Y2KW1: A Shorthand Summary of the First Week

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YEAR TWO THOUSAND WEEK ONE.

Gots to apologize. My eyes are weary. To me, the most surprising thing of the first week developed today: Friday's news of the "propagation" of Y2K-style data corruption in at least 1 bank, and throughout the Visa/Mastercard/CC system, plus Cory Hamasaki's disclosures of problems in remediated and tested IBM mainframes.

After that, the two N.E. FAA air traffic control system computer failures.

zzzzz.

-- (squirrel@huntr.com), January 07, 2000

Answers

Wow, thats Armageddon..never heard of Flights being delayed for 2 hours in the New York/Eastern seaboard area. And 1 Bank having glitches - there goes the economy.

Come to think of it I never heard of Computers getting errors or crashing prior to Y2K. Everything always operated perfectly.And the Government too. They never used to make errors or send out Govt checks late or to the wrong address.Hmm..yep.I guess the fact that there are reports of system errors and glitches means its all Y2K related and the end is near.

Everyt glitch we hear about now has to be Y2K related because glitches and power outages have never ever been known to occur prior to Y2K. I am getting scared.

-- Tom (Metamuciil@aol.com), January 07, 2000.


Tom,

Think of the problem this way. It's a different version of "Death by a thousand paper cuts".

Say a guy (he represents the U.S. economy)is out on a river in a canoe (which represents United States IT infrastructure). It's a sunny day with little wind (no terrorists or natural disasters). He's been forewarned about dangerous rocks and snags (Y2K disasters), so being an excellent canoeist, he has no trouble avoiding the obvious dangers that confront him. No problem so far...he's looking like a champ.

Just for the sake of argument, the canoe has some weak spots; maybe the metal is thin ofr fatigued in spots due to corrosion or maybe a weld is weak. As he goes along he begins to notice water seeping into the bottom of the canoe. Maybe he's scraped along a gravel bed in the river or some submerged branches. Initially he thinks nothing of it and continues on his way. As he continues along, he scrapes across other gravel flats and branches, opening other very tiny, but definite holes in the weakened metal.

He gazes down, and behold, a large puddle is begining to form. He is yet to be bothered. But his momentary glance at the puddle distracts him, and he is too late to avoid a sharp boulder in the channel. A weld pops and a new,tiny trickle of water begins to add to the already growing puddle.

Well before too long, the corroded metal begins to give out in other places and now multiple puddles join at the bottom of the canoe. Now our brave canoeist is getting a little concerned. He continues paddling, but after some time realizes that something must be done to keep the canoe from taking on more water.

It now becomes necessary for our canoeist to slow the canoe in order to address the ever increasing problem...he repairs the major leaks but realizes he's unable to patch everything. The corroded condition of the metal concerns him; any more scraping of rocks, sand or branches will open new holes. So he bails, then paddles, then bails, then paddles...now he's spending more time addressing the problem than getting any real work accomplished. He grows weary having to paddle the canoe with it's extra water weight. He only hopes that he can get across the lake before the hundreds of tiny leaks lead to a swamped boat.

Isn't this another way of saying "Death by a thousand paper cuts"? These "paper cuts" will not sigle-handledly bring this economy to a halt. It is the multiple tiny problems being reported that may take their toll.

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), January 08, 2000.


Nice metaphor, TM. Of course, compounding the problem is a bunch of militant squirrels on the far bank throwing nuts at you.

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), January 08, 2000.

Tom ... This is your mother . Time for your bottle and a nap ! S.E.

-- Silver Eagle (S.Eagle@nest.com), January 08, 2000.

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