Story of my life, eh wot?
The main problem is all of our programs are cruft-a-riffic, with all the modularity of a solid brick of lead. Everything is custom, most everything is wrong, and it was clearly mostly written by consultants. Why, the fixes I've put in merely in a month or so fixed problems that were probably there for years. But then, I'm a genius. Etc, etc.
Yesterday was also Comics Day, where I bought the typical big pile of comics, plus "GURPS Y2K" simply because it was amusing. The people at the comics shops seem to have figured out that if they put new GURPS books where I'll see them on the way up to the counter, I'll invariably buy them. Bastards, the lot of 'em.
GURPS Y2K is, as most GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System, for the two of you who don't already know what the acronym means) books are, fairly good. It's certainly well-researched at the time of publication. Even though it's for coming up with apocalyptic scenarios (not necessarily Y2K specific, either - the book *is* Y2K compliant!), it does point out that the scenarios which have things like "all electronics everywhere go 'pif'" or even "most everything just stops working" are clearly complete crap. No, if civilization ends due to Y2K, it'll be from one of three things.
1) Subtle cascade failures. Dozens of teeny leetle subtle problems adding up, in grand, comic Murphy's Law manner, to lay low our modern, technological society. A problem two or three steps up a supply chain causes the distribution network to fail, and nobody can figure out why. It's like chasing a bug imbedded deep within the twisting cruft of code; by the time you've finally found it, it may be too late. Unless it's an isolated problem, in which case people can cheerfully work around it. But, hey, there couldn't possibly be more failures than there are people to work on them, right?
2) Idiots. Quite possibly the most serious problem with Y2K is the awesome, staggering power of human stupidity. Many aspects of civilization are, at best, consensual hallucinations. If people believe that law and order have failed, then in a lot of places, this is precisely what will happen. If people believe that there'll be a gas shortage, then the resulting run on the pumps will cause precisely that. If they believe there's going to be a food shortage and start food riots that destroy the distribution network, then, well, sucks to be them. Normally, of course, help comes ambling in from the places that weren't hit by the problem. Which is fine. Unless people's vast stupidity causes them to spread the problem everywhere.
3) The Illuminati. What fearsome plans to the Illuminated Ones have in store for us? And just what ARE the Gnomes of Zurich up to, in their mountain hideaways?
Anyway, it should be amusing. If nothing else, we'll have ample time to watch what happens to the rest of the world before the Bewitching Hour rolls around here. Heck, the hijinks in Russia alone should make for fascinating viewing. It's not like there'll be a problem around here; this IS Florida, after all. Most of us are already stocked up on food and water in case of hurricanes anyway. It's all those Canadian snow-bird tourists that I'm concerned about... this could be their chance to finally seize some land that's not cold all the time... I'll be watchin' 'em. The Canadian Illuminati won't take Florida without a fight!
Also, this year is the end of the millenium. Why? Because regardless of the technical definition, the end of the millenium is when the majority of us damn well say it is.
Lastly, this week's comic book quote comes from Gold Digger V.2 #6 ("Ancient wisdom say... little Trash-Talking-Bastard who backs friend in fight... writes checks his friend's butt will bounce *high* from.")
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