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Y2K Policy with Attitude 117

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-read dept.
Spectre writes "This has to be the most honest Y2K policy I have seen to date (from Hart Scientific). I'm going to include a printed copy of this in my company's "Y2K notebook" even though we have never done business with these people... " One of the funniest things I've read in awhile. Including these long drawn out messages from clueless folks warning me that Slashdot is not y2k compliant (because dear god, if the URL of stories contains 00 all hell is gonna break lose ;)
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Y2K Policy with Attitude More

Y2K Policy with Attitude

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  • INVALID DATE

    Why? Because 1/12/02 is y2k-ambiguous and therefore non-compliant. Therefore any program that allows 1/12/02 is not y2k-compliant.

    ---
    Put Hemos through English 101!
    "An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert Heinlein
  • Some products use both. Healthcare data frequently has people both 0 years old and 100 years old. Every now and then a supplier upstream will have some odd data. Like newborns getting geriatric services. (they're 0 years old, I tell you... just because they're senior citizens doesn't make them not 0.)
    Our company is Y2k compliant. We went through hell to do so. Problem is, we receive data that we cannot always validate (sometimes we don't receive birth dates ... we receive "age" ... and the company supplying the date is wrong.) Of course, our company is very good at telling our suppliers-of-data where their problems lie. But, eh. sometimes the "user typing the data" is another computer, too.
  • That's 'tappet' not 'Tapi'it'. A tappet is the connection between the pushrod and the valve head in a car engine...
  • "I wonder what their management must be like...?"

    If they let something like that slide, they sound cool to me :)


    Talisman


  • Not just smoking, how about farting. Man I can't stand it when people fart, so inconsiderate. They think just because I'm outside my gas will float away and not bother anybody. Then I find out they are contributing to the ozone hole as well as skidmarked undies. Damn farters!

    (/end sarcastic rant|begin real opinion)

    If the smoke bothers you, get YOURSELF a bubble and don't tell me what I can put in my body. Asthma is a sure sign you aren't supposed to make it to the next millenia. Natural selection at work. If you don't believe that, MOVE TO KANSAS!
  • Obviously that's what many programmers are going to do, too. Y2K will not cause a state of emergency and the months leading up to the last year of this millennium will be remembered as a time of unfounded fears. Many will assume it's safe again to use two-digit years because the programs will be good for another 90+ years. (Previously they were good for only 20 years. 90 is greater than 20.)

    However, because data capacity is now cheap enough that the difference of space taken up by 4 bytes rather than 2 bytes is very insignificant, there is no longer an excuse to use 2 digits. It's just lazy.
  • In accordance with a secret government plan, on January 1, 1900, the all computers will switch from measuring data in kilobytes, units of 1000 bytes, to kibibytes, units of 1024 bytes. In the resulting confusion, computers worldwide will overflow their data partitions, causing bank failures, mass panics, child TV viewing, and venereal disease outbreaks which will end society as we know it.

  • The funniest (and most clueless) Y2K comment I remember was a headline in a tabloid I saw while waiting to check out at the drug store. I went something like:

    Cold War Fallout: Did the Russians plant the Y2K bug?

  • ... and man, do I feel like a macho adventurer. Harrison Ford ain't got nothing on me!


  • Well done, dork. You've just proved your unworthiness to write Y2K-compliant software. I hope your employer (if you have one) knows what a lousy programmer you are.


    For those who still haven't wrapped their tiny little minds around the concept of leap years: Any year divisible by four is a leap year, except when it ends in two zeros - unless it is also divisible by 400. In other words, 2000 is a leap year.

  • Hmmm...good point. But where does it leave me if the desk isn't compliant.
  • > Why? Because 1/12/02 is y2k-ambiguous and
    > therefore non-compliant.

    It's not only non y2k ambiguous...

    Is it
    1st December 1902, 1st December 2002,
    2nd December 1901, 2nd December 2001,
    or the 12th January 1902/2002?
    or the 12th February 1901/2002 ?

    Why is it that the one problem at the turn of the century seems to be more important than the daily problems of software operating internationally?
    That are just as easy to fix, and likely to be with us for much longer?

    - Muggins the Mad

  • Yeah, here in Japan MITI (the Ministry of Trade and Industry) has just gotten around to issuing a recall on certain models of car navigation equipment which, come August 22nd, is apparently not going to even switch on properly. Great, guys, all of a week to get 95,000 systems fixed. I can't wait for Y2K.

  • 4 digit dates are pretty damned ambiguous. I wouldn't dream of using a system that doesn't qualify the year with AD or BC.
  • Hart Scientific makes highly accurate temperature calibration equipment. Back when I was still a hands-on electronics guy, I had a pair of their controlled - temperature baths in my calibration lab. They were excellent, highly reliable pieces of equipment. And since they had no microprocessors in them, I'm sure those same Hart baths will be in use long after all the Y2K nonsense is forgotten.

  • 4 digits is too hard to type (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I can't type 4 digits; it would take an extra .2 seconds per date to type a 19 or 20 and then my productivity would go down .05% and I would lose my job.

    I don't need no date nazis telling me how to type my years. It's a personal choice, 2 or 4 digits. Don't try to take away my god given freedoms guaranteed by the US constitution. Next thing you know, abortion will be illegal and we won't be able to smoke in public parks.

    Power to the people!

  • Analog and leap years (Score:3)

    by Stephen ( 20676 ) on Monday August 16, 1999 @08:17AM (#1744612) Homepage
    I get e-mails telling me that my program analog [cam.ac.uk] isn't Y2K compliant because I use (y % 4 == 0) as my test for leap years. They tell me it should be something like
    (y % 4 == 0 && (y % 100 != 0 || y % 400 == 0))
    I reply explaining that analog isn't Y2100 compliant. It's got so bad I've had to put an explanation in the source.
  • Last year a client required a 100% response on a y2k questionnaire before they would pay their invoices. They required everyone to provide a list of suppliers and rate their importance and provide proof we contacted them, received a y2k compliance statement, and forwarded it on.

    So we rated importance of suppliers like this:
    Loo paper
    Junk food
    Coffee
    Breakfast cereal
    Electricity

    Then we wrote up a justification on the importance of bog roll (toilet paper) to the proper functioning of a company, indicated that all rolls had no date function, provided a list of alternatives, risks of loss of supply on morale and productivity. Pretty funny stuff. We submitted it with a handful of y2k statements we found on the web, and got paid.

    If I weren't on the road now I could post a copy, get some feedback for new ideas in case anyone else is stupid enough to ask us for another statement.

    the AC
    KY-2K: when you have to cram four digits where only two would fit before
  • Sad thing is... I recently heard a news report on FOX (local news, though) that told us that...
    (paraphrased...)
    On January 1, 2000, your computer could crash; even your stereo could stop working. Electronics, everywhere, are prone to y2k failure.

    I don't know about you, but my stereo doesn't store dates. I don't know of any that do (don't enlighten me if yours does). And besides.... a stereo SHOULD still work if it thinks it's 1900...

    All of this y2k is scaring the hell out of me. Not because of the systems failing, but because of the chaos that's going to be reigning on Dec31, 1999.... when all of our electronics are "crashing."

    Yea... and as a former technician at a retail store, I can just picture it.... "My cd player stopped working last night. I think that y2k thing is what's wrong with it..."

  • Guess that depends upon if your willing to accept any 4 digits.. (groans at his own sick mind)

  • k2y (Score:1)

    by oakley ( 25957 )
    Will switching place of the 'y' and 'k' button on mk yekboard maye mk computer k2y-compliant?

    (...duh! What a lame comment... ;)
  • This solution runs into some logistical problems. Like WHEN do you display the 4 digit year? When they "move off that field"? But then
    • they aren't looking at it anymore
    • that might be the last field on the screen and they've hit "next"


    ---
    Put Hemos through English 101!
    "An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert Heinlein
  • I guess I'm not Y2K compliant... I already know I'll be writing "99" on my checks well into March, 2000.

    Yeah, that's right... I still write the occasional paper check.

    --

  • He was talking about banning smoking in all public outdoor areas. Do you really agree with this?

    I'm sorry I just don't. I agree with limiting smoking in small enclosed areas (although banning smoking in bars is silly, but it still happens), but not outside, and most definitely not at concerts. Especially if that includes outlawing ALL smoking.

    I seriously doubt I'll get much support for this, but dammit if I want to smoke outside let me. If you really want to go after this stuff be an environmenalist, go after truck companies, everyone who believe they *need* a car to themselves, companies who *seriously* pollute the air, not just people in a 5 foot radius for 5 minutes. Don't tell me it's for my own good, I know what that good is. If you want to take that route I will certainly have more supporters here, ya'know freedom and all.

    I will have a good day, and do have a great number of them left. Staying in good shape and eating right will do that. Smoking (cigs, weed) doesn't help, but at this point I still enjoy it, nothing better after a long hard day to sit back, relax, and reflect.

    Wah

    (p.s. Sorry about your wife, for what it's worth)
  • Firstly, let me apologize for my previous post. I really lost it there. I feel strongly about this and it sometimes gets me pretty worked up.

    No, I don't want to ban smoking altogether. I don't believe in banning smoking in bars, clubs or outside either. I also have nothing against smokers. I just hate inconsiderate smokers. In the country I live in, smoking is still allowed in public places / restaurants etc. You can't even go out of your house without taking in the equivalent of about 20 cigarettes worth of smoke.

    A few places have banned smoking, and yet many inconsiderate selfish wastes of life still insist on smoking in these areas. I am constantly asking them ( politely ) to put out their cigarettes, and am usually met with indifference or hostility. These people are so insanely selfish that they just can't see what they are doing to asthma sufferers. In the end, your tolerance of smokers in general diminishes.

    I believe in your right to smoke. However, I also believe in the rights of others not to be forced into breathing your smoke. A little consideration from smokers wouldn't be a bad thing.

    Please think about what your smoke is doing to others. If you were in my shoes, you wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it.

    Regards,
    Peter K.
  • moderate the above post up, just for me

    ;-)

  • Come to think of it, the metro Phoenix area has terrible air quality. I still remmeber seeing a great dome of pollution looming over the horizon as we drove ever closer to Phoenix (Pink Floyd concert, no smoking done, but the contact high was nice).

    If I had asthma I wouldn't live within 50 miles of that great dome o pollution...

  • As a considerate smoker^h^h^h^h^h^h person, I'm in favor of a ban on inconsiderate people. Imagine all the open space...
  • I actually had a customer ask about that! When he first asked about Y2K compliance, I sent the standard reply about testing, blah, blah, blah. He wrote back that was fine for the software; but he was also conserned about the hardware e.g., the keyboard, monitor, etc.

    I wrote a fax explaining that they were all compliant; unfortuantely, the desk and chair were not so he would have to replace them. My boss wouldn't let me send it.
  • 1/12/02 is for many people totally Y2K compliant, but has some irrelevant Y1.9K problems. To me (someone who never deals with old dates, and lives in Hong Kong) 1/12/02 is unambiguously 2nd December 2001.
  • >And besides.... a stereo SHOULD still work if it
    >thinks it's 1900...

    Yeah, but there wasn't anything to listen too back then, save maybe a space alien or two (and they had to beat the y19C problem to broadcast).
  • Actually, there is a good reason -- speed. It has to make this calculation lots of times.
  • That's national news for you, I wonder sometimes if they even know anything about what they are reporting on. I could list countless examples of misleadings by the media, so this example doesn't suprise me the least.

  • Clarke's Third Law. It's mentioned in a r.a.sf.w FAQ, I believe.

    Beyond the Neanderthals, though, how many Ordariny Joes (tm) can distinguish between a radio and a magic box? It's got "speakers". It's got electricity. It's got an aerial that you twiddle when the sound gets scratchy. Hell, I couldn't explain the physics behind one (and I have been briefly introduced to LCR (?) circuits), not even one of those nifty little matchbox radios you can build from parts...

    And as for computers.. I know a little MIPS assembler, I know what sort of logic gates you need to make an adder (or if I don't, I'd better by the end of the semester :-)), but I don't know what a bit is (voltage?), let alone exactly what goes on when you want to AND a couple of bits together. I could write a very simple program, but only because the CPU works by magic.

    What's it like for normal people (ie: non computer scientists/programmers)? You move the mouse, and the arrow moves around on the screen. The CPU gets involved somewhere. You store stuff on the hard disk. The more RAM you have, the less waiting you do. Beyond that... magic?

    --
    Repton.

  • Ummmm ... unless the clock chip actually malfunctions when the date rolls over (which would be more than usually crappy design) just including a clock chip in a product that does not use the date is not going to cause it to fail.

    Oh, and the GPS roll-over is a red herring. GPS readouts depend only on relative time, not absolute, so while you might get one incorrect location reading or a crash, it won't cause a long term failure except in cases of truly dreadful design. The only potential problem is if you receiver tries to give an obsulute time readout based on the time signal from the satellite. In that case it'll just be wrong, and the designer deserves to die.

  • > Actually, there is a good reason -- speed. It
    > has to make this calculation lots of times.

    && and || short-circuit in C, and if you're really paranoid about performance, you can do a bit of explicit strength-reduction:

    !( y & 3 ) && ( ( y % 100 ) || !( y % 400 ) )

    This will be as fast as your existing code for the majority of cases, or possibly faster if your compiler doesn't do this bit of strength-reduction itself.

    Yes, you'll see an extra division/compare for years divisible by four, but the initial divison/compare will have been replaced by an inexpensive binary AND for all cases. Years divisible by 100 (i.e. 2000) will also incur an additonal division/compare beyond that. (wish there was a convenient way to write this so that on ia32 the third test would reduce to anding EAX with 3 again, reusing the result of the last operation, rather than doing a second division) However, again, such years are certainly not the majority of cases.

    I dunno; I would be suprised if this calculation were a bottleneck in the log analysis; to my mind it'd be more likely to be I/O-bound. When I get home, I'll try benchmarking your tool with and without this modification.

    ---

  • Amen! (Score:2)

    by Enry ( 630 )
    My previous employer not only got these Y2K questionnaires, but each division of a larger company sent them to us (and the forms were different). And it wasn't any good that we put a Y2K statement on the web that read "We use Unix time(), we don't use dates. Forget about it.". Nope Nope. The lawyers wouldn't like that. Bleah.


    --
    Now there's a haircut you can set a watch to!
    -Grandpa Simpson
  • Lawyers who will be defending victims of underwriters and even IPO's probably aren't laughing at all.

    Let me make it clear: I think this was a real hoot !! But about three years ago, Corporation X became VEEEEERY interested in the reliability of Vendor Y's equipment .... Corporation Z, who's been in the red and have been treading water by their ability to make something a tax write-off, soon decided there's money to be made here (similiar to how Orange County, CA decided a few years ago that they had a case against their underwriters who "didn't adequately advise us of the risks of the investments we made, and led us to bankruptcy" a few years back).

    This URL is not so much an open ticket for the sue-happy, but it undermines the importance of a stable Y2K policy. Those poor lawyers who can't take a joke ....

    [they should check out Wiley Miller's strip [wileytoons.com] every now and then]

  • I don't care about whether the stuff works Feb 31, 2000, I don't believe in that day.

    What about Feb 29, 2000?

    :-P

    Ben

  • Progress Report (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 16, 1999 @06:03AM (#1744645)
    Fwd: News Progress Report from the Y2K project Subject: Y2K "Our staff has completed the 18 months of work on time and on budget. We have gone through every line of code in every program in every system. We have analyzed all databases, all data files, including backups and historic archives, and modified all data to reflect the change. We are proud to report that we have completed the "Y2K" date change mission, and have now implemented all changes to all programs and all data to reflect your new standards: Januark, Februark, March, April, Mak, June, Julk, August, September, October, November, December As well as: Sundak, Mondak, Tuesdak, Wednesdak, Thursdak, Fridak, Saturdak I trust that this is satisfactory, because to be honest, none of this "Y to K" problem has made any sense to me. But I understand it is a global problem, and our team is glad to help in any way possible. And what does the year 2000 have to do with it? Speaking of which, what do you think we ought to do next year when the two digit year rolls over from 99 to 00? We'll await your direction.
  • That was a joke son, a joke.

    Said in best "Foghorn Leghorn" voice.

    And yes, Mel Blanc is probably rolling in his grave right about now.

  • So few companies are on the cluetrain [cluetrain.com] that I want to buy from this company without even knowing what they make! How refreshing to hear a human voice on a corporate website.
  • It's not just the lawyers who say it isn't enough to say "we don't use dates". It's me, too.

    And as a programmer at a bank I know what I'm talking about. I've had countless companies tell me "we don't use dates" only to find that the data they send me is garbage, y2k-wise.

    It's also funny when they say "we're compliant as long as the user types dates in correctly". Yeah, heaven forbid the software do any work like date-validation.
    ---
    Put Hemos through English 101!
    "An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert Heinlein
  • Oh no! My car's Holley 750 double pumper carb and Accell dual point distributor are going to stop working because of the Y2K problem!

  • We need an archive of funny y2k compliance forms. That was good.
  • I hate chain letter, but now I'm spamming all my friend, co-worker and family with this story.

    I don't know how they are gonna react to the /. effect. Their webmaster is gonna freak out when he'll find his site had a ten-fold increase in hit for a few hours ...
  • My car is not Y2K compliant. And its the government's fault! (Damn inspection stickers only lasts 12 months.) So, I can get a ticket with two zeros in it ($100 is a hefty fine) for not having my car Y2K compliant.

    Its all a scam I tell ya! NT crashes now, why wait?
  • Well everybody knows that even things that don't contain a date are still vunerable to the Y2K problem. This is because they can magically work out the date even though they don't store it internally. So be careful, your Microwave isn't going to work in the Y2K and neither is your electronic scales or your car.

    (BTW I'm not being serious here. I've just seen so many people concerned with Y2K problems in things that don't even store the date, I'm just glad to see a company that isn't going overboard on this one)
    --
  • Doh!

    Message to the humor impaired:

    I think they wrote Feb 31 on purpose!

    ----------------------------------

  • Uh oh (Score:3)

    by SmokeyDP ( 78134 ) on Monday August 16, 1999 @06:15AM (#1744656) Homepage
    We had a Y2K team come around and test all our software, and they put "Y2K READY" stickers on the Moniter and Computer Case, but what about the MOUSE AND KEYBOARD!!!! WHAT GOOD IS THE COMPUTER GOING TO BE WITHOUT MY MOUSE AND KEYBOARD!!!!! ...ok im done ranting...im off to find a Y2K compadible keyboard and mouse now at pricescan.com...
  • It's funny when people ask me about y2k because i'm a computer professional. I just tell them that I think everything is gonna be just fine and not to worry, then they go out and buy a generator and stock up on food (me and a friend of mine got into his parents stash). Then people ask me if my systems are y2k compliant, and I say yes but then again it really doesn't matter if they are are aren't no one cares about my little webserver and the mail server except for the 20 guys who get therir mail from it. So if all the world is laid to waste then it's not my fault and I doubt it will be anyone who is reading this either.

  • Y2K compliant coffe cups (Score:3)

    by HarpMan ( 53271 ) on Monday August 16, 1999 @06:16AM (#1744659)
    Click and Clack, the Tap'it brothers (the car guys on NPR) are hawking Y2K compliant needle nose pliars, coffee cups, etc.

    ------------------------------------------
  • Many months ago, ABCNews did a little piece trying
    to explain the "Y2K problem", and they whip out this
    animation of a friggin coffee maker with a big red
    led display showing the date and time, and how if
    it thought it was the wrong date, it might not make
    your coffee that morning or something. Since when
    do coffee makers store dates? Wouldn't that just
    be a daily thing, and not something weeks or, eek,
    years in advance? :)
  • I believe that's called the month of "Checkuary". I'm Y2K compilant. It's my pencil that has the problem :)
  • Well, it seems that most people "in the know" agree that the biggest danger will be all of the people going crazy thinking somethings going to happen. However, I have a theory about this...

    The media has been systematically making us immune to this kind of story. After the O.J. trial, Whitewater, Clinton-Lewinsky, S. Milosevich, etc. we just don't have the attention span that we used to.

    I firmly believe that if a high placed politician committed a murder tommorrow and somehow managed to gain partisan support, we would all let him go after about 3 months. The public would cry, "Just let him go because I'm tired of hearing about it." Along with, "Damn !"

    It sounds silly, but think about it. It isn't such a crazy point of view.

    I think Y2K will roll over and everyone will breathe a huge sigh of relief. Not because everything worked, but because we can finally stop hearing about how Y2K means Yes to Kia and how our electric nose-hair puller is going to cease functioning come midnight December 31st.

    I'm already starting to tune it all out and it's only August.
  • you forgot, "outside (insert your preferred physical computer store here) in a U-Haul waiting for the looting to begin."


    j-a-w-a-d------------------------------
    replace ,'s in e-mail address with .'s.
  • Im not too worried about the pen, cause they came by the other day and put a sticker on it too...but my mouse pad still doesn't have one, and it is the interface between my mouse and the desk. What will become of me if the mouse and my desk are no longer compadible? Will I have to get a new desk? or a new mouse?
  • Will the URL contain 00 or 100? Slash runs on Perl, you know.

    John Flanagan
  • At http://www.hartscientific.com/official_y2k.htm. Early in the page is the following snippet:

    >> None of our products except the readout thermometers and software described in the next paragraph use a date and therefore do not have any Year 2000 compliance issues.

    Parsing this I get: "None of our products ... does not have any Year 2000 compliance issues."

    I wonder if their lawyers can read or write English?
  • Actually, I'd hope that any compression apps handle the dates okay... I'd hate to compress my files and then uncompress them and have the dates modified be all mangled. So long as it uses the mechanisms for dates provided by the OS, you fine, but I'd still hope to check and be sure...

    So far as Acrobat Reader goes... I dunno!
  • I mean, it's just a line of code, and there's nothing wrong with it operating more correctly. Just fix it already and make everyone happy.

    And hey, you never know when someone might have some odd reason for post-dating their logs 100 years in the future...

    ---
  • Was it Arthur C. Clarke or Robert Heinlein who once said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"? The point being that to the Neanderthal, an AM Radio would be magic -- a box that speaks! And similarly, any sufficiently advanced alien technology would be, to us, indistinguishable from magic.

    Ironic that journalists have the same beliefs as the Neanderthal would if brought to the modern day :-}.

    -E
  • Try:

    1) Not breathing.
    2) Bringing your own air.
    3) Not going outside?
    4) Moving to a 100% mormon community.

    After all... This IS a free country.. and yet all
    of our rights are trampled every day...

    Smoking sucks... it's a filthy habit and I personally
    wish that it never existed.
    That doesn't give me the right to ban it or make it illegal.
    Get a fscking plastic bubble yourself.



    Gee.. am i in a pissy mood today or what? *erf*

  • Asthma has nearly killed me twice.
    I'm allergic to cigarettes.
    I've been smoking for 16 years.

    I do not smoke if it irritates someone.
    I always stand/walk/sit downwind of non-smokers.

    I do NOT like whiney, inconsiderate folks who rant.

    I have the 24hr crabby flue... it should be gone
    in about 17 more hours... *erf* I'll resist the urge to post until then.

  • Slashdot is not Y2K-compliant! (Score:3)

    by PurpleBob ( 63566 ) on Monday August 16, 1999 @03:49PM (#1744673)
    I changed '99' to '00' in various addresses, and I stumbled across the following article:
    Slafhdotte
    Newf for Forward-Thinking Perfonf. Itemf of importance.

    5 Foot Railroad Gauge Gaining Acceptance
    An Article in Scientific American fayf that the 5 Foot railroad gauge is gaining Acceptance among fmaller Railroad Companief. Although Trainf designed for the exifting 4 Foot 8-1/2 Inch trackf in use by the Railroad Monopolief will Not Work on thefe trackf, the 5 Foot gauge haf many advantagef. It if cheaper to build, trainf can run fafter on it, and it only takef 4 minutef to infall a fection of track. Pluf, the trackf are being defigned efpecially fo that Train Crafhef will never occur.

    Supporterf of the 'Open Track Movement' are building the trainf that will run on thefe trackf for free in their fpare time. It will not be long before the obfolete 4 Foot 8-1/2 Inch ftandard fallf into difufe.

    Next Article: Jonathan Katz III propofef "Tell A Schoolteacher Not To Beat A Difobedient Child To-Day"

    Commentf
    (We do not even know what Beta meanf!)

    FIRST POST (Score:-1, Offtopic)
    by Anonymous Cowherd on Monday Auguft 16, 1900, @ High Noon

    Ye Firft Poft!

    Re: FIRST POST (Score: 1)
    by Farmer Bob on Monday Auguft 16, 1900, @ Sometime After High Noon

    You are an extremely ignorant fellow. Quiet yourfelf before I muft resort to fifticufff.

    5 INCH FOREVER!
    by Anonymous Cowherd on Monday Auguft 16, 1900, @ Sometime in the Evening

    The railroad monopolief are going down! I certainly hope thif ftandard if in general ufe before people begin to think that train crafhef are normal!

    --
  • At least slightly used backup generators will be cheap next year!

    I've had my sites Y2K Complacency Statement [abnormal.com] up for a few months now...

    -tim
    http://web.abnormal.com [abnormal.com]


  • Actually, they just had their birthdays and turned 107, which means they were born in 1892 (presumably making them seven years old on a non-Y2K compliant system).

  • Poll idea (Score:3)

    by indecision ( 21439 ) on Monday August 16, 1999 @06:17AM (#1744678)

    I know the compression one's just started, but...

    On January 1 2000, I'll be:

    Expecting most stuff to work fine

    Avoiding flights and nuclear reactors

    In an underground bunker at a secret location

    On call to fix Y2K bugs, for exorbitant charges per minute

    hating Rob/Hemos/Andover

  • http://www.duh-2000.com/

    The dumb things people say about Y2k

    Pretty funny.
  • > Avoiding flights and nuclear reactors

    Yes, avoiding the combination of flights and nuclear reactors is a good idea.

    now, why should I start to fly arond in nuclear reactors?
  • Taco wrote:
    Including these long drawn out messages from clueless folks warning me that Slashdot is not y2k compliant (because dear god, if the URL of stories contains 00 all hell is gonna break lose ;)

    C'mon Rob, let's see some of these...

    Regards,

  • Don't forget to check your pen for compliance as there's absolutely no chance that your computer and printer won't work after 2000 then make sure you have a compliant pen.
    --

  • You forgot one:

    So hung over I won't care if the rivers run red with blood.

    (stolen from some .sig seen somewhere on usenet, I'd attribute it properly if I remembered who said it. if it was you, sorry.)

    -LjM
  • Yes please I'd love to see more y2k humor - people befuddled by magic they don't understand is always a gas.

    But my VW diesel can run w/o ANY electricity - well, except for one little solenoid on the injector pump but that can be rigged to a couple of flashlights - I'll just push start it to run to the next grocery store while foraging for food and bottled water. Hmmm, also, being winter, it'll be a little tough to start w/o glow plugs.

    Chuck
  • "Amen," said the funky white girl.
    It's quite wonderful to find sites that don't feel like commercials. The human element will always be the selling point.

    "Y2K, blah! I have a sword, I will pillage, plunder and rape, my tribe will eat well in the new millenium!" :-)

    The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
  • I guess I'm not Y2K compliant... I already know I'll be writing "99" on my checks well into March, 2000.
    I actually haven't done that in a few years. Last time I did something like that was setting the time/date on my old SparcStation at work.

    On the first day back at work in 1997:

    % date 9601050905

    Oops. When I set the date back to where it should have been, the screenblanker activated mmediately.

    Oh, yes that's a 2 digit year field. SunOS 4.1.x has several application-level Y2K bugs, and the date command is one of them.

  • The terminally bored amongst you can now check thier own y2k status at:

    http://wired.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~rni coll/humany2k/ [st-and.ac.uk]

    It'll be better soon, honest, I've only just written it!

  • Hey -- take the focus off that stoopid submit button!

    Anyway, as my boss said, the worst thing that could happen would be that we wouldn't be able to invoice our customers. I should put that on our web site. Maybe that'll put a stop to the annoying forms.

    Some of the most amazing things are now "Y2K" compliant. Bottled water, toasters, even children's toys. Heaven forbid that some little electronic doo-hickey that plays "This old man" (not the Barney version) would stop repeating that annoying tune over and over because it's lodged in the bottom of the toy tub...

    Will I be able to light my stove with my non-Y2K lighter so that I can boil my bottled water to make my non-Y2K compliant macaroni and cheese, or should I get some spaghettios instead? (I'll be able to open cans, I have an old-fashioned can opener rusting away in a drawer somewhere.)

  • My car will be, soon...yep, they have these little stickers you paste on your licence plate. next year everyone gets to drive around arizona with a little sticker on it telling 'em they live in:



    AZ00



    Finally ADOT got something right! ;-)
  • You should be able to use Windows Update (tm) and download a new mouse pad driver.
    --
  • I know a lot of people who have worked there, amongst them my eldest sister's husband. I think i might know who wrote that.

    They're a pretty slick operation, with a fairly decent sense of humor. Aside from that, they give you the best millikelvin for your buck. They don't make the cheapest temperature sensor, but their stuff is generally more accurate and more reliable than devices costing thousands more.

    A bunch of people left Hart to work for the company I'm currently with, an ambitious startup that will remain anonymous since slashdotters have already gone to town regarding the web page someone spent an hour throwing together in frontpage rather than spending weeks in vi to make something that looks decent. Pity it's a crime to concentrate on what you do best and spend as little as possible on things you're not going to do well anyhow.

  • Not directly related to the article, but to Y2K in general: the GPS ``week 0'' rollover is this upcoming weekend (story [bbc.co.uk]).

  • They're the kinda managment that posts things like This cartoon [hartscientific.com] :-)

  • I cannot believe the level of callousness and disregard to posterity being displayed by the entire technology economy. Their "quick-fix" mentality is going to lead to complete disaster. Just for the sake of saving a few bytes, they are restricting computer systems to 4-digit years.

    I might not be around for it, but I just wanted to be the first on record predicting chaos, doom, disaster, and the pillaging of the frozen-head museum where the heads of Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and John Koskinen will be pulled from their freezers and used for football games when the Year 10,000 rolls around and all the matter teleportation units shut down!
  • I guess that its a good thing that this project [csd.uwo.ca] never got completed then.

    They did get a b-52 to carry a nuclear reactor, but they never made a plane powered by nuclear power.

  • Gawd, at a previous job they wanted me to either test or get a written statement from software companies that their programs were y2k. They had me test programs like Adobe Acrobat and Winzip, and I'm saying what the hell do dates have anything to do with an image of a document opens up and prints? What the hell does date processing have to do with opening up a .zip file???

    And then trying to call the phone numbers listed for some obscure file compression utility that I'm sure some kid wrote in his basement... and getting his grandmother answering the phone, saying

    "What? I ain't eva heard of that there company, that's not HERE!"

    Um ok, so I take it that nobody there knows if this utility (that probably doesn't use dates anyways) is Y2k compliant?

    *click*

    I'm glad I'm not a y2k tester anymore... and I'll be really glad when it's Jan 3 and everyone sees that their alarm clock and household pets still work.
  • Depends on what you mean by "not contain dates". There are many things which don't take -in- dates but which are date-dependent. The GPS rollover is a classic example. Others include embedded computers with clock chips which store the date. It doesn't matter whether the software uses it or not. If the clock chip handles dates, there is a potential problem.

    (Embedded systems are made on the cheap, and are mass-produced, so even systems which don't appear to have any relevence to date may have Y2K bugs, because it was cheaper to produce everything with clocks that stored dates than not.)

  • The program can validate the date by not allowing the person to type in 02. Force a 4 digit number. As far as reading the persons mind goes, what is the app designed for, day care or SSN checks? If the app was written correctly, and the programmer really understood the purpose of the program, then there can be some intelligent guesses in the date validation routines.
  • God, I'll be glad when this Y2K hoopla is over and it'll be safe to go back to using two digits for dates again...

  • Y2K: A Modest Proposal (Score:3)

    by llywrch ( 9023 ) on Monday August 16, 1999 @07:59AM (#1744704) Homepage Journal
    I've been following all of the predictions of disaster, Armageddon & widespread riotting resulting from mistakes made by some lazy programmers with a bit of amusement.

    Let's start by looking at what we depend on that could be affected by the Y2K problem: there's stores, banks, insurance & financial companies, the power companies, phone companies, & water companies.

    Oh yeah -- & your programmable VCR, televisions & thermostats.

    Consider that stores make their money by *selling* things. If the computers in a given store all go telegraph underground, the managers will figure out some way to keep the doors open, keep the deliveries coming, & calculate how much you should pay them. They may even continue to accept checks & plastic.

    Banks & insurance companies are paranoid about losing money, so they routinely print off their records. (So my wife, an ex-Key Bank accountant tells me.) They aren't going to forget you owe them money because of some Y2K bug -- at least not more frequently than they have been.

    As for brokerage houses & other financial institutions, seeing how the S&P 500 has outperformed over 70% of the stock funds out there, losing money due to Y2K is the least of anyone's worries.

    And the IRS has come up with a simple -- yet elegant solution for the Y2K bug: they decided that fiscal 1999 now has 99 months. So they now have a Y2007 problem. (A fun fact I also learned from my wife, the accountant.)

    Power & phone companies all have tested their switches, & assure us that they will work after 1 January. This is likely because most of their equipment does not care what year it is. (For example, I understand that Nortel phone switches only care about a year value around 31 December/ 1 January to help determine a call's start & end time. Otherwise, the year value is irrelevant information.)

    Water companies have it even easier: if their programmable equipment remians unfixed by the magic date, they can send a guy with a wrench to each of their switching sites & crank all of the valves open, & rely on gravity to make the deliveries.

    So it comes down to the fact that programmable appliances like VCRs, thermostats, alarm clocks & televisions might fail. (Which I doubt, seeing how 25% of all VCRs are still blinking 12:00, & otherwise work just fine.) And according to the pundits, people will take to the streets & riot over this.

    If the pundits are correct, then we ought to have an Open Moron Season, where we can shoot anyone rioting on 1 January. Because only a moron would take to the streets to riot because their VCRs et cetera don't work! (``Well, I never got it to work before, but now it doesn't work because of a Y2K bug. Whatever a Y2K is.")

    The only downside I can see to an Open Moron Season is that companies might start laying phone support people off because once we have shot all of the morons, there will be 90% fewer calls.


    ]me? a BOFH?[
    Geoff

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