Read this. Please do. It is a gem of an article. Click here.
ARE YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME?! This is the most insane piece of garbage article I have ever read in my life. Comparing Daylight Savings Time to the Y2K Bug?
Oh, memories of Y2K…where airplanes would fall out of the sky and robots would take over the world. But that’s nothing compared to programming your VCR to tape Grey’s Anatomy and (gasp) IT DOESN’T TAPE! ARGH!!! WHY HAS THE WORLD FORSAKEN ME?!
Here’s my favourite quote of the article:
“If you have bought a device that is not real-time connected to a centralized system, then you have to change it manually for sure,” said Mehadi Sayed, manager for information technology training at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Thank you Mr. Sayed. Tell me, did you gain that amazing insight from a higher education? Good thing he told me. I’ve been wondering why the heck my wristwatch was always an hour behind. Now I realize that it’s not connected to a centralized system! THAT’S NEWS TO ME! What are we living in…the dark ages?! If anything, wristwatch makers should include this in the manual. How was I supposed to know I can manually change it?
On a related note, may I just point out that Germany is way ahead of the times and they have radio-controlled clocks. That’s right, there is a frequency which broadcasts the time and if the time suddenly changes, radio-controlled clocks across the country change accordingly. If anything, this was THE life-defining experience I had in Europe. It wasn’t the Eiffel Tower that got me hooked, it was the technology Germany had. Carrie and Philipp are laughing uncontrolably right now as they love the fact that I was so amazed with this technology.
Let’s read the title of the article for a minute: “Gadget lovers face worst crisis since Y2K”
Well, that’s not true at all. The worst crisis since Y2K is the fact that as soon as you buy a piece of technology, it is obsolete. What we need to have are more items that are programmable through EEPROM (hello Algonquin College education!). Most upgrades to a model of technology are simple ones that can be patched electronically. Take my DVD player for example. The good old RV-32 from Panasonic couldn’t read a lot of burnt discs. Well, I just went out and bought the RV-33, there would be no problem, would there? Of course not! But I did a little research and found a disc I could burn that would update the firmware (read: the software on the inside) which would allow for the discs to be read. Lo and behold, I did the deed and it worked ever since. That’s how technology needs to work people. Granted, this won’t happen on some technology, but I bet it would on most.
Anyhow, when I first clicked on this article I was thinking “Whoa, what the heck is going to happen? Y2K was huge.” Then I realized that I’m going to have to change my clock.
To news reporters everywhere, a word of advice. Stop this crap. I feel like this is something I would have read off The Onion.
‘Nuff Said.
5 replies on “Bigger than the Y2K”
It’s not huge. But it is a problem. For systems and servers used across many businesses, patches will have to be uploaded similar to what was done for Y2K.
I think the article is partly correct, perhaps they could’ve called it a ‘mini-y2k’.
The new DST is definitely larger than y2k here, we have tons of systems that will handle calls based on the time of day
(bank opens at X closes at X,
or people are allowed to call in and vote between 10 and 11, etc…)
And keeps logs
(ie, a call failed at 12:30, and the oracle system also had issues at that time, they must be related to the same problem)
time needs to be synchronized across the network or there are alarms.
All of our systems need to be patched, and some need maintenance windows to reboot.
Most of these systems are usually up for years without rebooting.
The DST project has been going strong for 2 months now. Deadline was actually yesterday, but there are still some systems that had issues that need to be addressed.
Y2k wasn’t really a big deal, there was only one system that could not handle 4 digit year, and it was a very old accounting system, accounting decided they didn’t care if the date was wrong on that system as long as it worked.
Matt, let’s be honest here. What you’re working on isn’t nearly as crucial as what Y2K was SUPPOSED to be. We’re all forgetting that before the strike of midnight on Jan 1/00, people were literally thinking flight systems would break down.
Not that I’m knocking your line of work…I agree with the both of you. Sure, it’s a problem. But I don’t even think it compares with what Y2K was SUPPOSED to be. Sure in the end, it was a joke. Totally agree. But I don’t know…DST isn’t affecting anything earth-shattering that i can see. Yes yes, I know, your line of work is important Matt. I’m not knocking it!
That’s why I prefaced my post with
“The new DST is definitely larger than y2k HERE”
I was not referring to the possibility of planes falling from the sky. etc…
But specifically referring to which had a greater impact in my office.
Did you know you can buy the same clocks here that are sychronized by radio signal?