning signs" of the Year 2000 Problem - How to build a powerful shield around your credit, tax, property, financial and medical records - How to protect your family against shortages in food and consumer goods - How to obtain your vital data from the government - even if they don't want to give it to you - How to tell in advance exactly when the Year 2000 Problem will be most dangerous - How to analyze your bills, bank statement and pay stub for signs of the Year 2000 Virus - How to avoid legal entanglements brought on by the Year 2000 Problem - How to determine which jobs will be the safest - and which ones to avoid like the plague - How to tell which investments are in the greatest danger from this Crisis - How to survive financially - even if the banks shut down - How to construct the most powerful (and safest) insurance policy ever devised
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
FROM CHAPTER ONE, INTRODUCTION: Let me make this point clear; I am not an alarmist and the purpose of this Survival Guide is not to cause panic but to strongly encourage preparation. My greatest hope is that little of what I predict herein comes true. As each day goes by, however, I am more and more convinced that most of it will actually happen.
I am faced with the dilemma of trying to figure out how to get the audience to leave a burning theater. Whispering, "Fire!" has no effect whatever. Screaming "Fire," is also ignored because the tendency is to ignore hysteria. The fact remains, however, that THE THEATERE IS ON FIRE! The smoke and flames are not yet visible to most but, if you know where to look, the evidence is overwhelming.
The Year 2000 Crisis will be the most dangerous and widespread technical calamity ever faced by mankind. When a hurricane threatens, not even the experts can foretell exactly where it will strike and precisely how bad it will be when it gets here. Y2K, on the other hand, will strike everywhere in the world. All at once. Rich and poor; young and old; men, women, and children; guilty and innocent; lazy and slothful; and the fully prepared alike will all feel its effects.
I hope this Survival Guide inspires the reader to make preparations for this "storm," because, the wind is picking up and the sky is turning dark. And, in this case, I guarantee, this disaster will arrive exactly on schedule.
FROM CHAPTER TWO, WHAT IS THE Y2K PROBLEM:
This thing sounds kind of silly, doesn't it? Just two little digits. How could something so simple as a two digit year cause such a serious problem? The answer to this question is critical, for it is the key to understanding the Y2K Problem.
Imagine this situation. You live in a beautiful village in a lush valley beside a lovely river. The population of your little community is just 500 people. Fifty miles upstream is a gigantic dam across the river. One morning the dam gives way and a massive wall of water begins roaring down the valley destroying everything in its path. In two hours it will arrive at your village.
Your problem is simple. A great deal of water is about to cover your village. The solution is equally clear. You must build a high barrier of sandbags around the village. Your engineers estimate one million bags will do the job but that's just a rough guess. As luck would have it, there is a shovel factory and a burlap bag warehouse in your village. I won't bore you with the math, but, each and every person in the village must fill, carry and stack two thousand sand bags during the next two hours. That works out to about one sandbag every four seconds. Pretty grim, huh?
There are two unknown factors at play in our little drama. It is not certain how deep the water will be or how high you'll be able to build the sandbag barrier. Both factors will determine how much damage will be done by the flood. If you start right now and do everything exactly right, maybe you'll only get a foot of water into the village. On the other hand, you might be facing a catastrophe no matter what you do.
Lets recap. You understand the problem clearly and you know exactly what needs to be done to fix it. You have the required tools and all the necessary materials. These might not matter, however, because what you lack is time and people to get the job done.
The above example exactly describes the Y2K situation. The technical experts completely understand Y2K. They know how to fix the problem and they have all the tools and materials they need. But that's not enough because ...
Y2K is not a technical problem. It is a management problem of monumental size. and complexity.
In fact, like the floodwater problem described in the story above, the Y2K Problem is so tough it can no longer be solved in the time available to work on it.
FROM CHAPTER FOUR, STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
Your very identity is jeopardized by Y2K.
In America today, the Driver's License is the most commonly used piece of personal identity documentation. We are commonly asked to show it to cash a check, take a commercial airplane flight, or close a real estate deal. It is so important to us that the Driver's License Ordeal (DLO) has become a part of our social fabric. We all remember what it was like to get this cherished little piece of paper the very first time. It was important to us because, as teenagers, the driver's license symbolizes freedom and is the ticket signifying passage from childhood into adulthood. As the father of eight children, I have a lot of DLO experience.
As time passes, the DLO takes on a new meaning. Every few years, each of us has to make the dreaded renewal visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles or whatever the agency is called in your state. As adults, the DLO comes to symbolize something entirely different. Today, for adults, it has come to represent the "Incompetent Bureaucracy." We all have our favorite story of standing in line for what must have been hours just to have some petty, uncaring, power-crazy clerk (jerk) treat us like "some kind of second-class citizen." (don't get me started here!)
What's the Y2K connection? Simply this - in most states, driver's licenses are highly automated and thus are routinely processed by computers. In Maryland where I live, for example, driver's licenses have a magnetic stripe on the back just like a credit card. (Remember the credit card in Chapter 2?) And guess what - in many cases, the expiration date is recorded using just two digits. Y2K is already causing driver's license related problems today. I have twice heard at Y2K conferences that both Hertz and Avis have turned away customers because their computers rejected driver's licenses expiring in the year "00".
Another way Y2K will affect driver's licenses is that every state uses a computerized database to store and process driver information. Those computers are susceptible to Y2K difficulties and, as we get closer to the millennium, will make more and more Y2K related mistakes. Holders of valid licenses can be lost from the system. Renewals can be erroneously denied. False criminal charges could be filed. It is even possible that some states' systems could crash altogether just like the court system's computer in Phoenix.
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2000: Consumer Solutions for the Worst Techincal Blunder in History: A Survival Guide for the Year 2000 Problem
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