>Anyone who has spent any time on News:Comp.Software.Year2000 or any of the Y2K watchdog sites knows
>that there are many IT professionals who believe that the new millenium will mark the end of the world as we know it.
>About 2 years ago, I might have agreed. My personal viewpoint now is that we will have problems, yes, but the majority
>of the problem will have been identified and fixed by the time the rollover happens, and past a moderate stock-market crash
>and a few well-known companies declring bankruptcy,things will continue on as before and we will all still have houses
>and food.
>
>Cory Hamasaki, the editor of the Year 2000 watchdog newsletter, feels differently. Regular columns in the newsletter
>(which is aimed at IT professionals; Cory himself is head of a company that specializes in y2K fixes) preach that everybody
>should be stocking up on food and water, building a shelter in the wilderness and stockpiling guns and ammunition. I am not joking!!!
>The most recent letter detailed how to store grain in Nitrogen filled pickle buckets, and where to buy canning equipment and
>other survival goods. It is kind of scary listening to programmers sounding like militia men and Branch Davidians.
>
>The 4 companies that I am intimately familiar with have all hired y2K consultants to pinpoint all potential problems,
>including those in off-the-shelf software, custom software, hardware, and embedded systems (telephone, elevator, security etc.),
>and all of these problems have been addressed. we have seen the advent of near-magical fixes like Christof Lange's solution.
>COBOL programmers now have similarly magical tools available to them, and I suspect most other major tools/languages do (or soon will)
>as well.
>
>I am curious- as a programmer, what is your take on the severity of the problem? Are the companies you work for taking care of things? Are
>you going to convert all of your paper worth to valuable metals and go hide out in your cabin in the mountains with 2 years worth of food and fuel?
>
>Even though we are all Fox programmers, I feel we are nonetheless a fairly representative group of minds from around the IT world, each of
>whom has their own personal perspective.

We're going to see some problems when the Year 2000 arrives but I'm not overly concerned with those as people are going to be aware of the potential for these problems occurring. With all the Y2K consultants the problems will probably be fixed quickly.

What concerns me is the number of mainframe systems that are being "fixed" by adding logic to interpret the 2 digit year. I'm sorry to say my company is one of them. Their original Y2K standards called for fixing the problem the right way (4 digit years). They soon backed down and allowed 50/50 rollover logic to be applied to the year.

Who's going to remember to fix those systems again in 30, 40, or 50 years when the "fix" fails. They are trading one big bomb with a known detonation date for a bunch of smaller ones that will blow randomly over the next century. And of course everyone that knows about the Y2K "fix" will be long gone by then.

I wouldn't worry about your survivalist supplies now, but be ready in 2029.