This thread will be dedicated to failed or just plain STUPID predictions made by the doom crowd.

I'll start with an already failed post:

And when the satelites get wiped out by the meteor shower(s) this fall, we'll get a preview of how inter-reliant things are. -- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 21, 1998.

-- THE Exposer (shining@light.onfrauds), December 27, 1999

Answers

The polly's will not die instantly in 15 days. They will slowly lose weight as they scrounge for food, but eat not enough to sustain life. After 90 days of slowly wasting away, they will get so weak, that they can no longer scrounge for food and then they slowly die. We have warned them, but they would not listen. So they will have to accept the consequenses for their stupidity. -- bbb (bbb@bbb.com), December 12, 1999.

-- THE Exposer (shining@light.onfrauds), December 27, 1999.

I know the above idiot is an anonymous doomidiot, but THEY know who they are....and sometimes a slap in the face will wake people up

-- THE Exposer (shining@light.onfrauds), December 27, 1999.

Please if someone can explain about how computers read numbers.I want to renew my vowels Sept 11,1999 but someone was telling me that they would not advise me to plan any thing around that date. Something about computers reading the number 9 and closing down operations. So is this y2k thing going to show it's ugly head before Jan 1,2000. I have already secured a place for our wedding and have bought a lot of things to make that day special. Sign I hope Im not wasting time and money????

-- Lyn Truss (StormieLyn@webtv.com), October 20, 1998

Answers

Want to renew your vowels?

I'll sell you an "e" for a hundred bucks and for an extra fifty, throw in an "a". If the wedding leaves you a little short at the moment, I'll take an "I.O.U."!

On a more serious note, the big whammy will likely hit 01/01/2000 so I wouldn't worry too much about 9/9/1999. Certainly it's a concern however life has to go on. It seems that if you have someone special enough in your life to renew your vows with, then you are at least going into the new millennium in better shape than many people.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), October 20, 1998.

---

Use of near 2000 dates as special "flags" in old programs (e.g., 9/9/99) is another facet of the Y2K problem, apparently being one that applies only to old mainframe software. Actually, if you want to be really on the safe side re your wedding day, move it up before the GPS rollover occurs on 8/22/1999. Or, for that matter, before Japan, Canada and New York State go to fiscal year 2000 on 4/1/1999. Of course, there is the "Jo Anne effect" that will affect financial software systems as early as 1/1/999, when checks are made to determine the current fiscal year. Shoot, maybe you should get married this year. (And ask for wedding gifts that are very practical....)

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), October 20, 1998.

---

09/09/99 is unlikely to be a significant date. The problem arises because some programmers would use all 9's in a give data field to signify some special operation, usually end of file. A common date in a data field might have 6 positions(MMDDYY). SO filling it with all nines would yield 999999. Sept 9, 1999 would equal 090999 and not pose a problem. The caveat is that the programmer looks at the entire date and not just the YY part (bad programming but its undoubtedly out there in some small degree!)

-- R. D..Herring (drherr@erols.com), October 20, 1998.

---

And now a drum roll please....anyone recognize one of the head thought police in the following post?

Not such a small degree, dude. Why set up a full set of redefines when you just ask "Is YY=99"

I know a LOT of lazy COBOL programmers who did it that way

and a lot of them asked "Is @@@@@-$$$$$-DATE = 999999"

Hopefully, they got it right in the redefines for the date.

cr

-- Chuck a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 21, 1998.

HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

-- From the "Classics" (lol@the.idiots.of.doom!), December 27, 1999.

Here is one that responds to a post on the DOW (it was at 10,100 at the time. NASDAQ was around 2,600!),

Yo Youknow,

If you're going to be a smartass prick, at least compose an intelligible sentence. Guide us, oh great one with your infinite wisdom. Go ahead and put ALL your money into these stocks, they never will go down again. The market will never crash. You will be able to get rich beyond your wildest dreams! No one will ever have to work again, they can just sit at home and day trade!

Moron.

I'll keep this one in the old temporary file and trot it out in December. We'll see if you're so smart then.

-- ariZONEa (debunk@this.punk), October 20, 1999.

I hope you are reading this ariZONEa! smooches, ya loony!

Doomers LOSE again!

-- laughing (starting@my.2000.party.early!), December 30, 1999.

"Yes, healthcare as we know it is TOAST come 2000. Another system will build up from scratch to replace it. But you don't want to need care during that long interim ... xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx -- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), May 28, 1999."

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.idiots), January 11, 2000.

"After thinking it over, and in view of the number and severity of the failures and breakdowns that are being reported, I am changing my opinion of the impact of rollover. At first, I was the usual alarmist, convinced that rollover was going to take it all out. Then I researched for a while, and became almost as convinced that the actual rollover wouldn't be the time to fear, but to watch for cascading failures to pull systems down as the year progressed, especially around February 29. Now, because I'm finding out so much more about the actual conditions that prevail and getting a more truthful look at y2k related failures, I have to say that my opinion is shifting back to the original "rollover-catastrophe" position I held earlier. I still predict at least an 8, and all the subsequent failures and accumulating breakdowns will still occur, as we all expect. But now, I'm sure that rollover is going to be much more spectacular than I had earlier believed. And the first thought that came to my mind was, "Make sure you have ALL YOUR WATER before December 31!"

-- Liz Pavek (lizpavek@hotmail.com), November 24, 1999

Answers

Liz, we too are expecting fireworks on New Year's.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 24, 1999. "

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.meme), January 11, 2000.

"Now, just add the element of all the embedded chips that will fail ON TOP of this on or about Jan 1, 2000, and you get a triple whammy. Of course, it's ALL interconnected and interdependent (those are the words that pollies just LOVE to hear, you know), and as per Infomagic....

Got web glue?

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 24, 1999."

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.meme.but.he.ungot.it.later), January 11, 2000.

"Lars,

I've had "several" gut feelings in the past 33 years and they've ALL been right. Here's a few: Space Schuttle Challenger Forboding feeling; something bad would happen to my dad; ( He had a heart attack ) A terrible feeling my number "could" be up when I got on board a DC-10 plane back in 1979. We blew an engine on takeoff. We were fortunate we didn't get airborn like the one in Chicago which was 100 feet off the ground when it's engine blew and it crashed upside down. No survivors.

This latest "feeling" or perception or gift of insight from the Lord is that we will have MARSHALL LAW.

Enjoy what we have been given to all of us. Maybe this Thanksgiving I and all of us can see how much we have been blessed by the Lord's grace and mercies.

Job, who was a wealthy man, when he heard the "bad news" that he lost his children and material possessions said,

"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

-- eyes wide open (djwolf@lanset.com), November 24, 1999. "

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.misguided), January 11, 2000.

"What's ironic is they don't realize that very soon, the people won't need us doomers to prod them into action. Strange and mysterious failures will motivate them quite handily at that point.

I think also pollies need to place blame on us as they are basically spineless wimps who cower in fear at the idea of laying blame at the .gov or IT industry's feet.

Long-term, but not short-term, obviously, they're the real survivalists. But they're banking on the environment/fishtank they enjoy today to remain essentially unchanged (probably primarily due to a lack of imagination).......... where as we doomers don't.

I could go on for days as I made polly trolls my private thesis for my Y2K master's degree, but why, anymore........... the pollies are insignificant, as of about a month ago.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), December 10, 1999. "

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.extremist), January 11, 2000.

"Beeks shows up at TB2K! Beware, folks.

Spectacular persistent fireworks, i.e. explosive failures worldwide beginning New Year's Evil, and lasting at least 3 months, with accumulative economic depression lasting years.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 11, 1999."

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.extremists), January 11, 2000.

"Well, well.

If it isn't the CSY2K resident troll, BKS. Glad to see you stop by for some abuse here for a change.

Since you ask, IMHO, trouble will be apparent FAR before January 1st. The media will grab the story and really run with it the last few weeks of December. The trouble will not be with systems, though, it will be with people; people who have not prepared or who have ignored the possbility of real problems all this time. Also, people that will take advantage of a perceived vulnerability in our electronic society and seize the opportunity for cyber- eco- and other types of terrorism on or slightly before the magic date. IOW, a bell curve of effects, centered on Jan 1st.

Although I am well aware that you will cut and save our replies for possible smirking in the future, I thought I would offer my opinion. We'll compare notes January 2nd.

BTW, here's another one: Dow at 7000 well before December, Gold at $500 per oz.

See ya

-- ariZONEa (CSY2K@not.here), October 11, 1999. "

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.idiot.memes), January 11, 2000.

"My "current analysis" is that there will be the Big Bang before the first and the rest of the time just keeps getting worse.

-- Paula (Chowbabe@pacbell.net), October 11, 1999. "

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.idiot.memes), January 11, 2000.

"Bradley,

Okay, fair question. Here is my answer and what it is based on. (A hint before I go further, in case you don't want to read this, in my humble opinion, infomagic is an incurable optimist).

A meltdown, beginning at midnight on Dec. 31, 1999 and becoming progressively worse, (to paraphrase the reactor scenario someone used above, we have no water in the reactor, and instead of dropping the control rods, we add more nuclear fuel).

I base this on the following: 1 I work for a company that I believe was one of the first to understand the potential impact of Y2K. The Y2k project there was started in late 1994.

........snip.....

My guess is that we are looking at an unmitigated disaster. When, note that I don't say if, remember, we have gone through 3 or 4 rounds of testing on this stuff, and they FAILED, so when things go wrong, I have absolutely no idea what it is that I am supposed to do about it. When I put this question to management, I got a blank stare in the finest tradition of the 'pointy-haired boss', and was told, "Oh, you'll think of something." (A direct quote.) (Also totally unfounded optimism.)

All I can say is that if there is anyone out there who can shed a ray of light on this situation, I've been looking for it for a couple of years now and haven't found it.

-- just another (another@engineer.com), October 11, 1999. "

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.idiot.memes), January 11, 2000.

"I think it's going to be both.

1) One area where I agree with Gartner, the embedded problem will hit on the 1st.

2) My opinion, the virus problem, while not really Y2K, will hit PCs big time on the 1st.

3) Many "business system" problems, both mainframe and PC, will hit on the 1st.

4) Many other problems will not be obvious on the 1st. They will show up at month-end, or quarter-end.

Again, my opinion, the 1st will be a "big day" but problems will continue to accumulate for many months.

Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), October 12, 1999. "

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.idiot.memes), January 11, 2000.

"There is no doubt about it. Jan 1, 2000 is and always has been the "BIG ENCHALADA".. Failures will outstrip the availability of IT guys to deal with the problems on Jan 03, and will show up in the media taking bigger precedence with each week. Best of Luck

-- Slammer

-- Slammer (billslammer@yahoo.com), October 12, 1999. "

-- The Exposer (exposing@the.idiot.memes), January 11, 2000.

"Healthcare is the nation's single largest industry ..."

completely automated ...

Yep, exactly what we've been telling y'all ...

From the trenches, this is the truth:

The CULL SCYTHE will swing.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 22, 1999.

-- THE Exposer (exposing@the.clueless), May 03, 2000.

Thanks Brian! Folks, get whatever supplies you can and get ready. The stuff will hit the fan in 100 days. There's no doubt about it now. It's a certainty.

-- (its@coming.soon), September 22, 1999.

-- THE Exposer (exposing@the.clueless), May 03, 2000.

Here they would freeze. They would be dead in a few hours. Save your ammo. Move north.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), June 23, 1999.

-- THE Exposer (exposing@the.clueless), May 03, 2000.

Well, I see this thread is active again. Since were at it, here is one from Lisa B:

Mild-mannered myoptician gives us:

"While the industry is making the world "safe" for the new millennium, one other thing is becoming clear: IT has finally not only brought a project in on time, but in many cases has finished ahead of time."

You may want to print this out and tape it to your refrigerator or something. It appears that you may need some help deciphering what all the fuss is circa March, 2000.

-- Lisa (lisa@work.now), June 02, 1999.

Pretty funny!

-- Super Polly (FU_Q_Y2kfreaks@hotmail.com), May 03, 2000.