...to get your souvenir copy of Noontide Night, A Y2K Novel, while there's still some 1999 left in the world. See how wrong a computer science professor sort can be! (And help the Red Cross, to whom I'm donating all the profits.:-)

http://www.noontidenight.com

Looks like we're in the clear, thank God, but heck, it's just an entertaining story (or so I've heard from many satisfied readers). Even if you don't want a souvenir to wave around showing how a silly date can cause such chaos, it's a cool cyber-warfare story. :-)

"Burt powerfully humanizes all the computer downfalls in a well-crafted novel."

-- Denver Post

"So good you'll hope the Y2K bug really does screw up the world." -- Michael A. Burstein, Campbell Award Winner

-- Andrew Burt (y2k@noontidenight.com), December 31, 1999

Answers

Andrew, Hey, fancy seeing you here. (I'm from Rigel's loop--those DGIs.)

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), December 31, 1999.

Andrew:

"Looks like we're in the clear"

I have never been a member of the "world is going to fall apart at turn-over camp" although many of my friends have, and I respect their right to that opinion. Still, your statement indicates that you don't have a clue about the problem. If nothing else happens, consumers will be paying for all of the remediation work when they shop. More will happen. If the infrastructure problems aren't too bad [and I have never envisioned a complete collapse], failures will be fixed. Consumers will pay for those too.

Best wishes,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), December 31, 1999.

Perhaps you didn't envision large scale problems, but I thought they were entirely likely. And would appear in proportion to small scale, nuisance-sized problems. I'm sure we'll have plenty of the latter (though they're far easier to blame on something other than date bugs). But the lack of large problems implies a likewise smaller number of smaller problems. I never predicted The End Of The World As We Know It -- but being a programmer for 20+ years and knowing lots of them, and applying Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap), plus statistical analyses of Y2K project completion data, it all seemed likely there'd be some pretty nasty problems right now. Since those are pretty hard to cover up (e.g., cities going dark, sewer systems going awry like in Van Nuys earlier, etc.).

As for the economic impact, sure there'll be some small impact, but the economy is the strongest it's ever been; what appears now to be a small dent won't be noticed compared to the stuff like NASDAQ's 85% increase for the year... I thought this might be the event that pops the bubble, but that just doesn't look likely as of 3pm MST. :-) Perhaps it's premature to celebrate, but I'm glad it looks likely the grid will stay up!

(If not, then you'll really want to read that book of mine. :-)

And howdy, Mara! Small world.

-- Andrew Burt (y2k@noontidenight.com), December 31, 1999.

Andrew:

Of course, you could be right. We will just have to wait and see.

Best wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), December 31, 1999.