After Y2K, it is February 30 bug biting????

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From the following article, I gather India has 367 days during the year 2000. So, just how much U.S. Y2K remediation is being outsourced to India? I sure hope there's nothing truly mission critical....

http://www.expressindia.com/newads/intel/19981221/3550249.htm



-- Arnie Rimmer (arnie_rimmer@usa.net), December 28, 1998

Answers

Read it to the kids and we laughed so hard...Thanks for sharing, Arnie!

-- Maria (encelia@mailexcite.com), December 28, 1998.

They are, after all, on the other side of the international date line....

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 28, 1998.

Huh?

-- Vic Parker (rdrunner@internetwork.net), December 28, 1998.

it gives them an extra day to work on the problem right? 8<)

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 28, 1998.

I wouldn't laugh at a culture that worships Kali and Shiva. On the other hand, they do use ritual sexual practices that are more interesting than the average Baptist church.

-- RD. ->H (drherr@erols.com), December 28, 1998.


Sorry folks, but I can't let this one pass...

RD,

Cheap shots are really not necessary. Unless your self esteem is raised appreciably by posting such obvious generalizations, in which case, carry on. Far be it from me to criticize anyone's right to a good chest thump followed by a thorough arm pit scratch...

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), December 28, 1998.


Bingo, You have totally lost me in your critique. What cheap shot? Arnie clearly thought the newspaper article was humorous. Lets see, you could be a devotee of Kali and are offended at that reference. Nah, rather unlikely. More likely you are Baptist and have never read the Bhagavita. Relax...

-- RD. ->H (drherr@erols.com), December 29, 1998.

Funny, yes. Scary, too. Those folks in India are doing a lot of Y2k remediation work for US companies.

-- rocky (rknolls@hotmail.com), December 29, 1998.

RD,

1. The newspaper article is Pythonesque in its absurdity. 2. I'm not a Hindu. 3. I'm not a Baptist. 4. I wasn't offended. 5. I do study a bit from the Bhagavad Gita. Really tremendous storehouse of knowledge. 6. I'm sure you meant no harm in your post. I used your attempt to be humorous as impetus to lash out at the flotsam in this & other fora who routinely step on toes when addressing the topic of spirituality as it relates to the Y2K arena. I need to get some rest.

Oh, hell. I'm just a little burned out. Maybe a lot burned out. I should take your advice, RD, & Relax...

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), December 29, 1998.


Bo om Time In India As The Millennium Bug Bites

By Suzanne Goldenberg in Hyderabad, Wednesday December 30, 1998

As the fear of global computer chaos at the dawn of the new century increases, there is at least one place where the millennium bug is not biting.

For the problem which is expected to afflict computer systems in the year 2000 - or Y2K as it is known in software parlance - has been very good news for Hyderabad.

"Y2K has been a godsend," says Rusi Brij, a vice-president of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. The Indian firm has pioneered methods of debugging those computers which are programmed to use only two digits to signify the year. That practice, which began as a means of saving memory space, could lead to systems breaking down when January 1st 2000 dawns.

Hyderabad provides skilled programmers for the tedious task of trawling through millions of lines of computer code to correct the fault.

By conservative estimates, it will cost $600 billion to debug the world's computer systems before January 2000. Much of the work has found its way to the south Indian city.

But as the countdown begins, most large firms in the US and Britain have now dealt with the millennium bug and Y2K operations are expected to form just 27 per cent of Hyderabad's software exports in the year ending March 1999.

The city has been transformed from a 'techno-coolie' operation into a software centre which can offer solutions to a range of computer problems, such as the introduction of the euro and E-commerce.

Hyderabad is booming, and flights to Delhi and Bombay are booked solid. Much of the credit is due to Chandra Baba Naidu, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, who has promoted the city as a local Silicon Valley. He has wooed giants like Microsoft to the hi-tech centre which opened on the fringes of Hyderabad in November.

The seeds of the city's success were sown early. In the last five years, dozens of computer training academies have appeared which purport to turn science or commerce graduates into computer experts in three months. They also claim to be able to find jobs in the US for their alumni.

"Anybody can enter into Y2K," S. Venkateswar Reddy says. "You don't need to be technically qualified." He is a 'body shopper' - a hi-tech labour contractor who provides programmers to clients in Detroit at a price of 1,000-1,500 rupees (#14-21) for each recruit. Other body shoppers charge those seeking jobs up to 250,000 rupees, and their hunting grounds are the computer training schools.

The US had openings for about 200,000 computer professionals this year and in the past few years Hyderabad has produced more software engineers than anywhere in India.

At least 10,000 leave the state for work in the US every year. Locals claim that more than half the Indians working in the US computer industry are from Andhra Pradesh.

To the students at computer academies the lure is irresistible. Even the most modest salary sounds like a fortune when converted into rupees, and Washington almost doubled its quota of H1 professional work visas to 115,000 places in October.

So great is the brain drain from Hyderabad that companies like Satyam demand a 200,000 rupee bond from new recruits, forfeit should they leave within two years.

"The average life expectancy for a software engineer in India is three years. After that they head to the United States," says S. V. L. Narayan, a spokesman for Satyam.

"And no software engineer ever comes back. Not until they are slightly older and have children."
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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 30, 1998.



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