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US to build Y2k Command Center Bunker

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i've-got-my-seat-with-my-red-hat-letter dept.

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.

5 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Ryder now renting... by Skyshadow · · Score: 5
    Personally, I plan on spending my New Year's inside my fully gassed-up Ryder truck, backed up to the front of my local Best Buy waiting for the looting to begin.

    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.

    ----

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
  2. The safest place by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 3
    The safest possible place to be around New Years 2000 will be on a passenger airliner, in the air. That's because the plane is not going to fall out of the sky, and airline security will keep nuts with guns off of your plane. The greatest danger of Y2K is derranged millenial nuts with too much fire-power, not any computer failure.

    Thanks

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
    1. Re:The safest place by MindStalker · · Score: 4

      HAHAH, ROTFL.. HEHE moderate up for humor please. :)
      While I can't speak for Britian I would be very surprised if there was a single bank not ready by the time Y2K hit, even then, believe it or not, everything is still done on paper. Would you trust a few billion dollars to a database, I don't think so. I do kinda wonder why some companies are spending so much, but you know as I think about it, I bet with a little bit of creative financing I could write off all my Y2K expenses on my taxes. Hmm, hey George, how much are we spending to pay those computer guys to keep our system running.. Hmm reallly?? and we have to pay taxes on that?.. Hmm relocate them to the Y2K Team (don't tell them though.. HAHHAHAH). IRS, oh yea, they are outta date, but their computers are no more than glorified adding machines from the 70s. They just need to walk over to kinko's and say Hey, umm I need 1 Billion of these neat little forms made, umm next week. Alright.. Thanx.!
      Railroads? hmmm.. steam/electrical engines that run on a straight track. Oh sure they need to keep on schedule, but it was done for a hundred years by watch, I doupt they will kill over anytime soon.

      You don't think it's a problem when a park is flooded with 3-1/2 MILLION gallons of raw sewage thanks to a y2k test?
      (wtf did this really happen? or what.. if not my responce)
      Wow, my park is going to be flooded with raw Sewage!!! COOL!! so you say y2k reverses gravity. And those low lying sewage plants tanks are gonna starts flowing up to the generally high lying parks. That rocks, gonna rememeber to bring my bathing suit!

      Where are these "nuts" you speak of? If they're such a big danger, there surely must be a lot of them. Where are they?
      Umm.. Mirror???



  3. Re:Y2.038K is comming.. by jabber · · Score: 3

    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.
  4. Boom. by J.+Pierpont · · Score: 5



    "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