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1985 Usenet About Y2k
Anonymouse Cow writes "Here's a trip down memory lane (for some of you "oldsters"). Google's newsgroups has the first usenet mention of the Y2K bug... in 1985! Quote: "I have a friend that raised an interesting question that I immediately
tried to prove wrong. He is a programmer and has this notion that when we
reach the year 2000, computers will not accept the new date." Check out the replies!"
Remember, right after January 1? The world didn't explode (it didn't even implode!), so a handful of people in the media started saying the whole thing was a hoax to drive cash into the technology sector.
They have the nerve to say that even thoigh I have a fax machine that says it's 8/2/19102.
I kept looking for the "Reply" button so I could tell them how it turned out.
I guess it wouldn't work in that direction, though.
Those phone numbers are 17 years old. You could prank them if you want, but a white pages would be just as good.
Them: Hello?
You: Someone who worked in that office in 1985 posted to usenet about the Y2K bug!
Them: So?
You: Ummmm...Is your refrigerator running?
Them: *click*
-B
But where is all the off-topic spam? Where are the trolls? Where is the porn? The flamers?
This is clearly some sort of clever mock-up of Usenet and not the real thing. Frankly, given the omissions I've stated above, it's not even a very well-done imitation; I'm shocked the /. boys would be fooled by it.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Shut the fuck up, asshole. If I wanted your opinion, I'd give it to you. Now you either fuck off, or I'm gonna smack you.
cum-bubble!
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Seriously, just LOOK at those posts. Proper grammar, proper punctuation. Hell, one guy even INDENTED the first line of a paragraph! Have you ever SEEN such madness?
When the internet was populated by geeks only (and smart ones at that).
Looking back at it maybe we should have killed it while it was young.
War is necrophilia.
And not a single link to goatse.cx or unrelated posts about the wonders of (the 4 year old at that time) Natalie Portman. Amazing.
I'm betting Junis makes the cut. That thing always makes me laugh.
I kept looking for the "Reply" button so I could tell them how it turned out.
I guess it wouldn't work in that direction, though.
Of course not. Their news reader app cannot handle the four digit year....
- - - - - - - - - - -
I am a programmer. I am paid to produce syntax not grammar. Deal with it.
Yeah, but that just pushes the problem off, doesn't it? Instead of worrying about 2038, we would then have to worry about 584554531360! What are we going to do 584 billion years from now when 64-bit time runs out?
Instead of following hare-brained schemes like this, I think we should look seriously at implementing RFC 2550.
That is the highest signal to noise ratio I've ever seen on USENET - and it was crossposted to net.flame!
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits