At 04:43 PM 2/19/99 -0500, "Thomas Lunde" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> replied to me:
> My goal is try and find out the truth!
> I don't care who is
>"right", I just want to know what the hell is going on!
>>The Y2K problem is not the result of anything resembling a consipiracy; it
>>is the result of a mindset.
>>When the programmer told the boss in 1970 that this wouldn't work after
>>1999, the boss said, "It will have been replaced long before then!"
>>When the programmer told the boss in 1985 that this wouldn't work after
>>1999, the boss said, "We have to make a better showing this quarter than
>>last!"
>>(The programmer may not have had the opportunity to tell the boss in 1995,
>>since the department had been outsourced.)
I'll try once more: What is going on is not just one thing. Many things
are going on, in several diverse categories, which, all together, are in
the big tent called "Y2K".
Please stop trying to be all the blind men with the elephant at once!
Computers do many things in many ways. Many of those things involve
"awareness" of the passage of time. If this person is 65, they are
eligible for Social Security; if this person is six, theyneed to have had
their shots before entering school. Average the last ten
one-minute-interval temperature readings in this pipe and if the rolling
average increases too quickly, sound an alarm. Calculate the effects of
currency fluctuations on various countries' 30-year bonds. If today is any
day but Saturday or Sunday, turn on the building's HVAC at 6 a.m.
Christmas is December 25, Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November,
but Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal
equinox; all are paid holidays.
Does this begin to suggest that there is no single What's Going On?
Neil Rest
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Over three weeks, I lost my job, my computer when the back porch of my
third floor apartment flooded, my closest friendship, most of a molar,
confidence in my landlord, and my ISP. I missed ConFusion and a couple of
great concerts, and instead of getting the tax refund I expected, I owe $750.
<<& when I'd gotten unable to count all that on my fingers, and wrote it
down, I didn't add that all that happened not long after I'd figured that
I'd never be able to get the time off to go to Australia as I'd planned so
long >>
