Dr. Lucky Tran 
The “problem” with vaccines? They so effective at preventing deaths that they create generations of people that question whether disease was a problem in the first place because they have never experienced the horrors of a world without vaccines.
Jef Poskanzer@luckytran Same brainfart happened with Y2K - afterwards lots of idiots were saying it was no big deal. It was no big deal because lots of smart people worked hard for years to fix it. This happens over and over.
Leeloo@jef @luckytran
It was also "not a big deal" because it was way exaggerated. Over here, we had politicians insisting that basically anything that contained as much as a resistor would need to be tested, certified or replaced.
How do you test something ahead of time which doesn't have a clock you can set forward?
DamonHD@leeloo @jef @luckytran by looking at anything that does implicit or explicit date calcs such as your computer diary or the trading system that I helped looked after with trades up to 30Y duration. Writing specific tests of date logic does not involve messing with the system clock. Nor does making sure that data stores can and do get widened to 4 digit years, etc, etc. Please don't be dismissive of work that you did not see or do.
@DamonHD @jef @luckytran
Clearly you didn't read what I wrote.
I worked in a company that did a lot of work to expand their Cobol-based financial system from 6 to 8 digits. The problem was real, but it was not at all the kind of panic that some politicians tried to get us to believe.
Even the old black and white TV I used when I visited my parents survived.
@leeloo @jef @luckytran there are always grifters and snake oil sellers that will ride any wave to make unwarranted cash, but the problem was very real, and we had to start well ahead of many others at my financial client's trading back office etc with multi-year trades generating cash flows many times a year. And in 2023 my new uni issued me an acceptance letter with an end date of 1931, so it's still messing things up.
Confused Middle Aged Dad@leeloo @jef @luckytran is this because people, particularly politician types, have a tendency to either overreact or under react. So, those who knew something needed to be done, and wanted teams and budgets to do so, hyped it up to try and get any form of traction and reaction from key decision makers, at which point the dial moved from lack of action to panic.
@confusedMiddleAgedDad @jef @luckytran
I agree. But that still contributed a lot to people outside of IT thinking it was a big nothing.
Because most of the panic was a big nothing. And that panic over nothing took the attention away from the very real problem.