I have to tell you! I gave a speech to-day to 100 of the most influential business people in my small town. My topic was "Chicken Little get hit with a Y2K".
I got a copy of Chicken Little from the library, and talked about Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, and of course Foxy Loxy who took advantage of the fears to try to land them all on his dinner table.
I then equated the "acorn" to the Y2K problem, and the foxy loxys to the Y2K doom-sayers/salesmen.
I talked about computers not working next January, and offered to pay $2000 for any computer that they had that would not re-boot after letting the date roll over from 1999 to 2000. Will let you know if there are any takers.
I talked about application software, and the fact that there may be minor bugs, but these bugs will be fixed the same as other "bugs" occur and are fixed every day.
The most interesting part was about embedded chips where I stated that if the chip does not have an "input date year" function to be used after a power loss situation ie, micro wave ovens, refrigerators, cars, toasters etc, it is NOT Y2K sensitive. I got the biggest laughs when I said my VCR at home was still flashing 12:00 since the last power outage, but still works, and my video camera might show the video was made 15 Jan 00 and people would be confused about whether it was taken in 1900 or 2000.
The most satisfying part of my talk was that the questions were soft, and most thanked me for giving weight to their feelings that the Y2K problem is not to be feared.
I sense that the tide is turning, and I see that even Peter de Jager is looking for an "exit" strategy so he can continue to be a consultant in 2000 when this hype is over and the predicted problems do not happen.
Thanks for all your excellent posts to this thread. I have looked at each one and all the links, and have used many to prepare my speech.
I have sent you a PM with my EM address in case you want more details about my talk. |
