Book Summary:
This account outlines an ominous view of how computer systems will be able to deal with the year 2000 problem. Power grids go dark, 911 call centers descend into chaos, Visa cards die, and the industrialized world is reduced to hunting and gathering in Hyatt's millennium nightmare. With lots of quotes popping out from the pages and plenty of bulleted lists, The Millennium Bug is written in typical manager-book style. It's heavy with case studies, news items, and endnote references to the author's sources. Hyatt's purpose is to alert technology decision-makers to a plausible worst-case Y2K scenario and to motivate them to do something about it. The author presents a range of possible developments, from mere annoyance with consumer services to widespread starvation as a result of infrastructure breakdown. Hyatt also foresees a plague of lawsuits filed by shareholders, the families of deceased patients, and swarms of other people harmed by Y2K failures. Hyatt's advice: move to a small town with a volunteer fire department, stockpile food, secure access to a reliable source of fresh water, and buy a gun and ammunition for fending off looters. The winter of 1999-2000 will be a hard one, Hyatt predicts, and the crisis may last a long time indeed--have reading material on hand. --David Wall The Y2K bomb is ticking. Here's the survival guide you can't afford to be without.
Today computers are involved in every part of our lives, from electrical power, to banks, to emergency medical service. But none of us has ever experienced the kind of worldwide computer crash that will result on account of the Millennium Bug. When the clock strikes midnight on January 1, 2000, computer systems all over the world will fail--and, as author Michael Hyatt shows, the results could be disastrous.
You could lose electricity--not just for a couple of hours or days, but for weeks, months, or even years.
Phones could stop working, making it impossible to contact 911 or the police.
Military defense systems could crumble.
Banks around the world could fail, leaving you unable to access funds and eventually spawning a global depression.
Packed with up-to-the-minute information on the problem and practical suggestions to ensure survival, The Millennium Bug provides an easy-to-understand plan for securing important documents, stockpiling food and household goods, creating new forms of currency, and more. As Hyatt shows, we can protect ourselves--but time is running short, and we need to start now. |