Rebirth of the Tech Madman

This power supply failure, which came suddenly and was quickly and unanimously called the blackout in the United States and Canada, affected a wide range. According to the summary of the media, it reached Virginia in the United States in the south, Ontario in Canada in the north, and the Great Lakes in North America in the west. region, 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 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 9, 1999, the scenes of flame out one after another, what a spectacle! How sour! How horrible!

Historically, the northeastern region of the United States has not experienced large-scale power supply failures. Thirty-four years ago, on November 9, 1965, there was a 13-hour power outage that swept across the United States and Canada, covering a population of 30 million and more than 200,000 square kilometers.

Even this year, there have been massive power supply failures around the world. Just on March 11th in the first half of the year, a power outage occurred in Brazil involving Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other places, affecting 75 to 98 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, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as the center of the world; Moreover, 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 to the continuous smoothness of the traditional telephone network, the mobile phone service was temporarily interrupted due to a large number of users bursting home calls, overloading many lines, and eventually exhausting the backup power supply.

The two largest mobile phone service providers in the United States, Datang Mobile Communications Company and AT\u0026T Company, announced one after another that they would make every effort to restore communication services as quickly as possible.

U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered a televised speech to the nation on September 9, 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 power to the city within 24 hours, restore power to the suburbs within 48 hours, and so on.

No matter how the president comforts people, the reality is that, except for very special and important cities such as Washington DC and New York, many urban areas have no electricity on the night of September 9th, and the stupid citizens because of using candles Inadvertently, hundreds of fire alarms were triggered.

CNN, however, kindly aired a video of the branch employees returning home.

I saw a cute little girl, pointing out the window, and cheered childishly: 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,

U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who has a heavy responsibility, held a press conference to make a lengthy statement on the blackout in the United States and Canada.

It is universally applicable, first of all, difficulties must be laid out, leaving room for maneuvering.

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 findings of the investigation, According to the report of First Energy Corporation, the preliminary conclusion is that on the morning of September 9, a power plant in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio suddenly Short circuit, and automatic offline shutdown, resulting in a domino effect, eventually causing 508 units in more than 265 power plants to shut down one after another and stop running, which in turn affected the normal electricity consumption of nearly 50 million people in the United States and 10 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 'blackout in the United States and Canada' 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 televised speech that the city's normal power supply will be restored within 24 hours. But as far as we know, this deadline has passed, but there are still Some cities are without electricity. May I ask what caused 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 seventy-two hours to restore power supply in all cities; and some In remote towns, it may take ten days.

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, and 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 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 2000 Bug?

We all know that September 9th, the day when the 'America and Canada Blackout' occurred, happened to be the first time point in the most likely date for the 'Millennium Bug' to occur.

Bill Richardson looked through the information in front of him a little, and then responded very conservatively, It is not ruled out that the daily operation problems of the power company that we discovered during the investigation process are one of the reasons for the 'US and Canada Blackout'; 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 reflected 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 1990s, Tang Huan published an article calling for the entire industry to deal with 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 2000 years. confidence.

But on September 9, 1999, at the first point in time when the Yearn2000 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 2000 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 2000 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? In three months, it will be two thousand years. Is it true that the whole society will be paralyzed by the millennium bug? 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 that during the blackout in Brazil in the first half of the year; It's all paralyzed, so who can guarantee that the social order will be so orderly by then?

If the bureaucrats are not doing enough, call in the experts.

The media circles spontaneously invited 18 professional elites to offer their opinions and suggestions on the review of the US and Canada Blackout and the prevention of the Year 2000 Bug.

Not surprisingly, Taishan Beidou, Tang Huan, in the academic field of computer science, will definitely not be left behind, and he is still a favorite for consultation.

At this time, the 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.

I 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 2000 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 9. 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!