Tony Duell wrote:
>
> >
> > > And if I hear one more person who claims the Millennium is the 31/12/1999
> >
> > > - 01/01/2000 (as opposed to the correct date of 1 year later), I am
> > > liable to get out a very large LART..
> >
> > Whoever said anything about it being the Millennium? It's just the year
>
> Nobody (AFAIK) on this list. But just about everybody else in the UK has
> this mistaken idea. Darn it, even the official millennium countdown clock
> is going to get to 0 a year too early!
>
> > 2000, and I think that's important enough!
>
> What's so interesting about 2000? It's not a power of 2 (:-))...
Damned straight. 2048 -- now _that's_ important. (2x10^3 years after
a derivative myth started -- who cares?). Ten years after we know the
Unix 2038 "bug" has been fixed, that'll mean something
Y2K is _not_ a "bug"! How often does anybody you know sign a contract
(by hand) with a 4-digit year field? Or a cheque? Or a letter? It's
nothing new, I've got letters by ancestors from the 19th century that
were signed with 2-digit year fields. It's just that this time we've
got several generations of public school graduates (that's the U.S.
version of public school -- in the U.K. government schools are called
something else as I recall) that can't count their change if they pay
a dollar for a fifty cent candy bar. Many of these "graduates" hold
public office, many others take polls for them and tally the results.
I'm starting to think the Y2k doom-sayers are too optimistic. Purely
secular myself, by the way -- if the "Rapture" happened any time I'm
alive, the world would be a better place afterward, especially since
I'm not a christian, so I'd have a chance to enjoy myself.
(Forget the argument when the 2nd millennium starts -- yes, there was
no Year Zero, but the majority of voters are impressed by the row of
zeroes in the coming year number -- democratically, we lose. Let them
celebrate their millennium, nick the booze from their parties, then we
can have a proper party a year later. Inviting those who can count.)
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram_at_cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
WARNING: The Attorney General has determined that Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms can be hazardous to your health -- and get away with it.
Received on Tue Jan 05 1999 - 01:56:29 GMT