On Gary North's site, is a post about a Navy ship that shut down two years ago. Apparently, as part of the Navy's effort to reduce crews on ships, they computerizde much of the ships' operations. The "pilot" ship for this program was the Yorktown. They installed Windows NT to run the ships systems, and during maneuvers, the OS tried to divide by zero and shut down the whole propulsion system. If this happened then, maybe that's why so many Navy ships are tied up right now, to keep them from dying in the water. Also, Bill may have left to escape the wrath of the Gov't whose most powerful branch of the .MIL will be incapacitated in ten days. He may have told them the problem is fixed, but knows it isn't (as do we all).

Jes' Thinkin'...

-- Little Pig (littlepig@brickhouse.com), December 22, 1999

Answers

They should have used Macs.

-- (apple@yum.yum), December 22, 1999.

Isn't Gates going to New Zealand?

They use computers down there too.

It's not like he's fleeing to another planet. Just a nice English-speaking country that's currently in the middle of summer. I'd do the same if I had the scratch.

-- correct me (if@Im.wrong), December 22, 1999.

Its not like he's fleeing the planet? LOL. Who knows, maybe the 10 riches goobers on the planet plan on blasting off Dec 31st?

-- bb (b@b.b), December 22, 1999.

I'll correct you: Bill G is heading for Australia, last I heard. They are a fair old distance apart.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.

Shutdown the propulsion system. Sniff, Snifff, I Don't Think So. Maybe satcoms, entertainment systems,weaps and navigation.

-- Squid (ItsDark@down.here), December 22, 1999.

Squid: The article did say the propulsion system was disabled by the computer crash. The article, from the Government Computer News, stated that a database overflow resulting from an attempt by the computer to divide by zero caused the propulsion system to fail. The error apparently propagated through all the ship's computers and caused a cascade crash as well. The URL is www.garynorth.com/y2k/detail_.cfm/7203 or /2100. The NT system (according to the article) provides damage control, monitors the engines, runs the control center on the bridge, and navigats the ship while underway.

-- Little Pig (littlepig@brickhouse.com), December 22, 1999.