Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 975
……

This sudden power supply failure, quickly and unanimously dubbed the "Great Blackout of the United States and Canada," affected a wide range of areas. According to media reports, it reached Virginia in the south, Ontario in Canada in the north, and the Great Lakes in North America in the west. area, east to the Atlantic coast.

If you don’t have a specific idea about this, just imagine, from south to north, the U.S. capital Watson Shield is located in the District of Columbia, Wall Street is located in New York, the Canadian capital Ottawa, Canada’s economic center Toronto...etc. The world’s top metropolitan areas, from Starting at [-]:[-] a.m. on Thursday, September [-], [-], the scenes of "flame out" one after another, what a spectacle!How sour!How horrible!
Historically, the Northeastern United States has not experienced large-scale power supply failures. Thirty-four years ago, on November 34, 3000, a 20-hour power outage occurred across the United States and Canada, covering a population of [-] million and more than [-] square kilometers.

Even this year, there have been massive power supply failures around the world.Just on March 500th in the first half of the year, a power outage occurred in Brazil involving Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other places, affecting 800 million to [-] million people.

However, today is not the same as in the past. The economic scale, population and other indicators more than 30 years ago cannot be compared with the present; and the area where Washington DC and New York are located is not an exaggeration to describe it as the center of the world; besides, Curious onlookers and those who have experienced it are completely two perspectives and two feelings.

Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that after the power outage in the United States and Canada spread like dark clouds overwhelming the city and swallowing the light, how the people panicked as the end of the world came, and how the government became vigilant as a terrorist attack.

Of course, the power outage in the United States and Canada will not completely paralyze the affected area.Not to mention the military, many civilian industries have corresponding preparation plans.

For example, the communications industry can still operate as usual.

However, compared with the continuous smoothness of traditional telephone networks, mobile phone services were temporarily interrupted due to the explosion of a large number of users calling home, which overloaded many lines and eventually ran out of backup power.

The two largest mobile phone service providers in the United States, Datang Mobile Communications Company and AT&T Company, announced one after another that they would do their best to restore communication services as quickly as possible.

U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered a televised speech to the nation on September 24, the day when the "US-Canada Blackout" broke out, characterization of the large-scale power outage as an accident, and has ordered Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to be in charge of the investigation , and promised to restore urban power supply within 48 hours, restore suburban power supply within [-] hours, and so on.

No matter how much the President tries to reassure people, the actual situation is that, with the exception of very special and important cities such as Washington and New York, many urban areas had no electricity on the night of September [-]th. "Stupid" citizens used candles because Inadvertently, hundreds of fire alarms were triggered.

CNN was very sweet and aired a video taken by branch employees after they returned home.

I saw a cute little girl pointing out the window and cheering in a sweet voice: "Mom, look, there are so many stars in the sky!"

The camera turns to the night sky, without the light pollution of the city, the brilliant Milky Way can be clearly identified with the naked eye.

"This can be regarded as a rare spectacle in the city." The host of the CNN Network made a bitter comment.

……

Soon, Bill Richardson, the U.S. Secretary of Energy with heavy responsibilities, held a press conference to make a lengthy statement on the "blackout in the United States and Canada".

To apply it to everyone, we must first put the difficulties out and leave room for maneuver.

Bill Richardson emphasized at the beginning: "Since the beginning of summer, the temperature across the United States from the west coast to the east coast has been higher than in previous years. The hot weather has led to a surge in electricity load."

Then, Bill Richardson explained the first investigation result, "According to the First Energy Company's report, the preliminary conclusion is that on the morning of September 265th, in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, a power plant suddenly lost power due to a high-voltage line. Short circuit, and automatic offline shutdown, resulting in a domino effect, eventually causing more than 508 units of more than 5000 power plants to shut down and cease operation, thus affecting the normal power consumption of nearly 1000 million people in the United States and [-] million people in Canada."

Listening to Bill Richardson's "bland" introduction, how could the reporters in the audience be satisfied.

They need the "truth" that is full of legends, ups and downs, and preferably full of conspiracies. Otherwise, how can they be worthy of such a magnificent "blackout in the United States and Canada" that shocked the world?
After Bill Richardson's speech came to an end, a reporter immediately jumped out and directly questioned: "Is such a serious 'US and Canada blackout' just caused by the shutdown of a power plant that is overwhelmed?"

Bill Richardson, who had long expected that this situation would be difficult to deal with, carefully considered his words, and replied: "As I said just now, this is the preliminary conclusion drawn from the report of First Energy Corporation; further, we There will definitely be further investigations.”

Another reporter asked sharply: "Mr. President once mentioned in a TV speech that normal power supply to the city will be restored within 24 hours. But as far as we know, this deadline has passed, but there are still some cities , is in a no-power state. May I ask, what is the cause of this?"

Embarrassment flashed across Bill Richardson's face, and he replied slowly: "It is undeniable that we miscalculated the technical complexity and operational difficulty of restoring power supply. It may take 72 hours to restore power supply in all cities; and some remote towns , may have to wait until ten days later."

Of course, the reporter should dutifully ask: "So, what does Mr. Minister refer to in terms of technical complexity and operational difficulty?"

"Including a lot..." Bill Richardson pondered and counted: "Through the preliminary inspection, we found that there are many imperfections in the daily operation of the power company."

"For example, environmental clean-up work is slack, and many high-voltage transmission lines pass by, and trees are not pruned in time;"

"For another example, the power company puts too much emphasis on cost control, and the aging problem of power equipment is serious;"

"Also, there are many types of computer power management systems used in the power network, including Fangyuan's new platform using the Zheru Software Company's Vientiane operating system, as well as General Electric's traditional Unix computers. Complexity, leading to the scheduling evaluation of power demand shaving peaks and flat valleys, it seems very passive.”

As soon as the name of Zheru Software Company was mentioned, the reporter at the scene was startled, his eyes sparkled and he asked: "Since Mr. Minister reiterated that the current investigation conclusion is only a preliminary analysis, then what you just listed Yes, did the discovery of the various malpractices of the power company also cause the "blackout in the United States and Canada"? Is there a factor for the outbreak of the "Year [-] Bug"?"

"We all know that September [-]th, the day when the 'America and Canada Blackout' occurred, happened to be the first time point in the most likely date for the 'Year [-] Bug' to occur."

Bill Richardson briefly flipped through the information in front of him, and then responded in a very conservative manner, "We cannot rule out that the daily operational problems of the power company discovered during our investigation were one of the causes of the 'Great Blackout in the United States and Canada'; As for whether it is related to the 'Millennium Bug', it is not yet certain."

……

US Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson's cautious attitude at the press conference reflects the various inability of the United States to deal with the "US and Canada blackout".
Metropolises such as New York have effectively re-lit their bright lights, but the remote towns below have been delayed to the point of complaint.

The accident investigation report came up with a preliminary analysis result. After dealing with the media, there was no further information.

Seeing that the promises he made to the people of the United States have been discounted, US President Bill Clinton is a little angry.

There is a little more than a year left in his term of office. With Congress still controlled by the opponent Republican Party, it can be said that he has nothing to ask for. He just wants to leave as much political legacy as possible. Unexpectedly, the world-sensational "U.S. and Canada blackout" occurred, and it was not dealt with effectively. Didn't this add another stain to myself?

At a recent cabinet meeting, Bill Clinton asked Bill Richardson to respond quickly to issues of particular concern, even if the investigation was slow.Among other things, whether there is any shadow of "Yearn Year Bug" in "Blackout in the United States and Canada" can always be ruled out!
No wonder Bill Clinton was in a hurry. You know, the "blackout in the United States and Canada" triggered a series of chain reactions.

The first thing to bear the brunt is that Wall Street began to doubt the stability of the US power supply network, which was directly reflected in the capital market.

The energy giants headed by Enron have digitized energy supply into a dazzling array of financial derivative products, such as futures, in order to make waves by taking advantage of the pressure of environmental protection on the demand for clean energy.

Now, the "blackout in the United States and Canada" has almost given these energy giants the confidence to call themselves a seller's market.

More critical is the "millennium bug" issue, which makes everyone anxious.

Originally, since the early 90s, Tang Huan published an article calling for the entire industry to coordinate the disposal of the "Year 2000 Bug", and everyone has invested tens of billions of dollars in it, and they are full of confidence in the safe transition of their own computer systems to the year [-].

But on September [-], [-], at the first point in time when the "Yearn[-] Bug" was likely to occur, there was a sudden "blackout in the United States and Canada". Who would dare to be so sure?

Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just in case, it describes the current worry psychology.

National defense, banking, communications, and various public service fields have to raise the level of prevention against the "Year [-] Bug", which is a waste of time and money.

Now some members of Congress have begun to run on Bill Clinton, the "crazy duck" president: Can you do it? Is there any relationship between the "blackout in the United States and Canada" and the "Year [-] Bug"? As for being so difficult!
The major mainstream media, as always, stand on the commanding heights of political correctness, moral superiority, etc., and criticize condescendingly: Why is work efficiency so low?There are still three months to go until the year 2000. Is the "Y[-]K" really going to paralyze the entire society? During the "blackout in the United States and Canada", the people in the affected areas showed the highest quality in the world, and there was no chaos like the one that took advantage of the blackout in Brazil in the first half of the year; If we are all paralyzed, who can guarantee that social order will still be so orderly by then?

If the bureaucrats are not doing their job well enough, then let the experts come in.

The media circles spontaneously invited [-] professional elites to offer their opinions and suggestions on the review of the "US and Canada Blackout" and the prevention of the "Year [-] Bug".

It is no surprise that Tang Huan, the Taishan Beidou in the academic field of computer science, will definitely not be left behind, and he is still a favorite for consultation.

At this time, Mr. Richest Man is still staying in New York.Gein, although the airport will not be completely overwhelmed by the "blackout in the United States and Canada", there are still many inconveniences. He doesn't want his Silicon Valley One to fly into the sky in a daze. Anyway, even if he is delayed in New York, he can still do it. A lot of things.

In the face of all kinds of inquiries from the media, Tang Huan is not usually cautious in his words and deeds.

He also made no secret of why he was so conservative.

You have to avoid suspicion!

Not long ago, Zheru Software Company offered to continue to suspend the monopoly case against Zheru Software Co., Ltd., in order to focus more on helping the industry prevent the "Year [-] Bug", but it was rejected.

There is so much at stake here!

Originally planned, the United States of America v. Zheru Software Company monopoly case was reopened on September [-]. Because of the "blackout in the United States and Canada", it was forced to postpone it for three days, and then postponed it for a week. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of the District of Columbia And the Ministry of Justice, who are holding their breath there.

How can you talk nonsense in such a delicate situation?
Seeing that the richest man is so cautious, for fear that the monopoly case of the United States of America v. Zheru Software Company will be affected by his own side, the reporter simply asked, "Tang, this time, you want to suspend the monopoly case of the United States of America v. Zheru Software Company. How long?"

Tang Huan replied euphemistically: "My wishful thinking is meaningless. I hope that all parties concerned can proceed from reality and consider it carefully."

The implication of Mr. Richest Man's words is: I don't want to waste spitting, you say it yourself, whether to suspend the monopoly case of the United States of America v. Zheru Software Company!
(End of this chapter)