On Sunday my friends and I took a very non-compliant 386 clone out to where we practice shooting. I can assure you that there is one less non-complient pc in the world now. Not quite as thrilling as getting rid of a "Terminator", but we felt it was a y2k correct thing to do. I

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), October 07, 1998

Answers

Ha! That is too funny! Excellent idea and politically correct too! Well, as far as shooting something goes. Somehow I don't think my local target range would appreciate if I lugged in my wife's old 386 gathering dust in my close

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), October 07, 1998.

You might want to check on what's inside an old computer or electronic device before you shoot it up. There might be salvagable materials in there, including gold.

-- Buddy Y. (buddy@bellatlantic.net), October 07, 1998.

Why not do the same to your TV!

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), October 07, 1998.

LOL! We have lots of old puters around here; perhaps we should set up a Y2k shooting gallery. Thanks for the chuckles.

-- Bobbi (volfnat@northweb.com), October 07, 1998.

I hate to even bring this up, but I don't think it is out of the realm of possibilities that in the aftermath of the post-Y2K meltdown (assuming that there is a meltdown, of course, which in fact I do), people might be inclined to take computer techies and get in some target practice!

-- Joe (shar@pei.com), October 07, 1998.

Hi Joe:

Funny you should mention that. My father, who participated in the Mexican revolution told me that the Mexicans blamed much of their problems on the Catholic Church. (Still not recognized officially in Mexico) The people, during and shortly after the revolution would hunt down and shoot anyone suspected of being a priest. In fact, there is an old movie starring Pedro Armendarez and Henry Fonda that is all about it. (Cannot recall the title) Of course that could not happen here.

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), October 07, 1998.

I suspect that "Techies" would be used as targets ONLY if there were no convenient POLITICOS, LAWYERS, MANAGERS, or "PUBLIC SERVANTS". . .

-- "C" Student (targets@range.com), October 07, 1998.

Hmmmm.... I'm not so sure about that. From talking with friends, family, and associates who are generally uninformed about the background to the Y2K thing, there seems to be a general opinion that computer programmers are the short-sighted ones who brought this all down on them.

I can easily envision some sort of Luddite backlash where in a post Y2K world programmers are blamed for the state of affairs. The results could vary anywhere from them being shunned (unclean!) to violent death. With a bit more imagination, I can see a world where technical knowledge is banned because of the damage it caused and programmers and other technical sorts create an underground (not literally) fraternity to try and keep lit the fires of knowledge. Eventually, the knowledge becomes frayed and gets mixed in with ritual and superstition, much like science was back in Francis Bacon's day.

Of course, these ruminations could be due to having just finished "Canticle for St. Liebowitz" recently. Nonetheless, despite being a programmer for many years, myself, come Y2K I'm keeping my diploma on my person at all times to show whoever cares to see:
Alexander Garrett
B.A. Philosophy

Cheers,    Alex

-- Alexander Garrett (agarrett@demiurge.org), October 07, 1998.

"But it was the techies that created this mess, and told us that it could be fixed!" will be the cries from the politicians, managers, and lawyers. And they are mostly right....

-- Joe (shar@pei.com), October 07, 1998.

What I want to know is who got to shoot the moniter first, an exploding implosion, cool.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), October 07, 1998.

Alex & Joe,

I agree with your asessment of human nature and the character of politicos, lawyers, managers, etc. The fly in that ointment is that if the aforesaid politicos, lawyers, managers, etc. EVER want any of the technical stuff to work again. . .

There'll be a scapegoat alright, and depending on what breaks and can never be fixed, it COULD be the "Techies", but I'm betting that most everyone will want most of our technology back, and as soon as possible at that! (won't you?)

I seem to remember a tale about "Killing the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs". . .

-- "C" Student (po'ed@revenge.com), October 07, 1998.

Alexander - Good idea. Gotta Bachelor of Arts as well m'self; guess I'll dust it off and hang it somewhere real visible. "Computers? Me? Nah. Here, try some of this homebrew..."

Re "Who Gets The Blame": check out the ZDY2K site at www.zdnet.com/zdy2k

Poll of site visitors seems to indicate that business leaders and techies will get the lion's share of the blame...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), October 07, 1998.

"C" Student,

And as you probably recall, the goose did get cooked! (so to speak)

Cheers,
   Alex

-- Alexander Garrett (agarrett@demiurge.org), October 07, 1998.

Alex,

You're right: the goose got cooked. (there have not been any golden eggs since) Is this what we've got to look forward to? I'm afraid people WILL be that shortsighted and we're really going to be screwed. It gives me no pleasure to conclude that people will get exactly what they deserve. . .

-- "C" Student (goose@cooked.com), October 07, 1998.

programmers as a whole are not very well understood now. when tshtf they will be mis-understood and hated. my dad has already verbally attacked programmers three times in the last month. i will not be telling anybody that i was a programmer.

am currently looking for some rogue p.c.'s myself.

-- areseejay (areseejay@aol.com), October 07, 1998.

We blast away at failed mechanical devices regularly at the free shooting area near us....great fun...the shell caings are inches thick on the ground...and the VW chases are awesome....have run over failed PC keyboard til it was shreds witht eh car...

Satisfaction is where you find it.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 07, 1998.

Hope you recycle the cases. Once shooting stops.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 07, 1998.

Omigosh, Bill, a mortgage banker who can shoot?! Duck, ladies and gentlemen, now you know where the real threat will come from!

-- Melissa (financed@forbin.com), October 08, 1998.

Listen to yourselves! All this glee over shooting up a bunch of machines that you perceive to be useless. Is this what we have to look forward to? Maybe you are all correct about the rioting and looting.

I can see it now. Possible scenario:

The power goes down along with other infrastructure. Rioting and looting starts after a few days. People destroy grocery stores, restaurants, etc. Power comes back up, other infrastructure starts to recover. But the stores can't be restocked. The people have destroyed all of the refrigerators and other machines that they thought were useless. Now what?

Take those old computers somewhere where they can be recycled. Some of them may even contain gold that can be recovered.

Harmless venting, you say? What about polluting the countryside with shards of metal and plastic for your post-Y2K "country kids" to cut themselves on.

I sure hope you clean up the mess.

-- Buddy Y. (buddy@bellatlantic.net), October 08, 1998.

Lighten up a little Buddy

Have you never experienced the zen of sending that 44 mag right where you wanted it? BOOM!

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), October 08, 1998.

Uncle:

No. I haven't felt the 44 - BUT I can knock a chigger off a gnat's a*s with a S&W 38 Combat Masterpiece. I do know the feeling when it all comes together.

S.O.B. (La)

-- sweetolebob(La) (buffgun@hotmail.com), October 08, 1998.

But which end of the chigger did you hit?

Details, man, details. Was he just wounded? How many trophy points was it? Was the chigger in season? In heat? Did it get cold feet? Did you mount it, or was just "winged"?

Or did you just scratch the surface?

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 08, 1998.

Robert A. Cook (P.E.)

1. Tail (I was a TAIL gunner you know) 2. No - DOA at the scene. 3. Zero (0) Too small for trophy room 4. YES - I do NOT poach !! 5. I don't think so - maybe so - maybe no 6. Yes (see #2) 7. No - I just walked past the pieces of it. 8. Winged, gutted, scattered & disassembled 9. I do believe the round penetrated clean thru the sucker.

S.O.B. (La)

-- sweetolebob(La) (buffgun@hotmail.com), October 08, 1998.

1) SOB You oughta try Glock's entry into the 40 club. Talk about sweet! and Smooth!!

2) Have you had a chance to try their entries into the small frame clubs? I understand they have a small frame 40 and a small frame 9 but haven't had teh pleasure as yet.

cr

ps when they come to our house and ask about a shooter, I point to the wife as she taught me! Something about her DAd as a collector had a piece he sent back to the factory to be sighted in, and teh factory sent a letter back indicating that they would rather send ANYTHING they make backk than the gun. Upon refusal they reemphasized ANYTHING and indicated that the "rules" about ownership of Class III or other ordinance might be fixed in this case. The second refusal got the gun back with its pedigree - - seems that this one had been a presentation piece which it was reliably believed to have gone up San Juan Hill with TR's 1st Lt.!!!

As I'm sure you are aware, the manufacturers of military firearms tend to retain the first hundred or so for presentations to "deserving" members of the military.

CR

-- Chuck a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 09, 1998.