I am confused a bit after reading Dale Way's article. Things are happening so fast. This probably has already been talked about here in some detail (Linkmister). But... yet.... can this give us any better insight into how things are going to pan out next year. I am preparing for a 7ish..., and probably can't do much better....

-- thomas saul (thomas.saul@yale.edu), November 02, 1999

Answers

Thomas,

I read the article also. What's the source of confusion? Can you be more specific?

-- silver ion (ag3@interlog.com), November 02, 1999.

Thomas Saul,

If you are really prepped for a seven, you are adequately prepared. My sources say 5+, don't know about a 6, but definitely NOT a 7 or worse.

Sit back and relax. You are going to need to be fully rested come January.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It's ALL going away in January.com), November 02, 1999.

Sure. I guess what I read into is.... when the various systems (programs) are used, it is then that problems will start to show up. There will not nessessarily be a show stopper Jan 1. And that these types of problems will continue to show up for a long time to come. I'm not sure if this is the correct read for what I saw here. If it is, then I guess the economy will have to slow down to adjust to all of these errors occurring!

-- thomas saul (thomas.saul@yale.edu), November 02, 1999.

thomas saul you might want to read the import/export lists over at the Dept of Commerce site. Think ramifications. Re Prep, hey if you are prep'd for a 7 you are doing good, besides, unless you have large amounts of discretionary income and got started years ago, how are you going to prepare for anything much deeper. At some point in time more rice and beans doesn't make it. ;-)

K. Stevens - "sources"????? telling you???? You gotta be kidding!

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), November 02, 1999.

The other thread is at:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001fqh

"IEEE Y2K Chairman's Personal, Pessimistic Take on Y2K and Yourdon's End Game Paper"

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), November 02, 1999.

Anyone that reads Mays' essay:

"we will burn in hell"

"The screeming won't start until the ship hits the iceberg"

Seems pretty simple to me!!!

This guy is not projecting fuzzy wuzzy good feelings, hey everythings OK.

Just the opposite: What I gleaned from Mr.Mays essay was a--Tone of Someone who knows exactly what is going to happen. And it aint pretty.

-- D.B. (dciinc@aol.com), November 02, 1999.

This essay was incredibly profound and addresses a serious handicap which our culture faces as a whole entity.

It completelty busts the "Y2k compliancy" falacy and makes FOF seem like a childs fantasy.

Its not just that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The whole is dependant upon the SUM of it parts.

It is the same problem we face in out medical care, in our education, in our home life and in our work place. The idea of independantly functioning autonymous parts is a bunch of crap.

Have you or anyone you know ever been really really sick?

1. You go to a Dr who sends you to a specialist.

2. They aren't quite sure so you get a 2nd opinion. They consult with 2 other Drs.

3. Each of these Dr.s has a different specialty. None of them can communicate very well because they are not taught how to work with others they are taught to be independant.

4. All of them prescribe drugs, tests and treatments. Each of them interprets the symptoms and test results in a different way. Not a single one of them has actually touched your body or asked you what you think is going on.

5. When you do everything they tell you to do you get worse instead of better. This creates a whole new set of symptoms. Go back to step one.

WE ARE ALL CONNECTED!!!!

You cannot dump toxins in a river and expect your children not to suffer!!!

You cannot exploit workers and keep the economy healthy!!!

You cannot oppress other people and maintain your own freedom!!!

You can't consume unhealthy things day in and day out and expect it to slide through you and out the other end just because you can't see what happens in the middle!!!!

You can't preach religious freedom for yourself and condem other forms of spirituality!!!!

You cannot "remediate" Y2k. You cannot "fix" Y2k. The only way to become Y2k "compliant" is to get out the knee pads and let it have its way with you.

It is time to WAKE UP!!!!!!

We are all connected. We must all learn to relate to ourselves, each other and the planet as a WHOLE!!!!!

-- Dolma Lhamo (I'm@nonymous.now), November 02, 1999.

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

Dolma Lhamo: As a sufferer of an auto-immune disorder, I can really identify with that medical analogy!

I don't believe that the Dale Way commentary should change the preps most of us are making. For one thing, I don't really think he's saying anything new. We all recognize that the Y2K problem resides both in the chips and in the software. We already knew that companies have to be internally consistent but also able to pass the date in a format that can be understood by their suppliers, customers and the government, and that sometimes this will be hard to do if not all the suppliers and customers want the same thing. We know that FOF is not a three day deal.

There may be differences among us as to the relative importance of these aspects (chips, software, interconnectedness), and as to how difficult each is to fix. However, we all know that some small problem in any one of them could be an overall showstopper.

Ed Yourdon has written plenty on Y2K, including many articles, a couple books, and another in progress. Mr. Way is reacting (rather ungraciously, in my opinion) to the End Game article as if it is the only thing that Mr. Yourdon has written. What's new about Mr. Way's piece is that yet another impressive office holder on the IT landscape has weighed in with his opinion. He's in complete agreement with what most of us here think, even if he doesn't realize it himself.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), November 03, 1999.