I'm (relatively) new to the computer business (6 years). My experience is mostly in software quality assurance. In the releases that I have tested, I have seen at least a half-dozen fixes that worked in our test environment but continued to break in customers' "production" environments. Of the remaining problems found at customer sites, there were probably 30% or more that we couldn't reproduce in the office no matter what we tried. We've had customer's setup test environments that work cleanly, but the system still fails in production. This is a simple fact of software development. I have a friend who is an engineer at honeywell (10 years) who says his experience is identical. Books by experts like Ed Yourdon show the same trend. Our customer's usually refer to it as gremlins.

I don't think that my reaction to Y2K is "panic". It is a sound decision based on a) my experience with computers and b) what I have heard reported about Y2K remediation.

Do I believe there is a conspiracy to cover up the problems? No. I believe that every company, government agency and foreign government is engaging in a long-accepted practice of bureaucratic ignorance (the CEO doesn't need to know if something is feasible, he only needs to know if it is saleable).

I told my mom "in order to believe there won't be any problems with Y2K I simply have to trust a) computers (which I have systematically and easily broken for several years) b) big business (which I suddenly found myself working for after three mergers) and c) the government (no comment)."

I've made my decision. In the event that there are disruptions in our everyday routines, I'd rather be one of the helping than one of the helpless.

Cel

-- Y2Krazy (maxcel@swlink.net), September 23, 1999

Answers

Excellent analysis, Cel

Bottom line, be one of the helping instead of the helpless.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It's ALL going away in January.com), September 23, 1999.

Cel,

Well said. It is important at this late date to quickly get a grip and prepare to be helpful rather than helpless. I take whatever fear comes up (a lot comes up because of MS..Y2K too)and make decisions and hope to God (and I do) that I am hitting perhaps 60% right on decisions. As Ed Yourdon said before the senate, weigh the risks and consider the stakes. Then get a grip and prepare!!!!

-- Leslie (***@***.net), September 23, 1999.

"We've had customer's setup test environments that work cleanly, but the system still fails in production"

Girl, do I hear that! I'm the tech support dude. We have about 50 clients that we develop software for, and I see this almost daily. I couldn't even begin to list the reasons "why." An older DLL, a missing patch on the network OS, a conflicting "TSR." And on and on. And don't even get me started on the mainframe!

Another thing that I said earlier today, and I'll say it again. There will be no end-to-end test of the "world network" 'til '2000-01-01.

Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), September 23, 1999.

Why do I suddenly feel as if I'm in a bad television movie?

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), September 23, 1999.

Mara - LOL

Just don't go in the basement alone now - even if you are carrying a meat cleaver. Look out behind you!!!!

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), September 23, 1999.

No, Mara, you're okay until you start hearing the really loud violins.

-- DaveW (dwood@southwind.net), September 24, 1999.

It's the rustling in the walls that gets to me.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), September 24, 1999.

Cel: Do you like to mudwrestle?

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), September 24, 1999.

Thanks Cel,

"Real" world experience has more than one connotation.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 24, 1999.

Thanks Cel! Excellent perspective : )

Hey, Mara, just remember, if you do go down into the basement with a meat cleaver and you do see the "Millennium Bug" with the spooky music in the background just remember...if you hit the bug and it falls "dead" don't trust it!!! Just like in all bad horror movies it's gonna pop up again and attack you!

Of course, it could be laying there dead one minute and then you look away and when you look back it's gone...only to pop up again to cause more mayhem and mischief some other day.

Mike

==================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 24, 1999.

You gotta love why-nots observation....why-not,

SILCON- SAND--HM? JESUS SAID DON,T BUILD ON SAND.

-- why-not? (dogs@zianet.com), September 23, 1999.

-- freeman (freeman@cali.com), September 24, 1999.

Yes, that one really struck us too. HHHHmmmmm. We don't object to Al-D quite as much as most ... any reminder of the Real Purpose is good. Forgetfulness and indifference are the blocks to progress spiritually.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 24, 1999.

One shrinkwrapped program I created (which is about to get re- released) had an error that I was never, in two years of actively trying to do so, able to reproduce on any of my test systems (a twelve-machine LAN running every Windows ariant I could get my hands on). Turned out to break the app on about 25% of the deployed platforms, which sucked. Months of direct contact with Microsoft was of no help; they were as confused by it as I was and had no idea what the problem was.

The fun continues...

The problem disappeared on its own. Suddenly, one upgrade simply didn't generate any reports of that problem. No idea what broke, no idea why it happened or why it stopped on its own. The upgrade (a 2.3 release to fix a 2.x) simply worked on most every deployment.

And this is one package for a dozen or so OS variants (Windows 95/98/NT/2K and their variations). I don't EVEN wanna get into anything more complicated.

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), September 24, 1999.