🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 07 May 1998 18:46:56 GMT, da...@XOUT.u.washington.edu (David
B. Greene) wrote:

>This is of course bullshit.  It is just a scare tactic for programmers
>to LOOT the public purse.  Already Y2K checks and fixes are being
>implemented.  If there was a big problem our economy would already be
>tweaking by now as computer systems are now scheduling activities into
>the next millenium.  So far the problems have been minor.
>I might add that anything making it more difficult for the Feds to
>retrieve archived information on the citizens of this country would be
>a welcome step towards electronic privacy.

   I program for a living. Y2K is NOT a joke. It permeates almost
   every bit of software in existence - industrial, military and 
   commercial. Much of my own old code assumes a "19xx"
   date scheme and the logic which follows from that assumption
   all has to be re-done. For example, it was often practical to
   convert the numeric date into letter strings ... in order to
   trim out redundant junk or for formatting purposes. Sometimes
   this was changed back into numbers afterwards. It ALL
   has to be re-done. There are no easy or automated fixes
   because the REASONING of the program must be
   carefully analyzed. 

   And why did they wait so long to address this problem ???
   Because that's what they ALWAYS do ... procrastinate.
   It's time-consuming and expensive, so they kept putting
   it off .... or those who knew nada about computers
   imagined it would be quick and easy or that the computer
   would "just know" what to do. 

   Ignorance & cheapness. That's why Y2K is such a major
   problem now. Wait until your local nuke plant screws up
   because of this - or your airliners computer - or a cruise
   missile -  or (worst of all) the local sewage treatment plant.

   -j

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