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US to build Y2k Command Center Bunker
munchkin writes "CNN has a story from their computing section on the U.S. government's plans to build a Y2k bunker. Apparently, the bunker will be used for Y2k "event managment", better known as "panicking stupid people" and/or "drunken rioting". " What's even more interesting is that this is being considered as the first test of Clinton's drive for a "cyber defense", an initiative that was starting last May.
Of course, if you are still worried about the Worst Case, make sure you don't dick with handguns -- if the pepper spray turns out to be insufficiant, plan on having enough firepower to repel a mob - semiauto rifles and the like with plenty of ammo (don't get me wrong, a Glock 17 or somesuch probably isn't a bad idea, either).
In any event, that's probably going to far. Personally, I think that nothing really major will go wrong. Still, I'm worried because I think that people might go overboard just because of the incredible amount of buildup this one has gotten. I'd rather be overprepared than underprepared...
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I figure with a few of my friends and a good plan of attack, we could get a great deal of the good stuff (palms, flat-panel displays, notebooks, etc) loaded into the truck before the National Guard arrived -- screw limiting myself to what I can carry. From there, we head to my nice Y2K-complaint storage locker with the Y2K-compliant key Master Lock bolt and hold tight until my Y2K-compliant fence can set me up.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
(wtf did this really happen? or what.. if not my responce)
Sort of. I forget where. They shut down their computers and tried to run the plant manually. Sombody forgot to open a gate (valve) and someone else forgot to monitor everything. The sewage backed up behind the gate and overflowed into the park.
Think older and think data entry. On some old data entry systems, you entered 9999 in a date field to indicate no more entries. The input routine would quietly translate that to 09/09/99 since neither the day or the month could be 99.
Depending on which side of the input validation sub the end of entry condition was detected, it MIGHT be looking for 09/09/99 as end of entry.
In other systems, 09/09/99 (after entry validation) is considered to mean forever or for the indefinite future or perhaps never.
Nobody had heard of SQL when some of this stuff was written. Sometimes, storage was so desperatly tight that leading zeros were squeezed out of any stored data in memory if it could be done unambiguously, no matter how much processing time it might cost.
Also keep in mind that many of these programs were written when 'dirty tricks' that just happened to work were accepted programming practice in many shops. Things like 'knowing' that an overflow can't happen in this register here.
The paranoia is getting outa hand...
Well naturally, Clinton is going to want to be there. And with him around, the ratio of men to women will likely be something to the effect of 1:10....
Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Come the year 2001, thousands of people out there will be overcome with despair, because they will be stuck with generators, water purifiers, rifles, candles, and many other things whose value will drop to 20% its current value.
They will have had to eat all those awful MRE's, and lima beans, and rice they stocked up, for a whole year, as well as all that canned food.
Soon they will go completely postal.
And then, the President will find this bunker mighty useful.
Well, for real-time systems like the railroads, I would think that by far the safest solution would be to simply set the date back. What does switching equipment care, whether it's 2000 or 1973? (If my memory serves, 1973 was the year which had the same day of week configuration as 2000 - if I'm off by a year or two, don't worry).
Fortunately for the IRS, the systems actually used to collect most taxes are run by private industry, not the IRS. Employers collect the withholding taxes and send them to the government. I have no doubt they will continue to do so, since the penalties for not doing so are draconian. The IRS's own systems are another matter, of course.
D
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The 2038 problem stems from the fact that a 32-bit UNIX system stores time in a 32-bit integer. Time 0 was 01/01/70, also referred to as the 'biginning of the epoch'.
Each second, the 32-bit integer is incremented by 1 bit, counting time, in seconds, since the beginning of the epoch. (The term epoch is official, and found throughout UNIX documentation w.r.t. time)
The problem comes when the seconds number fills up. The full 32-bit value is 4294967295, so this many seconds from 01/01/70, the second's counter will fill up. This falls in 2038 - mis spring I think.
We're not quite sure how systems will react when this happens. It's very much a y2k type issue. Hope this clarifies the matter.
On a related note. Other exciting opportunities looming in the future are the Sept, 9, 1999 problem, the GPS problem, and the phone-space problem.
In some systems 9999 is a special sequence. While most of these use dates of 09/09/99, there's the potential for trouble.
The 24 Global Positioning System satellites count off the number of weeks since (I think) 1/1/80, in a single 8-bit byte. This byte will rollover this fall. Everything should be ok afterwards, but at the moment of rollover there is potential for trouble as well. This issue is limited to how ground stations interpret their GPS input. If, for example, an airplane computer suddenly thinks that it's falling (even for just a second) this may cause it's autopilot to freak.
A few years into the next decade, we will run out of phone numbers. With everyone having multiple lines into their home, fax machines, lines dedicated to the PC, cell phones and beepers - it's easy to see how this might happen. We will have to come up with a new phone number system before the number of available numbers runs out.
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
HMM havn't heard about the 2038 problem? Could someone please explain for a non programmer? (I know 2048 is 11 bits, but I don't see how this is a problem either?
Nightfall is a terrific book by Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg. In the story, the inhabitants of a world with six suns are faced with the darkness of night for the first time in 2000 years. It is an interesting discussion of human behavior in the face of crisis and unknown. There are many similarities to progress of the current Year 2000 paranoia, and the points it makes are rather frightening. Definately a terrific read if you're into speculative science fiction at all.
I used to work for a bank, and briefly for a medical school. I now work for the local gas and electric company. At all three of those places, the general understanding of where the potential problems are has been quite clear, and they are being worked on in a very sane and rational fashion. At least in my immediate area, the lights are unlikely to go out, the banks aren't going to "lose" your money, and the hospitals will be operational. I'm not worried. Anyone who lives in my area (Rochester, NY) who is worried about any of the above shouldn't be.
That said, here's the stuff I am worried about:
1. Rochester, NY is a pretty high-tech area, given the schools and industries that live there. It's no real wonder, then, that we're OK and not too given to panic. However, parts of the country that are not as technology-intensive or knowledgable might have problems.
2. If you think other parts of the US have it bad, Europe and Japan have serious Y2K problems. Especially Europe, from what I've read, since they were silly enough to try to do the Euro conversion last year instead of concentrating on Y2K.
3, Due to issue #2, as well as the sudden "bust" in demand for programmers once Y2K fixing season is over, the economy is likely to, in the long term, do Bad Things. I jokingly made a "Y2K food stockpile" last spring and was very grateful for it when I lost my job in June. I'm replenishing it for use in the event of a similar situation.
4. I am very concerned about the Crazy People. There seem to be several different sets of them: the fundies who are expecting either the Anti-Christ or the second coming of Jesus, the anti-technology sorts who are looking for an excuse to have everyone go back to the land, and the "darkside" sorts who are convinced that all of a sudden there is going to be a Shadowrun-like scenario and it will suddenly become possible to throw fireballs and there will be a Great War between law and chaos blahblahblah, are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
5. Due to the fundie version of the above, if enough of them can get into enough power based on all the hype, real damage could get done to religious and intellectual freedom in the United States. This is NOT something I want to deal with.
6. The nuts that head for the hills to avoid the "rioters." The opportunists who break into the houses of the nuts and start looting. My boyfriend tried to convince me to leave the city on 12/31/99 but I am not going to. I'm going to be at Baron Devon's New Years Eve Party with most of the rest of the local SCA group, and if the lights go out and all the other nasty stuff happens, we're well-equipped to deal with it. We've got candles, camping equipment, and weapons if necessary.
"Somebody exploded a letter-bomb today
This is part of the reason I'm partying with the Baron this New Year's. Lots of interesting weaponry is sure to be on hand.
Think swords. Battleaxes and crossbows are good, too. And make sure you look like you know how to use whatever it is you've got. Plenty of SCA-folk can tell you funny stories about stopping various would-be attackers and theives with medieval weaponry.
Hey, even in Pulp Fiction, a katana made a much cooler weapon than a chainsaw. *grin*
Shock value is a Good Thing, sometimes.
"Somebody exploded a letter-bomb today
"What's that sound, mommy?"
"That's Y2k coming, honey"
"Whelp, I guess we'd better get down in the bunker, Eunice."
"Mommy, I forgot Fluffy!!"
"Don't go out there, dear, it's not safe!"
Y2K--Coming to a computer near you.
-awc
Oh, I don't blame Congress. If I had $600 billion at my disposal, I'd be irresponsible, too. -- Lichty & Wagner
That quote was from the bottom of one of the slashdot pages, and I think it describes this situation perfectly. This project is just appealing to all those people who say "better safe than sorry." As far as I'm concerned, this y2k bunker will add more paranoia and fear to the uninformed U.S. population, heck maybe even the world. Of course, to go back to satire, what's wrong with throwing a few billion dollars here, a few billion dollars there.....
Rajiv Varma