On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
January 7, 2000 Permalink
So, here is my y2k analogy, after the fact.
In 1971, there was a major earthquake in Los Angeles. An earthen dam was damaged. It was in the San Fernando Valley. Below the dam were hundreds of houses.
The dam had a crack. If that crack had not been repaired, water would flow through, enlarging the crack. The crack woud have become a fissure, and then would have given way.
The police ordered an evacuation. But some people refused to leave their homes.
All day, bulldozers went back and forth across the rim of that dam, filling in the crack. It was a race against time and water pressure. It was not clear if the dam would hold.
Would you have left? I would have.
The cost of leaving was low. The issue would be decided in one day. Win or lose, home owners would have known the outcome by that night.
Y2K could not be decided in one day.
The bulldozers and the men who drove them saved the day. Had the dam given way, some of them might have been killed. But they stayed on the job.
So did the programmers. Give them the thanks. Also the God who gave them skill and courage.
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 01/07/00
Category: Introduction
Date: 2000-01-07 07:54:08
Subject: Y2K Stories Are Getting Fewer and Fewer. When They Cease, I Will Archive This Site. How to Keep in Touch.
Comment: As the press goes on to other topics, the immediacy of this site will be reduced. That is happening now.
At some point in the near future, I will archive this site, with all my comments (warts and all!) for historians and journalists. This site provides comprehensive extracts from the press, day by day, for three years. Most of the originals are gone. The links are dead. All that remains are my extracts.
The Web made the y2k awareness movement possible. No team of researchers in 1993 could have done what I and my volunteer informants did. The Web made it possible.
But Web journalism is short-lived. The articles disappear.
I want to stay in touch with you. I’ll let you know if something important appears. This way, you won’t have to keep coming back, looking for articles.
To get on my mailing list -- another wonder of the Internet -- just click here:
remnant-request@cliffslanding.com
Write subscribe in the message box (the big one). Leave the subject box blank. Click SEND.
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 01/07/00
