does anyone have any recommendations for a self-taught developer(delphi, oracle, e-commerce,etc) who wants to learn useful and highly profitable Y2k remediation skills. I am talking about the $8 per line of code stuff or telecommuting possibilties. (Im only 21 and already I would rather face TEOTAWKI than another day in the cubicle farm). I am an admitted doomer who is prepared as much as possible and now I want to help save the world one business as a time and cash in on this booming market. Guns and supplies can be expensive on the savings acct(house safe), and I need to build bomb shelter on the grandparents farm. After all if your going to be paranoid, you might as well do it in style. Disclaimer: stupid people need not read below. If your are going to arm yourself for when TSHTF then I would suggest acquiring, besides the normal hunting self/defense weapons, an M-14. One of the msot reliable military weapons ever built. The .308 is preferable to the AR-15's .223 that the 'blue himalayian' suggested. The 308 is about the same size as the 30 06 but not as much powder. You might want to stock up on licquor. It will be worth more than gold.

-- jp (lurking@too.much), May 03, 1999

Answers

I don't do Y2K remediation any more (fixed app I inherited, in case my replacement system is not ready in time), but...

• Liability could be an issue. If you have assets, consider "Errors & Ommissions" insurance. A personal-liability won't cover you if you fart on a public bus.
• Consulting/business is pretty-much word-of-mouth. Do a couple jobs for free, with the understanding you will use them as references.
• Specialize!
• Small mom & pop work is easy (there are shrink-wrap tools you can use), but they don't pay much.
• There are a few commercial products in the "big league" (mini- computers, servers & mainframes) for code-remediation, but they are expensive.
Probably the easiest thing to do would be to sell a "holistic" approach, where you ensure mom & pop are Y2K compliant. Just inventory everything, and replace or re-write anything the is not compliant. Usually, they will have old dBASE or FoxPro programs that you can re-write in Access or Delphi.
• It is probably too late for "Certification".

Me? I like cubicles (office, actually)...

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), May 03, 1999.

Heck, if you just want the money, try here:

Cash in on the Y2k Craze!

-- $$$$$ (cash_in@this.spot), May 03, 1999.

I would take to heart Anonymous99's caution about liability, but I would raise it of few orders of magnitude.

More generally, I would suggest that Y2K remediation of applications software is not as attractive an occupation as you might imagine. It's boring, albeit stressful, for those who have the experience to do it well. It's a succer bet for those who don't have sufficient experience dealing with the idiosyncratic ways of programmers and the effects of layers of revisions by different programmers. In a phrase, you won't know what you're missing (but you would be responsible for having missed it).

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), May 03, 1999.