I don't know if any of you have experienced this in reading The allusive Mr.Way. But correct me if I am wrong, he basically came out in his essay and subsequently on this forum and stated that the Date: 1/1/2000 ,that we all seem to be counting down to--- was (is) an erroneous assumption.

I would be the last person to question either Mr. Way or Mr. Yourdon on their credibility. It just seems to add to the confusion to have someone with the Credentials of Mr. Way to make such a comment, especially after writing his first emotional (ship,iceberg,hell,screeming) essay.

If you read this and feel qualified to offer your technical opinion based on your experience and expertise than by all means.......

It just seems that two individuals (Way,Yourdon) with the credibility that they both have should not be soooooo damn far apart!

-- David Butts (dciinc@aol.com), November 20, 1999

Answers

David: Nobody know how many systems will FAIL because they can't handle the 1999 to 2000 date change, as opposed to how many will become UNRELIABLE, with their problems showing up sometime thereafter. Jan 1, 2000 is still a big trigger date (as is Feb 29, leap day for 2000), and deserves a lot of respect (along with fear and trembling).

Villiage Idiot: You sure are.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 20, 1999.

Ask any two academics in the soft sciences and you are bound to get two different answers. In this case both may be correct. The porblems with y2k include outright failures (embedded chips), hardware failures (kinda, bios) and software failures (not exhaustive) that will happen on the date rollover.

The second failure is a data problem with corrupt data being passed about till it show's up in a magical place. This passing the "wrong buck" could take hours days or even monthes. The problems could build to cause a system failure at some date after the rollover or just end up showing up later. What do you mean there isn't any money in my checking account?

Both are plausible and both are likely. How many of both can we stand before the failures overwhelm our ability to withstand or work around?

By and By during testing the system worked fine on the Jan roll-over but not during the Feb 28 leap year test. So picture the problems to just keep hitting and hitting THROUGHOUT next year. That sigh of relief when the lights work Jan 1 is probably misplaced.

If this isn't close to your questions I apologize.

-- squid (Itsdark@down.here), November 20, 1999.

David...

End to end testing begins in 41 days. Until then, nobody knows...

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Tminus41&counting.down), November 20, 1999.

Hey, we're just counting down until the end of the century. It's even possible that the worst y2k problems are already behind us (but not very likely). By all indications, there will be a spate (spike) of problems within a couple days of the century change, and then a sea of headaches for some time -- probably over a year, with some lasting longer.

And how will all these problems affect *you*? Well, buy your insurance, take a deep breath, cross your fingers and wait.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), November 20, 1999.

Sorry, the end of the century is 12/31/2000. All we're counting down to is the end of 1999.

-- wondering what (it.is.all@about.com), November 20, 1999.