Many many many moons ago, when men were men and IBM was but a punch card, when 360's and 1303's fought for space, when 1052's ruled (whaddya mean it's run out of paper and the CPU's crashed.... . . . IPL . . .. dang'nabbit!!!)....... . AN OLIVER STONE MOVIE . . . . "The big year 2000 issue was psychological. Programmers (rightly or wrongly) said to themselves, 'The turn of the century? The distant future. The stuff of science fiction. Hell, the way things are today, I'll be lucky to live that long. By then, we'll have HAL 9000s, and all this junk will be obsolete.'" . . . "This is partially true. As a programmer for 7 years, I can remember thinking this very thing when I started out. I was also told (by veterans - 14 years - whatever) that by the Year 2000 computers would not use current software so it was a moot point. So, programmers have inserted and perpetuated non-compliant code. . "However, there's another side to this problem: management. For years a few brave souls have been practically screaming at top management (whether in corporations or gubbmint) that Y2K was coming and software had to be fixed. The response?: silence or pink slips. Management doesn't want to hear bad news, especially if they're going to spend gobs of money to still be where they are. . "So, who's to blame: programmers or management? Well, who's the captain, who holds the purse string, who hires and fires, and who makes long-range (5 years by today's corporate standards) decisions? All together now - MANAGEMENT! Our fearless leaders...indeed." . . . . .

"Mr. Gore, you BUTTHEAD...."

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-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 18, 1998

Answers

Bloody hell, this scripting is weird. Double-take, rear back from the keyboard...

Take #2.

Many many many moons ago, when men were men and IBM was but a punch card, when 360's and 1303's fought for space, when 1052's ruled (whaddya mean it's run out of paper and the CPU's crashed.... . . . IPL . . .. dang'nabbit!!!).......

AN OLIVER STONE MOVIE

Dream sequence.

Fade-in - Geek A - Pee Wee Herman

Dream sequence

"The big year 2000 issue was psychological. Programmers (rightly or wrongly) said to themselves, 'The turn of the century? The distant future. The stuff of science fiction. Hell, the way things are today, I'll be lucky to live that long. By then, we'll have HAL 9000s, and all this junk will be obsolete.'"

End dream sequence.

Cut to - Geek B - Richard Simmons

"This is partially true. As a programmer for 7 years, I can remember thinking this very thing when I started out. I was also told (by veterans - 14 years - whatever) that by the Year 2000 computers would not use current software so it was a moot point. So, programmers have inserted and perpetuated non-compliant code.

"However, there's another side to this problem: management. For years a few brave souls have been practically screaming at top management (whether in corporations or gubbmint) that Y2K was coming and software had to be fixed. The response?: silence or pink slips. Management doesn't want to hear bad news, especially if they're going to spend gobs of money to still be where they are.

"So, who's to blame: programmers or management? Well, who's the captain, who holds the purse string, who hires and fires, and who makes long-range (5 years by today's corporate standards) decisions? All together now - MANAGEMENT! Our fearless leaders...indeed."

Cut to Manager - suit, torn, bedraggled-looking, - Al Gore

Cut to Judge - Paul Milne

"Mr. Gore, you BUTTHEAD...."

I wish to hell I'd never started this, as lame as it is - hey, this is the standard of remediation programming you get from me for your tax dollars :))

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 18, 1998.

my balls hurt

-- jerry (jerry@Jebba.com), December 18, 1998.

I hope they do...

-- Max Dixon (Ogden, Utah USA) (Max.Dixon@gte.net), December 18, 1998.