Customer Reviews

Debunking the Y2K Terrors & Tales

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Mr. Whitington's Debunking the Y2K Terrors & Tales is welcome proof that you don't have to write a tome longer than War and Peace to make your point. It's also a book in which the author uses his brain and deductive reasoning skills. Methodically and calmly, Mr. Whitington serves his readers with doses of technical and common sense---both of which are in shockingly short supply concerning this timely subject. Yet, he goes beyond simply identifying what the scare stories are and why they're baseless. He invokes business and technical logic, other scarce commodities for which you can search long and hard when reading about Y2K.

Of course our toasters will work in January 2000. Why in the world would so-called embedded chips in toasters have date functions in the first place? So I can set my watch by them as I butter my English muffin?

Of course our cars will start in January 2000. Of course the elevators will keep working after the new millennium begins. The so-called embedded chips in these machines aren't date sensitive either. Why would they be?

Another reviewer used "shallow" to describe Mr. Whitington's work. That's a bad choice of words, readers. The work isn't sold by the pound like some elongated, lugubrious books, but it is most certainly not shallow. It's as long as it takes for Mr. Whitington to do the job---to show in both technical and yet very readable ways that this Y2K hoopla is just that. Hoopla.

Do yourself and your family a favor. Before you purchase a swimming pool in which to store water, yank your assets and other life's savings out of the bank or cut off your own head and run around in mindless circles, I heartily recommend you buy and read this book. You'll save yourself a lot of needless, worthless aggravation. You also won't be lining the pockets of Y2K shysters and other con artists all too willing to take your survivalist money and skip merrily to THEIR banks with YOUR money.

Mr. Whitington, thanks for using your brain---and your writer's pen---to bathe this topic in badly-needed logic.

I'm glad to see that Mr. Whitington has taken the time to research this matter so thuroughly. It is reassuring to see that not everyone is trying to get into our wallets using the Y2K scare. Thanks you for your straight-forward approach to this problem. I will avoid buying into all the scare tactics now.

I bought this book in an effort to find convincing counter arguments to the standard Y2K scenarios. Unfortunately, this book does not deliver. Mr. Whitington's disappointingly shallow arguments reduce to this: Gloomy Y2K scenarios are impossible because,

1. The people who predict them are all motivated by greed, hoping to sell more Y2K supplies. 2. The corporations and government agencies that provide critical services are all working on the problem and promise to have it fixed in time. 3. Vendor compliance reports and those of government agencies are reliable. 4. The people working on the problem are highly motivated to solve it in time. 5. The author doesn't personally know any programmers who are relocating to rural areas or taking any other extraordinary precautions. 6. Some of the statements that have been promulgated about Y2K are false.

Consider, for example, his "debunking" of the possibility of bank runs. He merely points outs the Federal Reserve has printed $50 billion of contingency cash and that the FDIC says that it will insure any losses:

"There will undoubtedly be many people who pull their life savings out of the bank before New Years' Eve in 1999. The Federal Reserve has already anticipated this and instructed the U.S. Mint to print an additional fifty billion dollars in currency; other countries are following suite."

"If a bank or thrift institution should fail because of Year 2000 problems, insured deposits will be covered -- no ifs, ands, or buts." [Quoting the head of the FDIC]

It never occurs to Mr. Whitington that his task is to argue that (given that total bank deposits exceed $3 trillion) the quantity of contingency cash is sufficient to meet any appreciably probable demand. He must explain how word of a run at one bank, won't spread the panic to

others. He must explain where, after an economic collapse triggered by massive bank failures, the FDIC will find the funds to insure losses.

In attempting to debunk the idea that noncompliant computers can "infect" compliant ones, he errs by failing to understand the mode of infection. Mr. Whitington assumes at all re-corruption will result from date synchronization between computers, which he argues (correctly) does not in general occur. He fails to realize that it is the data being transferred that is corrupt. Corrupted transactions will have to be sorted out (uncorrupted) by human beings. Mr. Whitington fails to address the important question of whether there will be sufficient man power to uncorrupt corrupted transactions fast enough to prevent a slow down and consequent collapse of financial networks.

Rather delving beneath the surface of the more catastrophic failures (e.g. banking or power), he instead devotes considerable space to knocking

down Y2K straw men. He unnecessarily assures us that cars, elevators, TV sets and other household appliances will not fail.

In discussing the IRS he does not bother to mention the IRS' repeated failures in attempting to modernize its computers. Mr. Whitington shows no understanding IRS operations, arguing that the IRS cannot fail because its web site says that they're committed to solving the problem and because its failure is inconceivable:

"... do you really believe that the IRS will not be ready to take money from you on April 15th of the year 2000?"

According to Mr. Whitington, grocery store shelves cannot empty, because most grocers have converted to the Electronic Data Interchange standard, which uses a four-digit year. He does not explain why panic-driven demand cannot exceed a supply that has been reduced by increased ineffiencies in the supply system, which are due to the cumulative effect of glitches -- however slight -- in the financial, communication, transportation or electrical systems.

Regarding the health care industry, there is no problem because vendors never lie:

"Since they are somewhat limited in their ability to perform live testing, the strategy that the healthcare industry has embraced is to carefully identify all at-risk components and track the vendor's compliance reports."

Regarding water utilities, because they have developed a compliance checklist, "it is unlikely that there will be any significant interruption of water supply". Even if this statement is true, it is not comforting. If, for example, "unlikely" means 10% probable, there is a 10% chance of a national calamity of unprecedented scale. This would warrant precisely the preparation measures that Mr. Whitington cautions against.

According to the author there is no reason to have cash or gold, because

"If an apocalypse occurs of the magnitude that the Y2K shysters are predicting ... paper money would be worthless. Precious metals like gold and silver would carry little value as well."

This appears to be another example of superficial thinking. Y2K scenarios describe varying degrees by which the economy will contract. There are no credible scenarios in which it disappears altogether. Mr. Whitington does not consider less apocalyptic scenarios in which, for example, unemployment merely rises to 50%. In such a case there would be no reason to expect the money economy to disappear. On the contrary, had there been a collapse of the banking system, one would expect cash to be king, as in the Great Depression. Were the government to attempt to solve its financial problems by printing excessive amounts of cash, one would expect, on the basis of over two thousand years of history, that the money economy would return to the traditional precious metals. The author discusses none of this, relying instead on unsupported assertions.

Mr. Whitington should be commended for attempting to write the sort of book that we badly need. He aptly summarizes the major Y2K gloom predicitions.

Nevertheless, this is an unthinking, poorly researched, and dangerously superficial treatment of an important issue. It appears to have been motivated primarily by anger at Y2K profiteers or jealously of them. I could not shake the impression that this ebook is just the author's own quick attempt to cash in on Y2K.

Following the advice in this book might save you money, or it might get you and your family killed.

This is an interesting and well-written book that conveys a lot of information aimed at the average reader. Instead of highly technical jargon describing computer workings, the book covers a variety of topics that the average person is curious about regarding what are likely scenarios for Y2K.

He covers economic, social and technical topics in an interesting, informative manner. His view of the Y2K event seems to follow other authors in that the world will not end, people will not die...life will go on. This is the sane, reassuring message other non-alarmists give us.

The book makes common sense, rational suggestions about things the average reader shoud/could do to minimize Y2K problems. The information presented is timely. The things to do are all "do-able" by any reader.

I would recommend this book as a down-to-earth source of information for anyone having concerns about the Y2K. I especially appreciate the range of topics and the easily readible style. If you know someone who has no idea what Y2K could bring, I suggest you get them this book.

...or a nice white bucket collection? The info in this ebook has relieved much of my fear and saved me from spending money I really can't afford. Whitington's computer experience/expertise is quite self-evident, his research thorough, writing style easy and flowing. The insightful content is a breath of fresh air amidst a world clouded in Y2K rumor and potentially harmful misinformation on this all-too-serious matter. A real eye-opener and must-read for responsible adults as we move closer to this, maybe not so fateful, date of January 1st, 2000.

Debunking the Y2K Terrors & Tales is an excellent book, filled with common sense examples that dispel the fears and mock the myths about the crisis many expect at the end of the year. Whitington's writing is crisp, clean, and lively, and he presents his material in an interesting and readable fashion. In these turbulent, confusing times, his is a voice of calm and reason. I highly recommend this work.