IBM mainframe patch-Cory vs. Flynt debate question:

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

quote from Flynt:"Yes, y2k problems might make Cory's world a wild and woolly place for a while. But will you or I notice, or will we have to wait for Cory to come up for air and tell us how bad it really was, you just had to be there?"

Two things that bother me as an outsider to programmers.

If this type of condescending behaviour is ubiquitous towards intelligent programmers. Then maybe we should all beware the programmer[s] wrath before they-----"come up for air"

"vengence is mine, thus sayeth the programmer"

-- Dave Butts (dciinc@aol.com), September 02, 1999

Answers

I think that Flint espouses the general mood of John Q. Public: "Hey, look, I mean I see all kinds of terrible stuff in the news, and have for years. Waco I, now Waco II; wars and rumors of wars; earthquakes, hurricanes, ice storms; economy problems in foreign countries; etc. To date, none of this has affected me in any significant way. Why should Y2K problems be any different?" In fact, come right down to it, this is the basis of the pollyanna point of view: Whatever Y2K problems there may be, they will not really make a dent in our everyday lifestyles.

I hope that the pollyannas are right. I fear that they are dead wrong. Regardless, bad computer code does not care.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), September 02, 1999.

I think us programmer-types should all go on a one year hiatus from work. Perhaps that would snap companies and the public back to an awareness that the work WE do keeps the pointed-haired ones in their jobs. THOSE types can barely work a word processor. They (collectively) couldn't keep their companies afloat if their LIVES depended on it.

And as for the "public", well, you can't talk to JQP while he's chuggin' that Bud... Better wait until the beer shipments stop. And food. And everything else. THAT is the only way to get through to a Cro-magnon.

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), September 02, 1999.


The problem with Flint (who is not a mainframe programmer BTW) and the rest of the pollies is that they do not understand the concept of omega points.

-- a (a@a.a), September 02, 1999.

Flint and his ability to type long sentenses reminds me of a department head several years ago angerly asking me when their mainframe would be operational again. I said I did not know, we are trying to figure it out. She said " If you knew what you were doing you would know when it will be fixed. My husband always tells his customers when they can get it fixed." I asked " What kind of work does your husband do?" She said " Truck Mechanic."

To her unknowing mind, both occupations were on the same 'complexity plane'. Most people do not think very deeply and can not even visualize how involved computer programming is. The two-legged animals are going to spook, the only way their shallow thoughts can handle the bad/unexpected.

-- BeganwithIBM1964 (long@TimeLurker9.com), September 02, 1999.


a,

I do not really understand the concept of omega points.

-- mabel (mabel_louise@yahoo.com), September 02, 1999.



Possible a is referring to this: OMEGA POINT: "A possible future state when intelligence controls the Universe totally, and the amount of information processed and stored goes asymptotically towards infinity. See the Omega Point Page. [Origin: Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man. See also Barrow and Tipler, The Cosmological Anthropic Principle or Tipler's The Physics of Immortality for a more modern definition.]"

Links and much discussion on the omega point can be found here: The Omega Point and the Final Fate of Life

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), September 02, 1999.


In cosmology, the Omega Point assumes a Big Crunch, because there is enough matter in the universe to halt and reverse the expansion. The point is the opposite of the Big Bang, when everything comes back together.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), September 02, 1999.

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