From Computer Weekly [for educational purposes only]

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snip

This week I appeared on TV in France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. Even CNN asked me to take them to meet a few real people doing real year 2000 work in real companies. This was a refreshing change from the normal expert-sitting-smugly-in-the-studio reciting the old chestnuts about Cobol code and a lack of young programming talent.

As we arrived at his plush offices in High Holborn, camera crew and clock-watching producer in tow, Simon was cool. He had agreed to be the surprised small businessman for the camera, a role for which he seems totally unqualified as the respected author of two books on the legal aspects of Y2K. I thought nothing would surprise him.

We sat at his new PC and I loaded a certain well-known PC year 2000 diagnostic tool. The colour drained from his face when it finished testing. "What do you mean I have 25 problem programs on my system?" he squealed. "And what about all these data files - how am I ever going to fix them?"

I smiled (for the camera primarily, but also for my mum - she does so love to see me looking happy on TV). Simon, probably the best IT lawyer in London, had experienced his first "Oh, sh*t" moment.

end snip

Sometimes I need a smile....

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), April 08, 1999

Answers

One of these days I will figure this out. Getting better.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), April 08, 1999.

Mike: is this one entitled "Attitude changes as the awful truth dawns"? If not, can you post that here, too? I don't want to register with computer weekly.....

-- Lisa (lisa@work.favor), April 08, 1999.

Here Lisa

8 April 1999 Article source: Computer Weekly News Attitudes change as the awful truth dawns Rosy misconceptions are replaced by the 'Oh, sh*t!' factor as the harsh light of reality illuminates the Y2K issue

Leaving Singapore late one afternoon, I experienced one of those odd bastardisations of nature which the technology age has created. Never before had I seen such a sight.

The sun shimmered on the wing of the 747 as we left the ground. A rosy cantina of colours filled the sky as we headed into the black night. And as we flew west into the fire of a blazing sunset, the darkness enveloped the aircraft. Banking slightly to the right and heading on a more north-westerly course, I glanced out of the window. It was getting lighter. The woman from Tokyo sitting next to me let out a sigh. "Unnatural, isn't it?" she said.

Wondering what this perfect stranger was alluding to, I saw the fireball rise again in the west. From last week you may remember we learned that the sun rises in the east, but here I could see with my own eyes that the sun did indeed rise in the west.

Does this mean that the Magi came from Singapore? On a 747? I think not. But what this does illustrate is that things are occasionally not how they seem, which is a positive way of describing the wilderness of mirrors I seem to inhabit of late. Nothing is the way I expected it to be, and it is easy to slip into a very negative mood.

Some good news is that the European mass media is finally waking up to Y2K.

This week I appeared on TV in France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. Even CNN asked me to take them to meet a few real people doing real year 2000 work in real companies. This was a refreshing change from the normal expert-sitting-smugly-in-the-studio reciting the old chestnuts about Cobol code and a lack of young programming talent.

As we arrived at his plush offices in High Holborn, camera crew and clock-watching producer in tow, Simon was cool. He had agreed to be the surprised small businessman for the camera, a role for which he seems totally unqualified as the respected author of two books on the legal aspects of Y2K. I thought nothing would surprise him.

We sat at his new PC and I loaded a certain well-known PC year 2000 diagnostic tool. The colour drained from his face when it finished testing. "What do you mean I have 25 problem programs on my system?" he squealed. "And what about all these data files - how am I ever going to fix them?"

I smiled (for the camera primarily, but also for my mum - she does so love to see me looking happy on TV). Simon, probably the best IT lawyer in London, had experienced his first "Oh, sh*t" moment.

The interview rumbled on with the normal questions, mostly focused on how mainland Europe was doing in their Y2K preparations. "Not well on the whole, and very late" is my stock answer, "with the Germans still struggling to believe that this is really happening."

It's fascinating to see how journalists from the non-IT media change their questioning during the course of an interview. I must admit that CNN's young journalist got so panicked that she asked the first question I have ever failed to answer from an interviewer. "You know that Greenwich Mean Time is the centre of time (which, coming from a French lady, was quite a surprising inaccuracy), well the digital satellites are controlled by time, and, well, will they work?"

Interviewers normally start out with a cocky attitude: "This story is a waste of time but someone has to cover it," they think. However, as we progress they seem to emulate that 747 leaving Singapore. The sun sets on their rosy misconception of how it is all a huge hype, and then awareness dawns on them from a fresh angle. They see the light, and most improve the accuracy of their reports accordingly.

I can see that they're uncomfortable with this process, changing their story to reflect the emerging truth. As that woman said on the flight, "Unnatural, isn't it?"

Catch up with all the latest Y2K issues in Millennium.

Maybe you have a burning issue that you want to share. Go visit a Forum

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), April 08, 1999.