Y2K Clueless TV for the Net Savy?

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Television for the DGI/DWGI Net Set; our local PBS station's very own "the.net.sho".

Available in quicktime on the web at - www.wvia.org/netsho - or at - http.home.epix.net/~netsho -. Quicktime 5.0 is also available for download.

I flipped onto it on TV last night as they were discussing "the Milleneum bug". These are internet professionals, people who know something about computers. And they seemingly have no clue about Y2K. Their concerns during the show were strictly "what about Y2K, my PC and the Internet" and to review many of the numerous Y2K sites.

This resulted in lots of chuckles about catagories on Y2K survivalism, Y2K farming and guns. They couldn't get over the posts concerning guns and survivalism being related to a computer problem.

And a lot of amazement about the numbers of posts on the csy2k newsgroup. It got pretty funny when they thought that these were all technical posts. After a quick look at some of the headers ("Buttheads!" "Why Pxxx is a...") they moved on to the csy2k technical sub-forum. "Windows95 failure on ...", something they could understand.

But what impacted me was how they simply couldn't see the connectedness of the issues. They saw that there are problems with computers, but they missed the fact that most computers are used for something besides homes and offices. And this is seen as a cutting-edge show by the folks at ZDNet and other computer professionals.

Maybe it explains why the Y2K problem still isn't getting its due attention. And since the hosts are from my local Internet service Provider, maybe I ought to look for another ISP as a way to voice my displeasure and to try and insure that I might have service in Y2K if we don't have a total collapse.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 31, 1999

Answers

I had to find a new ISP recently. I brought up the subject of y2k with the owner and it appeared that he was no where in the awareness spectrum. This is a small shop but still a bit surprising.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), January 31, 1999.


A friend of mine owns and operates an ISP server. I have tried to talk to him about Y2K a couple of times and he has no sense whatsoever of the extent manufacturing, industry, banking, electricity, and oil are dependent on a healthy computer network. Not to mention embedded systems. Like many people he is absolutely brilliant in his microcosmic field, but ignorant as a chimpanzee when it comes to the big picture.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), January 31, 1999.

Some people just "think" with locks on their brains and see only when looking at their feet.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 31, 1999.


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