"It's Y2K stupid

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"It's Y2K stupid" by George Vilches

Dear Bill, dear Al, year 2000 will arrive. Should you worry? Should you try to prevent the downright crash of computers and the like? Should programmers all be blamed? Why, of course, they are our shame! Or am I wrong?

Father time will tell us right with its zeros and the piles of "softy"-wares that cannot run of mainframes that won't respond of PC's that will not tell what's the trouble, what's the date or the job to be performed after January the first.

May your "bridges" all fall down with the glitches of the dawn of Third Millenium necrosis? Or "year 2000 psychosis" will be your way to dismiss, the deep, unsurmountable bliss, of your short-sighted denial of mankind's stupidest trial to defeat time's tick-tack-tock? Can't you see Jefferson Clinton that Y2K's on YOUR clock? Can't you read three simple letters written all over the walls of your famous Oral Office witness of cozy distractions from your all-important job?

I betcha you also believe that a "silver bullet" trick is the widget with the magic that will ensure this fix in a quick and dirty manner. 'Cause "they" (who are "they"?) aren't stupid (you think) to allow these things to happen. But this time "they" have forgotten of ackward and ugly "nineteen"! So New Year's Eve and champagne won't calm down the bloody pain of the bite of Y2K.

What, you worry for Doomsday? You believe that I'm Cassandra and you want to hear me explain? Listen well: There is no method for post-ponement of the date. So there is hardly any time left for correction of all programs with a full one-year test. For the problem is NOT simple and the solution's a mess, so nasty and so complex that managers just digress for lack of a better answer.

And money's not the main problem (you can print it nice and fast) It's Management and Programmers which are rarely at hand that increase the probability of making this story quite sad as Mr. Ed Yourdon has warned. If we add the component of the sheer lack of Time, can "business-as-usual" be taken as the future that's coming to us? Or is something out there that whispers: "You guys are unreal". "You are out of your minds".

So... the "Year 2000 Alert" has been posted in the Web by the Federal Reserve. And what does the Fed have to say?": Relying on "someone else" can pose "significant risks" and the deadline surely is "December nineteen ninety EIGHT" Spillover systemic risks include GPS operations nature of which is FINANCIAL (confirmed by the Navy as well) So "problems that will be substantial" will affect market stability with "significant vulnerabilities" undetected by our banks!

So why has the Fed been so frank? Has it acknowledged defeat in order to tell Wall Street that it's already too late? Or is this a prayer to Heaven to forbid Chapter Eleven and a higher price for gold? Would it take too many banks to collapse the system down? Can't you see that just a few (Europe, US, or Japan) are enough to bite the ground? Why don't you read Dr.Kappelman, Ed Yardeni and Caper Jones?

For computers are not just computers they are a system, they are a chain of interconnected components that feed each other through veins with blood-flow of information spreading all over the world that cannot take contamination of "data" that doesn't pertain!

You may say or you might wonder "What's wrong, what's the problem?" "It's only two zeros my Friend!" Well, thanks for the capital "F" and with all due respect I respond: The problem is NOT in the zeros, the problem is inside the brain of every single computer in its software, in its way of interpreting the dumbest, the simplest of all arrays, contained in the very nature of the flow of night to day, affecting all the information of legacy and database.

You don't see it, you don't feel it, Go-Skin-Em lies in your face with his "dirty little secret" well kept from public domain. "Mr.President, don't worry" he repeats in full disgrace. You should tell'im you believe'im but just to make sure please say: "Hey Al, come right over here and explain me Y2K". But his "I.S. Superhighway" has come to a sudden dead-end: Techno-champ can't believe that two zeros will keep him forever away from your Office (that's HIS Office) by the end of ninety-nine. So Al just won't talk to anybody and would rather cry if he could postponing his darkest of hours "I know nothing. Just ask Gartner Group".

Embedded chips by the millions and the domino effect plus the cross-contamination with data they shouldn't accept will corrupt many a computer in the year Y2K confirm Gary North and the Yourdons in the three double-U Web.

The "ready/compliant"discussion the BIOS and C-MOS debate can't you see that zillion problems won't be solved by William Gates!!

(Applause) (More applause)

(Vow)

Yours truly



-- George (jvilches@sminter.com.ar), May 17, 1999

Answers

Bravo George!

Andy

Two digits. One mechanism. One byte. The smallest mistake.

"The conveniences and comforts of humanity in general will be linked up by one mechanism, which will produce comforts and conveniences beyond human imagination. But the smallest mistake will bring the whole mechanism to a certain collapse. In this way the end of the world will be brought about."

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, 1922 (Sufi Prophet)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 17, 1999.


Andy, The quote you gave of a Sufi in 1922 was fascinating. Can you supply a source? Ian igw@one.net.au

-- Ian (igw@one.net.au), May 17, 1999.

Ian, the quote is genuine, you can do a search on say DogPile and find out more, it was made in 1922. I used to use it regularly as my tag line but it drew a lot of flack from the pollyannas. His son is still alive and has verified the quote, and there are several books of his writings that you can buy. Hope this helps.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 17, 1999.

that quote is awsome....

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), May 17, 1999.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan (Complete Works, 1922 I, p. 158-9)

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), May 17, 1999.


Can somebody please translate this? It's written in broken English.

-- huh? (what.did.he.say@this.post), May 17, 1999.

Binary... what a wonderful and awesome language. The language of a microprocessor. BUT, just one bit, one tiny bit, in the wrong state, and all bets are off. Will the computer ignore the error? (a non- critical, rarely accessed device) Will it simply "lock-up" and you have to reboot it? Or, will it go off into La-La land in an endless GOTO loop, never to come back??? Computers are funny. You can take two IDENTICAL systems, load the exact same software, off of the same CD-ROM, and they will behave differently...

I know, I've done it.

It was a Y2K fix for the software from the manufacturer of the equipment I maintain. We have three of the EXACT same tools, built within two weeks of each other, and they all reacted differently to the same patch program. One of them SHUTDOWN completely and would not boot. We finally had to dump all the slave processor's NVRAM (non- volitile random access memory) to get it to come back, TWO days later. Like I said, computers are funny... in an S&M kind of way.

I work in a large, computerized, semiconductor manufacturing facility. We as a site are Y2K compliant. We just don't know about all our suppliers, customers, utility companies and general business infrastructure. We may not be able to communicate via our "intranet" to our main headquarters after December of this year.

Y2K... the BIG IF...

chillin' in the yard,

The Desert Dog

-- Dog (cmpennell@juno.com), May 17, 1999.


Huh?,

George is living in South America - English is not his native language hence an even bigger Bravo!

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 19, 1999.


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