On This Day Pre-Y2K

Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!

January 8, 2000 Permalink

It is reasonable to think that the cummulative effects of undetected or “back-burner” problems would have the potential to really gum up the works. The longer they run undetected, the more havoc they could wreak, it would seem. I’m already seeing the effects of something unusual taking place in our society. The technological miscues I’ve personally witnessed this week are way out of scale!

For example, I’ve seen a friend have the police attempt to return his stolen car to him, the problem was, it wasn’t his car -- the name and addess were his, but the car and tag info were not. What was most suspicious was the expiration date on the printout of the regristation, Feb - 1900! I’ve seen a non-compliant coffee pot that had to be unplugged and reprogrammed, a television that cut off at midnight, Dec 31st, and had to be reprogrammed. Ny daughter had to wait 3 hours to take her learners permit test because the computers were “having problems”. My credit card company duplicated a purchase on the 3rd to my account (never has happened before). My ISP is having trouble recognizing my user name in their database and has had to make adjustments on their end twice this week (and I’m not the only one to whom this has happened with this ISP).

Are all of these things coincidental? *Could* be but honestly, I think the odds are pretty high against it. I didn’t have to have my Y2K radar out to detect these things either, I would have thought them suspicious before I ever heard of Y2K.

So I now am left to wonder why it is that so many people on both sides of this issue seem to have passed final judgement on it? From most predictions I read, we’ve still got a good 75% of the going ahead. Is it because the initial assessment was so off base that it stands to reason the the ancillary effects will follow suite? I’m still not certain how this will play out in the financial markets; I really see a potential for trouble ahead.

—John Cauthen, Time Bomb 2000 Forums (LUSENET), 01/08/00

Over and over the point has been overlooked by the spoiled, just-in-time, new-age pollies. This forum has always stressed preparation. The only response from pollies regarding preparation has related to their personal amusement or reaction to the fringe lunatics. As a general rule, pollies have exibited attention deficit disorder. The most responsible people on this forum have been scapegoated along with the fringe lunatics, therefore, the pollies have been categorized in derogatory terms. This is the life story of this forum rolled up into one paragraph. In the good ol’ days, pollies would have been considered lunatics for their optimism. In 1988, there was very little grain harvested that year, certainly not enough to feed America. We were lucky to have had stored grain in silos from previous harvests. We came very close to a disaster. 1999 was a drought year. The Pollies humorous gloatings are going to backfire someday while the G.I.’s will be sitting in the Cat Bird Seat. What is wrong with people today?

—Feller, Time Bomb 2000 Forums (LUSENET), 01/08/00

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