Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report V2, # 29
"July 14, 1998 - 535 days to go." WRP85
(c) 1997, 1998 Cory Hamasaki - I grant permission to distribute and
reproduce this newsletter as long as this entire document is reproduced in
its entirety. You may optionally quote an individual article but you should
include this header down to the tearline. I do not grant permission to a
commercial publisher to reprint this in print media.
As seen in
USENET:comp.software.year-2000
http://www.elmbronze.demon.co.uk/year2000/
http://www.kiyoinc.com/HHResCo.html
Don't forget, the Y2K chat-line: http://www.ntplx.net/~rgearity
any evening, 8-10PM EST.
--------------------tearline -----------------------------
Please fax or email copies of this to your geek pals, especially those
idiots who keep sending you lightbulb, blonde, or Bill Gates jokes,
and urban legends like the Arizona rocket car story.
If you have a Y2K webpage, feel free to host the Weather Reports.
Did you miss Geek Out?
Project Dumbass needs you.
In this issue:
1. Washington Post Jobs.
2. Live C Code.
3. Medical Embeddeds OK
4. Obituary
5. CCCC
---- Washingmachinepost still raking it in.----------
Sunday, July 12th, the Post ran yet another Mega High Tech job
tabloid, about 40 full pages of frantic calls for all kinds of geeks,
codewarriors, hackers, lan-boys, and PeeCeeWeeNees. If you can slam a
CD into a cupholder and click your way to glory, someone wants to pay
you the bucks. I'm getting reports of clueless nubies, wet behind the
ears baby-MIS types demanding and getting over $50K/year.
You, with your good looks, spring in your step, and detailed knowledge
of IEWL and IKJEFT01, should get twice that. Check out the Post's job
ads at http://www.washingtonpost.com
---- Live C Code - Shocking! --------------------
Yes, this S/390 mainframer codes in C/C++.
Here's the source to an .exe that sits on my OS/2 desktop and counts
down the days and hours until the world crashes, I've stripped out the
PM stuff. What's left is a DOS CPP program. I coded it using IBM
CSet++ 2.1 for OS/2 Warp but most C compilers should handle this just
fine.
hhrdate.hpp -------------------------------
/* hhdate external areas */
EXT char hhdate[16]; /* days til midnight Dec 31, 1999 */
EXT char hhhours[16]; /* hours til midnight Dec 31, 1999 */
#define OPEN 1
#define CLOSED 5
void getclock();
hhclock.cpp -------------------------------
/* hhrdate - GNU'ed freeware program (c) 1998 HHResearch Co. */
#include <stdio.h>
#define EXT extern
#include "hhdate.hpp"
#include "time.h"
#include "string.h"
#include "stdlib.h"
double secs;
double days;
double hours;
time_t now;
time_t then;
tm cent;
int htime; /* brief time */
void getclock(){ /* date function */
long idays;
long ihours;
time( &now);
cent. tm_sec = 59;
cent. tm_min = 59;
cent. tm_hour = 23;
cent. tm_mday = 31;
cent. tm_mon = 11;
cent. tm_year = 99;
cent. tm_wday = 5;
cent. tm_yday =364;
cent. tm_isdst = 0;
then = mktime( ¢ );
secs = difftime( then, now);
hours = secs/ (60*60);
ihours = hours;
htime = (int) secs;
srand( htime ); /* don't ask what this is for */
/* another routine puts rude messages on the desktop */
days = hours/24;
idays = days;
sprintf(hhdate, "%d", idays); /* for OS/2 */
sprintf(hhhours, "%d", ihours); /* for OS/2 */
/* printf("%d", idays); for DOS */
/* printf("%d", ihours); for DOS */
}
Any questions?
---- Medical Embeddeds OK, No Problems Here -------
<after the CBN report, I received this email from an associate out
west, I've anonymized the report>
I taped the episode and gave both programs to my daughter, who was
over last night. She finds the topic very exciting and had bought a new
book on Y2K. Can't remember who the author was, however. I gave her
the taped two episodes to watch.
My daughter ================== is a sonographer. She told me
about her talk this week with the Siemans technician who came to do
maintenance on one of their older machines -- 7 years old. She asked
him if the machine was Y2K compliant. He didn't know what she was
talking about and, she said, her fellow sonographers were looking at her
strangely. "Will the machine work in the year 2000?" she said. He
didn't know; he figured the smart guys back at headquarters were taking
care of any problem. But he said he would check it out. So he set the
machine to the usual few minutes before midnight and they tried it out
when the time clicked over. She did a couple scans and discovered that
the basic scanning mechanism worked OK. But the add-on programs that
depended on the date did not work. Things like entering the date of a
woman's last period to determine the probable birth date of the child
(that's mostly what they use ultrasound for at her company). The
programs ran and didn't crash but the answers were wrong. So the guy
said something like OK that checks out OK. No problems here.
The old machine cost about $20K. The company is getting a new, very
fancy machine that will cost about $120K. Will it work in the year
2000? She doesn't know if she wants to ask anyone to check. But the
company passed up on the really fancy machine which costs over $200K. I
would imagine that the new machines are more closely tied to the date
than the old basic machine.
<Got it, hypesters! No problems with embedded medical devices, "the
programs ran and didn't crash" No problems... oopsie "but the answers
were wrong" Oh well, at least it didn't crash.>
<and that "smart guys back at headquarters were taking care of any
problem." sounds like "Professionals are working on it.">
---------- He died of a Broken Heart ------------
Death Notice - Washington Post Sunday, July 12, 1998 Page B7
Smith, Billy Truman
On July 9, 1998 of Gambrills, MD, beloved father of Willian and Jesse
Smith; dear brother of Jeral Smith. Also survived by two grandchildren.
Friends may call on Wednesday, July 22, 1998 from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 pm,
at the HARDESTY Funeral Home, P.A. 851 Annapolis Road. Gambrills, MD,
Funeral Services will be held on Thursday, July 23, 1998 at 9 am in the
Fort Myer Chapel, Interment Arlington National Cemetary
------------
Interoffice memorandum XXXXXXX Information Technology Group
To: Information Systems Operation Staff
From: Personnel
Subj: B.T. Smith
Date: July 10, 1998
I am very sorry to let you know that one of our most valued, long-term
colleagues, Mr. B.T.Smith, passed away at approximately 6:30 pm last
night. He was hospitalized when he died.
B.T. started at XXXXXXX in 1984 and was the Team Leader for the
software design and development of message identification, handling, and
profiling software for the Message Resolution Process (MRP) subsystems.
<some details omitted>
----------
Here're the real facts. The programmer who told me about this said, "he
died of a broken heart... they didn't know what to do with him." B.T.
was a proficient PL/I, C/C++, and S/390 assembly language programmer.
He designed and coded large portions of a billion dollar application
system. A system that is NOT Y2K compliant and is the mission critical
application for two multi-national corporations. A system that is NOT
being Y2K'ized because a replacement is due... any day now.
The system was built in the 1980's. The replacement was supposed to go
production two years ago.
B.T. had specific knowledge that only a handful of people in the world
had. His death will make code remediation much, much harder.
I'll add B.T. to the DC Y2K obituaries the next time I update the
webpage. Please, next Thursday morning lets observe a moment of quiet
for B.T., a real programmer who will miss the biggest geek party ever.
I'll be at Arlington National Cemetary to say goodbye to B.T. but if
you can't make it, just sit quietly in your cube for a minute.
------------ CCCC ------------------
Why 500 days is important... At some point, there will not be enough
time to put contingencies and bypasses into place. The problem with
being efficient is that you don't have a margin for error. Computers
have made us very efficient. In 535 days, this will not be true and all
the wishing, cute turns of phrase, powerpoint slides, and "By Gawd, I'm
in Charge and We Will make it" declarations in a "command voice" won't
stop the clock or start the computers. For you bozo's who are used to
'commanding' results... I have a hint for you, the geeks have been
laughing at you all along.
When the systems fail, you will not be able to fix them. Fix on failure
is a ride on the death train.
I'm not in a panic, we'll see gradually increasing system failures from
now on. We'll have a nest of problems starting this December, more in
January, and the rates should be quite nice by February or March 1999.
Shocking True Rumor - A large, well known services provider is quietly
recruiting talent for post Y2K fix-on-failure work. This provider has
come to the conclusion that they are wasting their time trying to sell
their services to organizations that are still in denial and then
proceed to nickel and dime them on rates.
Rather than waste their time now, this provider is locking down the
talent pool and when the failures begin, intends to charge a fair market
value for their services... no negotiations needed.
What's fair market value? How much money did you say you had.
This rumor comes from the New York area. If your company isn't making
the last of your Y2K fixes right now, sliding code through your Time
Machine, plan to spend a significant amount per hour. The rumor didn't
include rate projections but this services provider currently charges
over $350/hour.
Don't say I didn't warn you. Remember, I'm the clueless one who told
you to start in 1997 when you could get COBOL programmers for
$45,000/year and assembler experts for $60,000/year... all you wanted.
Remember $30-35/hour 1099 for a COBOL contractor, $45-50/hour for
assembler? I've seen contract work going at over $100/hour.
cory hamasaki 535 days.