>I actually never bought into the crisis mentality with the y2k thing. I found it dumb to believe that the world would end, but those 2 bytes that were shaved off were a real problem for many businesses, and that is something that could've been foreseen 5, 10, or 50 years before the "chocolate" hit the fan.

That, and the attitude that all this software will be replaced by y2k time, anyway. Except that it wasn't.

But you're right about the general attitude, and that's probably cost driven as well. "May someone else scratch his head over this - I'll do it on the cheap". In the end it comes down to "the levees are sinking, but the feds have cut the funding - need the money for Iraq - and they've taken away all the heavy machinery - need them for Iraq"... sounds much like what they say back home, "cut ears to patch bu*t".

>Reading what I just wrote and in hindisght, I think it's fair to believe that software development suffered a major setback between 1995 and 2000 because of this diversion of resources. Hmmmm... isn't that when outsourcing started as a trend? I don't know. Someone more familiar with recent history, please jump in.

Y2k patching was the first thing they thought couldn't possibly do with people available around here, so they went West... and found India.