On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
December 22, 1998 Permalink
The fact is, the institutions can be fixed in 1999, if at all, only by abandoning noncompliant mainframe computers and going back to pen-and-paper management systems. But that would mean that the fools who designed the 2-digit shortcut and the fools who accepted it are... how can I say this nicely?... fools.
They do not like to be called fools. They will do anything to defer the day of reckoning -- the day of their universal exposure as fools -- for another 12 months. If this costs Western civilization everything, because resources will not be spent to move institutions back to paper-and-pen systems, well tough bananas for Western civilization. The important thing is that programmers and managers save face for another 12 months.
I say, “get ready for the collapse.” I say, “get your business back to pen and paper or a compliant microcomputer system, or else sell your business, now.”
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 12/22/98
I have conducted a regional analysis of municipal governments throughout the upper midwest and have found that aside from a few metropolitan areas, most municipalities have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to assure the uninterrupted flow and purity of their water supplies. Furthermore, these same municipalities have done as much (as little) in making certain that their sewage systems are capable of moving and properly treating raw sewage.
There WILL be massive problems associated with these deficiencies, including the probability of a few deadly epidemics and other delightful possibilities. Your tax dollars at work!
—D. Scott Secor, comp.software.year-2000, 12/22/98
The facts are on the table. No ONE of ANY consequence at all has reached the point where they can say that their coding is done. NO ONE of ANY consequence anywhere in the world in any industry.
More than half the companies in the world will not do proper testing. All in all, Pareto’s Law will come through with flying colors again amply supported by IT Metrics. Less than 20% of all companies will be ready.
The shit WILL hit the fan and 99.9% of all the people in the world will be doing the ‘dope slap’. “DOH!”
No skin off my nose.
—Paul Milne, comp.software.year-2000, 12/22/98
