One home truth that's easily forgotten in the Y2K-inspired pessimism over the prospect of malfunctioning modems, randomly strobing traffic lights and zero-balance money-market accounts is that one person's darkest nightmare is quite often another's dream come true. In rural Montana, where, it seems fair to speculate, more people know how to gather firewood than download a video image from the Web, the prospect of a massive high-tech meltdown is not only nothing to panic over but also, for a lot of folks, something to be welcomed.
"I'm kind of looking forward to the whole thing," says my mother-in-law, who lives in...