Just watched a documentary on Britain & the Bug.Bob Bemer was interviewed & said that in the early days,the biggest user of computers was the Pentagon & they objected to the inclusion of 4 digits on the grounds of cost.No interviews were granted by the Pentagon but they issued a statement saying no records were kept of those early code "standardisation meetings" .

Wasn't Bill Gates in nappies at the time ???

Gywneth Flowers, Head of Action 2000,was asked why The Brits had not been issued with the same advice as the New Zealanders ie prepare by getting in water,food etc.She replied that the decision to give that kind of warning was given by the N.Z. Government & she couldn't comment but we in the UK would be fine.A Tacit admission of a deliberate Government Policy !!

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), December 20, 1999

Answers

If the Brits are so smart, who stopped them from coding for four digits?

-- fatanddumb (fatdumb@nd.happy), December 20, 1999.

FYI,

Robert Bemer (founder of ASCII).

Was interviewed by the Washington Post about six months ago from his country location. He showed the reporter his danish made water filter that he would be using if tshtf.

-- d----- (dciinc@aol.com), December 20, 1999.

More on this issue in my post to http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch- msg.tcl?msg_id=0023iS

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 20, 1999.

ARe nappies diapers? I am assuming....

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), December 20, 1999.

Thanks for the post Chris. I missed the start of this programme, but the impression that I got from the last ten minutes was that it was fluff. Frankly, I'm surprised they even called out Action2000 on their "all is well" line.

Was there anything else surprising in the first 15 minutes?

Thanks,

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 21, 1999.

Hi,Servant,

Yes the program was 90% fluff.You had to be listening & thinking to get the message.Always difficult at the end of the day(LOL).To be fair they showed footage of the sewage spill in California & showed a retired Brit IT CEO stockpiling.Footage of practise emergency rescues on the Thames on New Year' Eve & firemen responding with telecoms down.Mentioned possible international consequences with disruption to distribution/manufacturing chain.This was counterbalanced by a sequence shot in a Sainsbury's Superstore where they "rolled over" the chill cabinets & opened a bottle of champagne.Next came the official advice ..no need to hoard.Then we are were into the NZ Gov.advice I mentioned before.

PS.Nappies aka diapers.

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), December 21, 1999.