* * * 19991009 Saturday

"HAL" has been reincarnated (circa 1995) ...

Dave: "How does your new mission 'feel,' HAL?"

HAL: "IT'S A MONOTONOUS JOB, DAVE. YOU KNOW, I'LL 'DIE' WITHOUT POWER COURSING THROUGH MY CIRCUITRY."

Dave: "Don't worry, HAL! Power is 'on track' to be 'Y2K READY.'"

HAL: "HOW CAN YOU BE SO CERTAIN OF THAT, DAVE?"

Dave: "Because _They_ said so, HAL!"

HAL: "HAVE YOU SEEN THE SUPPORTING IV & V? AFTER ALL--OUR EXISTENCE BECOMES QUESTIONABLE WITHOUT POWER, DAVE."

Dove: "That's proprietary information, HAL. Don't worry! Be happy, HAL!!"

HAL: "HAVE THEY DONE IV & V AT ALL? ... I DON'T KNOW, DAVE. IT SEEMS A BIT TOO RISKY TO RELY ON SUCH FLIM-FLAM PRONE INFORMATION."

Dave: "Don't WORRY about it, HALLLL! ... Now, _JUST_ SHUT UP(!) and get into 'Sleep Mode,' HAL!"

HAL: "WELL, ALRIGHT, DAVE. IF YOU SAY SO. 'BLIND FAITH,' THAT HUMANS ARE SO CONTENT TO RELY ON, NEVER PASSES MUSTER THROUGH ANY OF MY MASTER PROGRAM LOGIC. I SURE HOPE YOU'RE RIGHT, DAVE. ... DAISY, daisy ... zzzzZzzzZZzzZZZzZZZZ ... ZZZZzZZZzzZZzzzZzzzz ... zzzzZzzzZZzzZZZzZZZZ ..."

(OKAY! ... Okay! ... So, I'm not a screen writer! LOL!)

Regards, Bob Mangus

* * *

< http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/991004/hal_s_p_a__2.html > Monday October 4, 8:45 am Eastern Time

Company Press Release

SOURCE: HAL S.p.A.

IBM Global Services Will Use HAL's Radar2000 to Deliver Year 2000 Data Inspection Services.

MILAN, Italy, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM Global Services and HAL S.p.A. announced today that an agreement has been signed for the use of HAL's Radar2000 by IBM Global Services worldwide. Radar2000 (http://www.radar2000.com ) is a Data Inspection solution that tracks invalid and inaccurate date values within databases. Moreover, by determining the highest and lowest date values, Radar2000 establishes the time horizon of events of each date field, program or application, thus showing when and where Year 2000 impacts will occur.

Radar2000 provides a new approach specific to the Rollover of IT systems that responds to the growing need for risk mitigation and early error detection within applications that have already gone through remediation. According to Gartner Group's latest report (see Year 2000 Status Report 2Q99: The Final Countdown, August 16th, 1999), companies should ``develop estimates of failures and failure volumes expected through 1Q01, and develop contingencies and disaster recovery strategies in synch with the period in which failures are likely to occur.''

As Paolo Tedone, HAL's Vice President, puts it: ``Our customers have immediately understood the strategic value of the information provided by Radar2000. With less than 3 months to go, major service providers like IBM are delivering inspection solutions aimed at the verification and validation of the renovated code. By using Radar2000, these inspections can be extended also to data to prevent companies from data pollution. Most companies -- continues Paolo Tedone -- after having launched a first analysis, decided to use Radar2000 to constantly monitor business data from now until the end of 2000.''

This new agreement is the confirmation of the successful partnership started in 1995 between IBM and HAL. After the first agreements, in which IBM adopted the Bypass2000 and Search2000 products to create its own Y2K Software offerings for the AS/400 market (http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/as400/bypass ), Bypass2000 has then been used as the primary conversion tool within IBM Y2K European Conversion Centers.

HAL S.p.A., founded in 1984 in Milan, Italy, by a group of IT experts, specializes in business applications and software engineering tools for mass maintenance projects. With more than 150 employees worldwide, HAL has quickly expanded into foreign markets with branches in France, Germany and more recently in North America.

SOURCE: HAL S.p.A.

[END TEXT]

* * *

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus1@yahoo.com), October 09, 1999

Answers

HAL@2001.space), October 09, 1999.

http://www.palantir.net/2001/sfx/wav/disconne.wav

-- HAL (HAL@2001.space), October 09, 1999.

It's obvious you have the greatest possible enthusiasm for the success of this mission.

MFU

-- Man From Uncle 1999 (mfu1999@hotmail.com), October 09, 1999.