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Technology Stocks : TSR, Inc. [TSRI] Good Earnings!
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To: Brian Conroy who wrote (77)12/31/1996 9:41:00 AM
From: Jacob S. Rosenberg   of 281
 
A funny story to give you a lot of insight.

In early 1980 I took a job interview with a certain Forest Products
firm who shall be nameless. It was for a job banging out mundane
COBOL programs. I met with this weird guy with slicked back greasy
hair and old fashioned horned rimmed glasses. He was the 'head' of
their one person Data Processing Department. I was to be his
assistant; making it a two person department. In any event, their
software was written years earlier on the old IBM 360's. They
did not have any the symbolics for any of their software and so,
like a lot of other places, had no idea what it actually did!
Of course, one of these just happened to be their payroll system.
They produced the checks for the first week of 1980 and found out
that the checks were for January of 1970! Why? Because they used
a one digit year field. When it rolled over, the computer simply
added 1970 to the zero. They made payroll, and avoided a strike,
by backpatching the payroll file; substituting a 8 for the 7 in
1970. The guy who interviewed me thought that this was a
perfectly good way to do business. Of course, so do thousands
of others all over the country! That's the point, anybody could
get it right just by using their brains. Unfortunately, a lot
of computer contracting firms DELIBERATELY use a one or two digit
year field to drum up year 2000 problem business. A 'problem'
of their own creation.

Best for the New Year!

Regards,

Jacob Rosenberg
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