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By: Da Sissop
Date: 10/30/99 9:04:49 PM
# Replies: 41
We are a mere 62 days from the Year 2000. Admittedly, this is only significant because we happen to happen to conform to a base-10 number system, but the simple fact of the matter is, in just 62 days it's going to feel *really weird* to write a check.
And we're probably the first humans on the planet to have to deal with this sort of weirdness. Sure, in the year 999, there may have been some doomsayers who feared the world might end "just because," but they weren't reliant upon technology that might crap out because they only stored the year in 3 digits...
The folks alive in 1 BC probably had a REALLY scary new year. Man if I knew the next year was going to be ZERO, I'd be scared shitless. But they obviously survived whatever mayhem may have ensued. Perhaps we should look to them as an example. I mean, with our Y2K problem, we only have to convert 2-digit years to 4 digits. THEY had to convert from decrementing to incrementing, fer Christ's sake.
Response #1
By: Ralf
Date: 10/31/99 9:03:43 AM
Hey! Everyone can relax. In hexidecimal, next year is 7D0!
Response #2
By: Da Sissop
Date: 10/31/99 9:40:39 AM
Oh no, it's gonna be the 7D's again?
Response #3
By: rorschach
Date: 10/31/99 10:09:52 AM
which kinda makes me wonder why as a temporary fix that hex, or a variation on hex notation (what year is ZZ? dunno, i'll have to figure it out) isn't used so that the databases don't have to be rebuilt.....
By the way, there WAS no year zero, hense, the mellinium doesn't start until 2001
Even Scientific American while noting that mathematically this was NOT the end of the mellineum, said that they will call it that anyway becuse everyone ELSE is calling it that....WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? PUBLIC OPINION CAN ALTER A MATHEMATICALLY PROVABLE FACT?
Response #4
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 10/31/99 6:42:14 PM
The math is scarier than the zeros.
Response #5
By: Da Sissop
Date: 10/31/99 7:15:46 PM
Well I say the millennium starts whenever we *want* it to start. It's not *our* fault there wasn't a year zero. There *shoulda* been.
Response #6
By: Ralf
Date: 11/1/99 7:54:47 AM
Advertisers are splitting the difference: the "millenium" will last from 1-1-2000 thru 1-1-2001. It has been decreed.
Response #7
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 11/2/99 1:28:57 PM
I keep seeing the phrase 'waiting for the millenium,' and it makes me think of 'waiting for godot.'
"Has the millenium arrived yet?"
"No."
Response #8
By: Ralf
Date: 11/3/99 4:51:36 AM
WAITING FOR BUTT-HEAD, AN ACT IN THREE AGONIZING PARTS
PART I
[Stage is bare, except for a single decrepit sofa.]
Beavis: [emerges stage right, sits on sofa] Butt-Head? Is that you? Cuz, I'm like, you know... when're you gonna like...? This channel SUCKS! Change it! Change it!!
Response #9
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 11/3/99 11:38:59 PM
I'm blaming the millennia-madness on El Nino.
Response #10
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 11/4/99 4:02:47 AM
I'm blaming millenial madness on the fact that by and large, PEOPLE ARE STUPID.
Response #11
By: Ralf
Date: 11/4/99 7:25:11 AM
Maybe the really stupid ones will be 'raptured' and leave us in peace.
Response #12
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 11/5/99 12:12:49 AM
I'm convinced that there are enough deranged poeple convinced that the end of the world is coming that even if it doesn't make it here on time they're perfectly ok with speeding it up a bit just to make the time table.
Response #13
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 11/5/99 2:33:10 AM
What about the people who believe that the people who believe something bad will happen will make it happen and thus those people will make it happen that there are people who believe something bad will happen and will make it happen as a self-fullfilling prophecy prophecy?
Response #14
By: Ralf
Date: 11/5/99 6:31:16 AM
You mean me? That's what I think. If we don't quit ENVISIONING hell on earth, sure enough...
Response #15
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 11/7/99 10:31:51 AM
Hmmm, Homer..hadn't thought of that. Well, to protect myself from the self-fulfilling prophecy prophecy..for new years I'm going to sew 144 pound puppies onto a sheet, cover myself in it, sit in a corner, rock back and forth and hum 'We are the world' until it's all over.
Response #16
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 11/8/99 1:26:43 AM
Ya know, I went to a coffeehouse a few months ago where they were displaying paintings and sculpture by a local artist. The theme of these works had to do with stuffed animals. One sculpture was a 5'x5' frame, like for a canvas, only instead of canvas it had all manner of stuffed animals which had been opened up, unstuffed, and sewn together. I wanted to buy it, but I never called the artist about it.
The other piece I was interested in was a pedestal made of cement, with the occassional paw or tail or leg or head of a stuffed animal poking out at odd intervals. Think Atlantic City mob toy shop.
How this relates to Y2k is not completely understood by anyone, but they'll certainly try to draw a line.
Response #17
By: Ralf
Date: 11/8/99 7:09:44 AM
Are YOUR Beanie Babies Y2K compliant? Be sure and bring them by for a free evaluation, and an opportunity to upgrade to Y2K compliant Beanie Babies!
Response #18
By: Roxanne
Date: 11/10/99 3:33:21 PM
So is WebNuns the "Official Site of the Millennium"?
Response #19
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 11/10/99 5:39:27 PM
No, that's www.officialsiteofthemillenium.com.
Hmm. I wonder if that's taken.
Response #20
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 11/10/99 10:41:50 PM
Nope.
Response #21
By: Ralf
Date: 11/11/99 5:21:15 AM
It'll all be a smoking ruin come 1/1/00 anyway.
Response #22
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 11/18/99 12:44:08 AM
Homer:
Probably not...I know www.suckingchestwound.com isn't...I checked.
Response #23
By: Ralf
Date: 11/18/99 8:25:13 AM
Are we still 62 days away?
Response #24
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 11/19/99 6:34:56 PM
{looking around confused}
Err...from what? Laundry day?
Response #25
By: Ralf
Date: 11/20/99 9:26:15 AM
The End Of The World As We Know It.
Response #26
By: Roxanne
Date: 11/20/99 11:39:12 PM
Yep, it's still 62 days away. Oh wait, shit! My millenium count-down clock has stopped! *That* can't be a good sign!
Response #27
By: Ralf
Date: 11/21/99 8:37:40 AM
Do millenium clocks tick over to 1000 when they reach zero?
Response #28
By: Roxanne
Date: 11/22/99 12:00:32 AM
Did anybody watch the NBC version of "Y2K"?
It was seriously cheesy.
Response #29
By: Ralf
Date: 11/22/99 7:33:13 AM
Were there lots of commercials for toilet paper, drinking water, LED flashlights, and wind-up radios?
Response #30
By: Ralf
Date: 11/23/99 12:40:12 PM
Update: it did REALLY bad in the ratings. Astonishingyly bad. Fewer than 1 in 50 potential viewers saw it, apparently.
So -- does this mean we can avoid the whole Y2K mess by simply watching something else?
Response #31
By: Roxanne
Date: 11/23/99 1:42:48 PM
Ralf: The viewers who *did* see it wish that they hadn't!
I can't help but wonder if they made it that bad on purpose. It was almost comical. Perhaps they were trying to make light of the subject so as not to scare the skittish.
I found it very interesting that the one character that had barb-wired his yard in and stock-piled food, water and guns was shot dead as soon as the army came to evacuate the area because of the nuclear plant that was threatening to melt-down because the cooling tanks weren't really full of water even though the computers said they were...
Response #32
By: Ralf
Date: 11/23/99 11:09:32 PM
Unfortunately, I heard the Art Bell broadcast where the producer of that Y2K flick was interviewed. he was VERY SERIOUS about his art, and stated, "if this wakes people up then SO BE IT."
Strong words for a man speaking at 3:30 AM.
Response #33
By: Da Sissop
Date: 11/23/99 11:14:44 PM
Hehe.. the nuclear reactor's water tank wasn't filled because.. hehe.. because the computer thought it was 1900.. hehehe... and the computer knew the tank wasn't supposed to have water in it in 1900... hahaha... so they fixed it by setting off a big flashy EXPLOSION... hahaha! And then they all ran into the reactor core on the brink of meltdown and watched the tank fill up! BAW HAW HAW HAW!!1!!
Response #34
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 11/24/99 3:45:51 AM
You watched it?
You poor kid...
Response #35
By: Cleotis
Date: 11/24/99 9:23:48 AM
I, too, wasted two hours of my life taking in that film.
My favorite part was where he was standing INSIDE the reactor (like, with the rods sticking up out of the water and stuff) patting his dad on the back as if to say, "Whew, that was a close one."
In the sequel, I would expect to see him very badly burned from the radiation exposure, or at the very least I'd like to see him glowing.
Response #36
By: Ralf
Date: 11/25/99 7:43:39 AM
On 1/1 at 12:05 I plan to throw the master power breaker on our neighbor's house. He pissed me off by building a fence.
Response #37
By: Katt
Date: 11/25/99 2:23:33 PM
heh
Response #38
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 11/25/99 3:50:52 PM
Well ya' know, if you go around without any pants on all the time....
:)
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #39
By: Katt
Date: 11/26/99 1:26:44 PM
Depends on your definition of "pants". If you mean jeans or dress slacks, I haven't worn any in years.
I stick with loose fitting pajama type bottoms. :}
Response #40
By: Roxanne
Date: 11/29/99 8:07:43 PM
Is Art Bell back on?
Response #41
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 11/30/99 12:12:19 AM
Well, he's always a *bit* off.