so, y2k has come and gone, and without so much as a single death or injury attributed to the date rollover. as i expected.
big whoop.
so, what was with the downtime the last couple of days? well, the kind and generous folks that host this machine and its bandwidth transitioned to a new upstream provider, and hence to a new set of IP numbers. there were some glitches in the transition, but all’s well now. the downtime and new year’s day were coincidental at best.
no, the power did not go out. no, the water did not stop running. no, the police were not crippled by a blackout of 911 service. and no, the ASPCA did not release packs of wild dogs onto the streets at midnight last friday.
and what of the billions of dollars spent here and elsewhere to combat the aging computer and electronic infrastructure, and ready the world for the coming of the dreaded why too kay?
if nothing else, it can be said that the billions well spent (and poured into industry and new, if temporary, jobs) prevented disasters that would surely have caused wasted billions in damage. more than anything, it is heartening to know that the systems of the U.S. government, as well as the infrastructures of the industrialized world, are now as up to date as can be (or as up to date as throwing a few hundred billion dollars at them can make them).
there were a few small glitches, to be sure. the biggest of these is the one i am most surprised nobody noticed beforehand: javascript! the date handling in javascript – not related by any stretch of the imagination to the java programming language – is causing all kinds of chuckalicious fun at websites all over. it’s either 1900, 2900, 19100, or, best of all, 39100 at sites all over the place.
and the lasting legacy of the not-quite-the-millenium but-we’ll-call-it-that-for-kicks bug? marauding hordes of newly unemployed programmers, debuggers, testers, and geeks of all nature. their pockets full of pensions and severence checks, on top of heavily inflated salaries, they will flood the investment market working toward retirement as soon as they can. what will become of these suddenly poor, geeky souls on february 29 when the financial markets finally do crash and leave them penniless?
who knows. but i’ll tell you for certain, the wild dogs will have plenty to chew on come march.
anyhow, i’ll go back to my bunker now – as i’ve got three months of canned food and bottled water to work on. pass the bullets.