REVIEW OF "Y2K: WINTER OF OUR DISCONNECT"

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The ""Winter Of Our Disconnect" -- PBS special with Robert X. Cringley, Tuesday night at 11 p.m. While carrying an intriguing title, this show didn't know where it wanted to go. It featured some priceless footage of Grace (the Naval captain who created COBOL), authoritative interviews with programmers who realize where the real problems are buried, and fairly lucid commentary from The Gartner Group. Even the survivalists featured were surprisingly moderate. But the rest of the show seemed locked in panic control. Cringley moved in a strange pattern from apparently well-researched interview questions to constant assurances that everything would be okay. No matter who he was talking to, they all seemed to be John Koskinen. The real disconnect here, other than the cheesey 1950s sci-fi film clips used to illustrate the program that resulted in diluting the real issues, was between Cringley's intent to get to the real questions and his fear of the ambiguity that the answer to Y2K always raises. Anyone else care to comment? I would love to get some other feedback on this program.

JEAN WASP

-- Jean Wasp (jean@sonic.net), October 28, 1999


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