Y2K Rapture

John K. Taber jktaber at onramp.net
Fri Oct 30 17:23:53 PST 1998


Christopher Niles wrote:
>
> K,
>
> Tho I am by no means an expert in programming matters, I am convinced--in
> a cautious kind of way--that Y2K is a pretty big deal.

[snip]
>
> Now, since the "left" has been so silent on Y2K, it should come as no
> surprise that the best information on the subject is to be had from
> decidedly non-lefty types. For starters, check out theocracy advocate
> Gary North's well-researched/well-linked site at www.garynorth.com...and
> let me know what you think.

Oh, dear. Well, I don't know if I qualify as a leftist, but I must agree with them that the Y2K hullabaloo is bullshit.

I'm an aging computer programmer, and part of my work is fixing bugs in Y2K fixes. The worst I see is that the Y2K problem is going to be a pain in the ass, but by no means a disaster.

Somebody is going to get a bill for -11,371,239.0C dollars. Somebody else is going to get a credit for >K73)_&GFC"">.

I just fixed a bug yesterday where 2000 - 1 printed out wrongly as 2001 (it should have been 1999). It affected nothing but the appearance of a printed report.

At worst, there will be annoyance and some confusion. But no disaster.

If so many people are enthusiastic about a disaster just around the corner, you can bet there is no real disaster, and folks are just having fun scaring themselves.

-- I've been able to string more words into fewer ideas than anybody I know, and I'm continuing to do that.

- Alan Greenspan to the Senate Budget Committee, Sept 23, 1998



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