Ch. 9 commentary

greenspun.com : LUSENET : HumptyDumptyY2K : One Thread

Ed, Just another example of a non-Y2K related glitch that happened today. I didn't do anything wrong; just turned on my computer, but when I wanted to e-mail a friend, the entire address book on my computer was wiped out. Like you on your trip to South America, I hadn't made a paper copy, because I trusted my computer to do what a piece of paper would: Hold onto info without risk of losing it. We forget that the info on the screen is just like the image in the mirror--it's there only as long as it is on the screen. It comes down to a matter of trust. Dare we put as much trust into a computer as we do in other things?

-- Ann M. (hismckids@aol.com), August 19, 1999

Answers

"We forget that the info on the screen is just like the image in the mirror--it's there only as long as it is on the screen. It comes down to a matter of trust. Dare we put as much trust into a computer as we do in other things?" --- Ann

How percipient, Ann. In a simple but eloquent way you may have identified the most hopeful and most profound change that may result from this whole Y2K debacle. Regardless of how long it takes to recover from any Y2K effects, no matter what shape we are in when we consider ourselves cured of the bug-bite, one things seems most clear:

Our trust in our technology, with its implicit trust in ourselves and our civilization, economy, government, religion, art, science and other endeavors, may well take a worse hit than our supply lines and infrastructure. We may ever again be able to look in that mirror without wincing, never to be free of a nagging doubt that we may have invested our trust in a chimera of our own devising.

Here's hoping this change in our way of thinking about technology will presage a change in our entire worldview, a change that may mark the end of adolescence for our species and the beginning of a thoughtful, loving, mature future.

Hallyx

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." --- 1 Corinthians 13:11

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), August 19, 1999.


You never learned one of the most basic tenants of computing:

"If you like it, and want to keep it, back it up"

Always cover yourself and have backup copies of anything even mildly important. If its *really* important, or business critical, have multiple backups, and have one off somehwhere save to protect you against fire and natural disaster. Just basic computing, nobody really trusts these things that much :o)

Jon

-- Jon (jon@work.com), August 23, 1999.


From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr near Monterey, California

I think it would be a darn shame if the programming profession begins to require certification. Information technology has taken over the world not because of schools teaching programming, but in spite of schools not teaching it. Where schools have taught programming, they taught students to use two digits for dates until recently, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some still teach that today.

One could argue that the Y2K problem happened because the practice of using a two digit representation for the year had become a widespread standard. A bad standard, granted, but a standard, none the less. As much as some programmers tried to break free of the standard, the Department of Defence reigned them back in by refusing to co-operate.

Programming is an art, not a science. It's premature to be forcing it permanently into bronzed baby shoes.

What programmers need is fewer standards, not more.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), September 06, 1999.


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