Re: Computerworld, 10 Jan 2000, "The Y2K Ransom"

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

At http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/000110DA9A, you will find an article by Paul Strassman. I admit that I haven't read everything he wrote over the last two years, but if not, this illustrates the conceited arrogance and compounded ignorance of 20/20 hindsight. For one, I am not willing to admit all is well for at least 3 to 6 months. Secondly, this article is written as though Mr Strassman knows everything about every corporation and corporate entity, as well as an intimate knowledge of the operations of all software and software inter-relationships. This isn't the first dufus article I've read about the "ease" with which we passed into the last year of the 2nd millennium, but Computerworld's editors are falling down on the job.

-- Les Largent (largent@voyager.net), January 10, 2000

Answers

Apparently he thinks that (1) companies should cooperate in doing their fixes, and (2) we should have insured our way out of it. However, as soon as insurance companies found out about Y2k liability, they started telling customers that their insurance did NOT cover anything concerning Y2k. And any cooperation between companies would probably fall under some kind of monopoly- or cartel-prohibition, and would have required laws be passed to allow it.

Finally, by the time managers understood that Y2k was real, it was already too late to fix it. If you finally got the picture in mid-1998, you just weren't going to get done. This guy's solutions require that you shift that schedule by a couple years, at least. That is, first you have to educate the managers, then the managers figure out best practices, then they decide that the best solution is some legal permissions to collude, thereby deflecting this problem, then they sell that idea to politicians who pass the laws in plenty of time, etc. Silly idea.

We are scraping on the iceberg now, and this guy is saying we wasted money on lifeboats, should have bought more insurance, instead.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), January 10, 2000.


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