TITANIC Director's views on y2k - CAVEAT! He's the Maroon that dumped Linda Hamilton!

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The following is excerpted from the interiview with Titanic director James Cameron in the current Premiere Magazine; from csy2k.

"the thing that might come to pass, and that we should avoid is the breakdown of our civil systems. A few months ago I was real nervous that there would be a real slump in the economy or a breakdown of social systems as a result of this Y2K thing [the crisis caused by computers confusing the year 2000 for 1900 and crashing]. Now, probably because people are talking about it, we're going to be smart enough to avoid most of the problems in this country, although there may be some economic impact from other countries in Europe that will drag us down a bit. It's not going to be the end of civilization as we know it, but it's a goddamn shame that the United States is going to be spending close to half a trillion dollars to solve such a stupid little problem. You could colonize the moon and Mars, cure AIDS and about twenty other diseases, for half a trillion dollars. It's a lot of money to throw away on a stupid mistake. They should go back and find the people responsible and hang them up by their ears and hose them down, and have the biggest class-action lawsuit in the history of Western civilization."

Then he was asked where he'll be on New Years Eve and here's his response;

"I won't be flying on an airplane, that's for sure."

According to the same article, Cameron himself lurks some of these newsgroups. So, Jim, if you're out there reading this, here's my response.

We're beyond the point of no return in preventing the breakdown of civil systems. Bank runs, food shortages and riots will occur, that's a given. Sure, President Clinton pretty much made a joke out of Y2K in his State of the Union address when only one congressman clapped when the subject was brought up but I'd use my common sense first and keep preparing for the inevitable. If you were nervous a few months ago and something has changed your mind, what was it? Do you think Bill Gates is going to fix this? I don't think so. Even if he can fix the software, there's billions of embedded chips in everything from your TV, microwave, special effects computers, movie cameras and the electronic ignition in your car. The only way we're going to be smart enough to survive is to stock up on what we need and see what happens when the shit hits the fan. You also think it's a shame that the U.S. Government is spending a half a trillion dollars? Of course it's a shame, since when has the U.S. government done anything right? This is the same government that's experimented on little retarded kids with radiation in the 1950's, shot up and burned people in Waco,Texas because they weren't politically correct (See the Oscar nominated documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement) and has sat around with it's finger up it's ass in regards to Y2K through most of this decade. It is a lot a money to throw away on a stupid mistake because people vote for these idiots in Washington (regardless of ideology or party) and deserve what they get. As for going back and find the people responsible, then let's do this. Build time machines like in the Terminator movies and we'll all go back and kick the programmers asses to make the early COBOL computers read four digits for a date and talk about our success as "anonymous time traveler callers" on an alternative media outlet like Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM.

As for the airplanes, I agree with you. I live under the biggest air traffic pattern in the U.S., the one between Detroit and Chicago and will have to watch for 747's crashing in to my backyard. Since you live there in Malibu, you have all of those jumbo jets at LAX to worry about because they make that big U-Turn over Malibu and Santa Monica Bay to land on the runways. Neither of us will be on a plane because I don't think anybody would want to flap their arms like birds at 100 miles per hour to stay five miles in the sky.

Yours truly,

Daniel Perez

Go get 'em Daniel!!!!!!!

Andy

Two digits. One mechanism. The smallest mistake.

"The conveniences and comforts of humanity in general will be linked up by one mechanism, which will produce comforts and conveniences beyond human imagination. But the smallest mistake will bring the whole mechanism to a certain collapse. In this way the end of the world will be brought about."

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, 1922 (Sufi Prophet)

"We're doomed I tell ye, doomed!"

Private Frazer, Dad's Army, Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard, 1939 (Undertaker)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 21, 1999

Answers

"They should go back and find the people responsible and hang them up by their ears and hose them down, and have the biggest class-action lawsuit in the history of Western civilization."

Believe me - IBM is toast if we make it out of this mess. As are most chip manufacturers, hardware manufacturers etc.

And the people (that are left, that haven't frozen to death in January 2000...) should fry Clinton and Gore and Koskinens' collective arses.

Andy

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 21, 1999.


i've seen a number of articles indicating the federal government is resposible, especially the Pentagon, and other articles indicating that there is a lot of shredding of documents proving how we originally came up with the standards. seems to me it would be a lot faster to burn them, as there must be so many. but no matter, the real culprits will never be sued.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), January 21, 1999.

Folks;

Before you all buy in to the "Pentagon" or "IBM" or "Hose those responsible" as if there were a limited group responsible, try talking to someone who knows what an 8080 card looks like, or a SYS3 card. try talking to someone who, in development projects had to have a discussion on why it would cost another $50,000 per year (in 1972 or 1981 dollars) for the storage of the extra 2 digits.

Talk to someone who can remember when 1.2 megabytes of disk space came with a 2.5 foot by 2.5 foot footprint on the floor with a controller that stood 5 feet high, 3 feet wide and 4 feet deep!!

In my dining room right NOW I have more computing power (by a factor of 100) and more storage power (DASD only, by a factor of 10,000) than in the WHOLE Revere Copper and Brass CORPORATION (ALL LOCATIONS, NATIONWIDE) when I broke in in 1969. the only storage I do NOT exceed is card storage, because they had a MUCH bigger and better organized warehouse. And it cost me no where near 1/10th of 1 percent of the annual MAINTENANCE budget. And no where near that proportion of the annual purchase budget.

"those responsible" are/were the same folks who worked in the trenches to keep the costs in industry and government down. In essence, the people who bought the products (any and all) from the lowest bidder are truly the ones responsible, as to be competitive, costs had to be minimised.

SHEESH!!!

Chuck, who has done more stuff than drive, Been there (in the above meeting) Done that, got the t-shirt, it covers most of the scars.

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 21, 1999.


"They should go back and find the people responsible and hang them up by their ears and hose them down, and have the biggest class-action lawsuit in the history of Western civilization."

This is the type of mindset that perpetuate this Y2K crisis. The fact is we're all, everyone of us in the world, responsible. If you absolutely must assign blame to someone in particular, start with whomever invented the very first computer (I think it's the University of Pennsylvania). Then to whoever invented programing language, then the 2 digit dates, then whoever didn't listen to the geek who said this would be a big problem in 2000 and didn't rock the boat to change it, and the subsequent geeks who warned, and all the managements who didn't listen and didn't care, then the gov./pentagon's brass and geeks, then all of us consumers of electronics/computers for being ignorant too, and not knowing more about computers and trusting "them" to build our world as "they" see fit without questions. The mother of all law suits would - like any good law suit who go after everyone implicated - have to sue 6 billion people.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 21, 1999.


Good point Chris! although I did find it rather interesting that someone like Cameron, who lives in the bastion of political correctness (Hollywood) suddenly found it acceptable to talk about torture when discussing the situation.

Arlin (who currently lives under one of the approaches to Reagan National Airport...but who is moving.)

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), January 21, 1999.



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