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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: B.K.Myers who wrote (7506)	7/31/1999 6:06:00 PM
From: Ken	Respond to of 9818

<effects would be economically devastating> Good answer, BK. What concerns me most is that time will become too condensed, even for that to grimfully play out. When I contemplate these various nost-reasonable senarios, such as yours, I also EVALUATE THEM AGAINST THE WHOLE CHAIN OF DOMINO cause-effect senarios, and against a FAR greater INSTANTANEOUS national and international mass communications (which our society has NEVER seen in a real crisis sitution), where any/all breakdowns, disruptions, ruptures, can/will occur at a BREATHTAKING speed, that only those totally on top of the issues, with adequate information, ready to act, will be the best able to survive. And, contemplate how instantaneous mass rioting is. Please contemplate these additional factors, i.e., communications speed, and a swiftly/almost immediately occuring cascading effects-psychological, structural/physical/economic/political/mass public reaction, to your senario and see what you come up with on this issue. Just condense time in your senario.

To: B.K.Myers who wrote (7506)	7/31/1999 6:10:00 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

I agree. The implosion of the IRS wouldn't be pretty, but the consequences of this single occurrence wouldn't be immediate or catastrophic because of the government's ability to spend on the promise of collecting when things got fixed. Of all the terrible things that could happen, this would, IMO, be the least damaging, certainly not in a class with no electric power for months or forever or Russian nukes going ballistic, pun intended. All of the potential Y2K problems aren't of equal consequence. Just trying to distinguish between the problems that are scary, but fixable, and those that are terrifying. Treating all possibilities as equally terrifying is not helpful. Karen

To: B.K.Myers who wrote (7506)	8/4/1999 4:18:00 PM
From: B.K.Myers	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9818

Gilligan Meets Y2K Two Digits for a Date (to the tune of "Gilligan's Island" more or less) Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale Of the doom that is our fate. That started when programmers used Two digits for a date. Two digits for a date. Main memory was smaller then; Hard disks were smaller, too. "Four digits are extravagant, So let's get by with two. So let's get by with two." "This works through 1999," The programmers did say. "Unless we rewrite before that It all will go away. It all will go away." But Management had not a clue: "It works fine now, you bet! A rewrite is a straight expense; We won't do it just yet. We won't do it just yet." Now when 2000 rolls around It all goes straight to Hell, For zero's less than ninety-nine, As anyone can tell. As anyone can tell. The mail won't bring your pension check. It won't be sent to you When you're no longer sixty-eight, But minus thirty-two. But minus thirty-two. The problems we're about to face Are frightening, for sure. And reading every line of code's The only certain cure. The only certain cure. There's not much time, There's too much code. (And Cobol-coders, few) When the century is finished with, We may be finished, too. We may be finished, too. The way to get the time we need I now propose to you: A Daylight Savings decade, Or maybe even two. Or maybe even two. Eight thousand years from now I hope That things weren't left too late, And people aren't lamenting Four digits for a date. Four digits for a date. B.K.