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Y2K: Lies, Damned lies and village idiots

Wednesday, 5th January

So far the Y2K hasn't done us too much damage. But is anyone really that surprised? Certainly those that swallowed the prophesies of doom a bit too whole heartedly and built nuclear fall-out shelters, spent thousands on candles, tinned food, water etc, must be a bit shocked. The rest of us though don't seem too astonished by the lack of events.

If truth be told of course there shouldn't have been that much going wrong on the millennium change anyway, perhaps the odd few embedded systems in lifts and such like - although even if they did happen they probably won't be reported - and perhaps the occasional printer going belly-up. But just because they haven't been reported doesn't mean they haven't happened. Their will be some companies keeping schtum about their problems whilst others will only discover them this week as everybody gradually filters back into work and reboots systems that have perhaps been subject to only a cursory glance on January 1st.

It doesn't look like there will be many like this however but again, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. Most predictions of Y2K problems have suggested that 60% or more of crashes will hit after the millennium date change. So the next few months will be critical as systems and operations come to the year-end in their cycle. No one really imagined planes falling out of the sky or that nuclear bombs would be shooting off all over the place - the problem was that nobody knew for certain and that's why everybody has been speculating.

Now that the date has changed with little effect however we have the critics rolling out of their enclaves accusing the computing industry of scaremongery and, at worst, being deceitful. Naturally we wouldn't like to name any names, although the prime minister of Czechoslovakia has been a particularly vocal critic, but these people need to be thankful for the work that the industry has done to prevent any problems rather than throw mud around. The UK Government has offered its thanks to those hard working, and well paid, individuals that put in the time and effort to prepare the country - although their are still a few people seemingly amazed that nothing major went wrong. To those astounded by the lack of disruption we can only offer a couple of points for their minds to stew over: Firstly it isn't over yet and secondly did they think the world spent #375 billion so everything would go wrong?

[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 07, 2000

Answers

Y2K; Lies, Damned Lies and Village Idiots. Sounds like they've got the Pollies' side of the issue covered pretty well.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 07, 2000.