This bounced from Michael E.
From: Michael Eisenscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Planning to travel on Jan. 1, 1999?

-  FAA Systems: Serious Challenges Remain in Resolving Year 2000 and
   Computer Security Problems. T-AIMD-98-251. 19 pp. August 6, 1998.
   http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ai98251t.pdf
========================================

How confident are you about the nation's air traffic control system?

Before planning that New Year's Day airplane trip to grandma's house,
ask
yourself, "In the millions of lines of computer code that go into the
programs in the FAA mainframe computers, am I confident that they have
really caught all the potential glitches that will be caused by the Year

2000 problem?"

Science literature refers to "normal accidents."  These are accidents
which
are nearly inevitably and arise out of the sheer complexity of systems.
Three Mile Island might be an example.  At some point even with all the
fail
safe features, very complex systems go awry.  Care to offer odds on the
FAA
computers' reliability?



--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 916-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]



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