Klarinet Archive - Posting 000049.txt from 2000/01

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Y2K!!!
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 17:43:43 -0500

"redcedar" <redcedar@-----.au> wrote,
> Well, Lelia, I am pleased you shared this experience, as it now gives me
the confidence to boot up the other geriatric gear I've got here with a
similar profile to yours.>

Mark Charette wrote,
>>Be cautious with any spreadsheets that have date calculations, accounting
programs (!), or word processing document templates that automatically fill
in the date....>>

Thanks for emphasizing that, Mark. In the part of my message snipped in
redcedar's reply, I stipulated, "I only use that computer for word processing
and CAD." Since I'd previously discovered that I could keep the books for my
stained glass micro-business and do my taxes faster and more easily with a
calculator and a paper ledger, I never even loaded a spreadsheet on that
computer, unless there's a bundled shareware program still buried in DOS
somewhere.

Rachael Orbach wrote,
>>>I think that the lack of major computer problems were averted by the
advance preparations.>>>

I mostly agree with that. I think computer professionals did do a good job
of preventing this problem (that they created...) from causing widespread
havoc. However, I also think that *some* computer professionals cynically
exploited the sales opportunity.

In the _Washington Post_, for instance, I never saw one specific, useful set
of instructions for home computer fixes. The _Post_ writers (fearing legal
action, I suspect, if fixes didn't work) invariably referred readers to web
sites run by computer companies. These sites offered mostly techno-babble
that the average person would not undertand, but reverted to amazingly
straightford language when promoting the idea that only a paid professional
could deal with the Y2K problem, that it would be a terribly complicated,
expensive fix and that, really, the best solution was to go out and buy a new
computer manufactured, of course, by the site's sponsor. It also seems to me
that since the average employer couldn't understand which fixes were really
essential and which were not, the folks who did the fixing faced a strong
temptation to shove their snouts up to the eyeballs in the company trough.
I'd like to believe most computer pros nobly resisted temptation and did only
what had to be done, but my automatic crap-detector alarms sure have buzzed a
lot lately -- false alarms triggered by Y2K bugs feeding on the wetware, no
doubt....
;-)

Lelia

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