Ralph,

I saw PLENTY of foot dragging.  And so did the major computer
manufacturers like IBM.  I think they persuaded Clinton to talk about
it, to ring alarm bells, and to generate concern around the nation.  

My experience showed that virtually every company in America had the
problem, but they weren't fixing it because the techies couldn't tell
them about it.  If the top execs didn't simply fire the messenger, they
would figure it was some screwup by their techies, and they would demand
that the techies fix it on their own time and not delay any of the
hundreds of NEW projects the execs wanted.

When I was in the computer business, techies were generally treated as a
insolent breed who always did things the hard way.  They would have been
fired for creating the problem (even though it probably started before
they were born).

Because The President Of the United States sounded the alarm, suddenly
every company exec realized that they might have a problem shared by
nearly every company in the country - and suddenly the execs were
receptive to whatever solutions their techies could offer - even if it
might delay some new project.   

Fortunately, it was a problem most people knew how to correct - or could
get help to correct.  

Global warming isn't that simple to solve.

Ed

ralph wrote:
> 
> You guys should have seen the foot dragging, willful ignorance, and
> ignore it and it will go away that characterized the medical community's
> response to Y2k. Sample response from a large CA hospital chain: 'Our
> official policy is that if a piece of equipment does not have a date
> display, it does not need to be examined for Y2k compliance.' Scenario:
> a cobalt radiotherapy machine, that adjuslts the exposure according to
> its calculations of the decay of the cobalt, based on the current
> date....
> Randy wrote:
> >
> > In article <3B2F75D4.D6D4802D@newsguy.com>, detect@newsguy.com wrote:
> >
> > > Yesterday, while working on a different problem, I found the solution to
> > > a problem I've had with my Netscape browser since early last year.  I'd
> > > tried to find a fix, but I finally gave up and used an alternative
> > > browser for the part of my on-line work that involves browsing the Web.
> > >
> > > Yesterday, I found that the problem was a Y2K bug in Windows 98. The fix
> > > was part of their "Windows 98 Customer Service Pack".  I installed it,
> > > and the problem went away.
> >
> > You must be mistaken, there are no bugs in Windows, only undocumented
> > features.
> >
> > Your MS OS will never work right until the 3rd or 4th service pack.
> > >
> > > It's not my first encounter with Y2K bugs, but it definitely proves that
> > > there really was such a thing.
> >
> > Of course there was such a thing.  I spent 2 years selling consultants
> > to companies who had Y2K problems and went through a system redesign
> > with my present compay 'cause the old stuff didn't work when we set the
> > date to 2000 during tests.  It's only because of all the "hype" that the
> > work was done and the problems minimal.
> >
> > As a Mac user, I as proud of the fact that Macs have been Y2K ready for
> > years.  I have an original SE/30 from the late 80's and I booted it up,
> > set the clock and it worked fine.  Damn, if they only knew how to
> > market, you'd all be using a superior system.
> > >
> > > The other day, I saw some Republican nitwit on PI say how global warming
> > > was "like Y2K".
> >
> > I bet they belive in the sky fairy.
> >
> >
> > She was thinking it was a false alarm.  In reality,
> > > let's hope it IS like Y2K where everyone works hard on solving the
> > > problem. and when it is solved all the nitwits can say it was a false
> > > alarm because it never happened. 
> > >
> > > Ed
> 
> --
> If you can't go down in history,
> you can at least go down on me.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=y2k&start=110&hl=en&safe=off&scoring=date&rnum=114&ic=1&selm=3B30B593.8D4729B4%40newsguy.com

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), June 21, 2001

Answers

spider, what newsgroup and what posting dates, please?

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), June 21, 2001.

Subject: Re: Y2K Newsgroups: alt.tv.pol-incorrect Date: 2001-06-20 07:41:40 PST

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), June 22, 2001.

Thanks!

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), June 22, 2001.