Just curious if anyone is hearing Y2K related jokes from DGI's? I've always thought that humour can be an interesting "barometer" of societal attitudes. Are people beginning to demean programmers or others who are perceived to be responsible for century rollover problems?

I know there are quite a few inside jokes among GI's, but I'm wondering if they are turning up in surprising places? As a Professional in the Information Technology Industry (smile when you say that..), my darker fears include images of me swinging from a lampost in the summer of OhOh...

BTW, a friend told me that the word "scapegoat' does not translate into Japanese. The concept of blaming someone else for your failure is that alien. In contrast, scapegoating is a popular pastime here in the US. Are programmer at risk? "Jew" Jokes reflect Anti-Semitism and "Nigger" jokes reflect racism - are nasty "Geek" jokes next?

Reasoned discussion encouraged.

A: None. It's a hardware problem.

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), December 14, 1998

Answers

Question: What do you do with a Y2k countdown watch when the date hits 1/1/2000?

Answer: Not to worry. On January 1st it morphs itself into a Bill Clinton watch, which as everyone knows, just won't quit.

-- Bob Walton (waltonb@kdsi.net), December 14, 1998.

When Letterman and Leno start cracking y2k jokes it may be the time to get out of Dodge...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 14, 1998.

I can't recall hearing any from the DGI crowd. Curious, isn't it? Maybe the generic "they" are a little more nervous than "they" let on?

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 14, 1998.

My wife just read the Anson article on Y2K in the new issue of Vanity Fair. She didn't say a word from beginning to end. This is the first time she has read all the way through anything I've shown her since last May. She didn't say a word when she was finished, either, but she was mopping up some tears.

I think we're at the beginning of an asymptotic rise in awareness -- as when the neutron flux rises when sub-critical masses of fissionable material are brought closer and closer together, until finally -- critical mass is achieved. But there's a difference here. On balance, this "explosion" of awareness may save lives.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 14, 1998.