This Webring is still up and running,
now devoted to personal preparedness.
I should really do an earthquake site.
About the Webmistress
My name is Lauren Pomerantz, and I am a computer programmer in Los
Angeles. I have been involved in Year 2000 compliance since November of 1996.
My Career Experience
I work for a company with divisions across the U.S. In late 1995, we
had merged, and our headquarters had been moved from the midwest to the east coast.
The new company wanted to decentralize, and spent several months analyzing the computer
systems of what had been a tightly knit, centrally controlled company. It was
discovered that a single IBM mainframe purchased in the early 80's was not Y2K compliant. Worse, it was full of proprietary
software that had been written by an MIS department that had been laid off following the
merger. It was decided to remove the computer rather than repair it. The age
of the hardware made this the most sensible decision.
In order to remove the offending computer from our system, we had to
change the processes that used this computer. Unfortunately, it sat at the center of
a web of mini-computers that drew information from it on a daily or weekly basis.
For the past three years, my job has been to support the process of redirecting the
computer system around this one mainframe that cannot support the date change.
Things are not going well.
My Personal Experience
There are a lot of experts trying to alert the public about the Year 2000
computer crisis. Most of these people are not from California. Peter de Jager
has been on the forefront of publicizing this crisis. Peter de Jager lives in
Canada. He may have plenty of experience in planning for being snowbound, but little
else. The Yourdons, authors of Timebomb 2000,
live in Manhattan. I have lived in Southern California since 1984. I have
experience handling disaster.
I have lived through earthquakes, floods, fires, landslides, and El
Niño. I worked closely with Quakesafe when I was employed at the California Museum
of Science and Industry. I have had a full earthquake kit since 1987.
In addition, I lived in Los Angeles during the most recent set of riots
(1992). I know firsthand what can happen when society breaks down. This, more
than anything, more than bank failure and economic collapse and the failure of large
portions of the government's computer systems, is what scares me.
Contact Me
You may e-Mail me at calspace@yahoo.com.
You might also want to visit my other site, the California
Space & Science Center's Teacher Resource Project.
We've had
I can't believe I had a Web counter!
visitors since 21 August 1998.
LE
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