Sorry to clutter the forum, but there is an article some ways back that is much deeper and more profound than meets the naked eye (i.e., could easily skip it cause it starts slow and looks like polly-shit.) It quotes a number of big-shots describing what would've happened if they had not remediated.

Worth a more careful look.

Let's hope this link works

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), December 23, 1999

Answers

Yes that one does deserve a read. Not so much because it suggests that business has completely remediated as because it documents the depth of the problem. Let us suppose the people quoted are correct FOR THEIR COMPANIES and that any company with an annual gross of 100 mega-bucks or more has properly remediated. How many small companies does that leave in this country alone. Now we do know that many other countries haven't placed the emphasis on this problem that the US and allies have placed. What percentage of their businesses are not ready and will generate 'bad' data into their accounting and control systems? How many of OUR BIG businesses depend upon these smaller suppliers? What will the impact be over time to our economy? For those who get it, I am wasting my breath. For those who don't, read the reference and think on these questions. You just might get it.

-- (...@.......), December 23, 1999.

Dave--The link works perfectly unfortunately COBOL WONT. The effort, generally characterized, was sloppy and grossly mismanaged. Most 'in house' efforts really weren't--50-60% farmed out to Ireland, India and Pakistan. Have seen the returned code-it is, unqualifiedly, a mess-non functional, ridden with the kind of fatal errors described in the WSJ article you linked us to. If it's any consolation(it isn't to me) the financial services sector did a pretty good job with their stuff-tested out with less than 80 errors per M lines. MOST state and federal code is doo doo and that is enough to wreck the ultimate system of systems.

-- Get Real (gaf@mindspring.com), December 23, 1999.