Re: Gain-maximization debate

["Michael C. Richardson" <mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>]

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>>>>> "Bacon" == Y2K Moderator <i-y2k-mod@phil.gn.apc.org> writes:
    Bacon> Your avalanche metaphor is flawed.  When most of the Y2K problem
    Bacon> was being created, few had any notion that their 2 digit years
    Bacon> would be around at the end of the century.  They did not intend to
    Bacon> build permanent housing.  Your scenario invokes a level of

  This is like saying "it is okay to erect a tent in the avalanche
zone because you are too cheap to buy better land and real
construction materials. If it happens to become a permanent structure,
then we'll get the public purse to bail you out"

  The questions are:
	1. why did they not intend to build permanent "housing"
    2. just because it isn't permanent, is that an excuse to do a
    shitty job?

  Are you telling me that Microsoft Windows 95 and 98 *NEITHER OF
WHICH IS Y2K OUT OF THE BOX* were designed a "temporary" housing? Just
two and five years before the end of the millenium?
  
  I'll answer my own questions:
    1. permanent housing, i.e. computer hardware and programs that
       last do not need to upgraded every year.
	2. It is cheaper to do a shitty job.

  You are telling me that that this isn't a gain-maximization for the
people designing the hardware/software? Yes, it screws the end user.
But, thanks to Mr. Gates, the end user gets screwed so often now they
have come to demand it!

  I'm willing to forgive someone who had to produce a system that had
to be data compatible with an old system, and was built in the 1970s.
That issue should have been documented, and a plan to transition the
system to be data-incompatible should have been done in 1979! I've
worked on MRP systems where our workstation based system had to
duplicate *ALL* the bugs of the old mainframe system, but that was
only an intermediate step to turning the mainframe off.

   :!mcr!:            |  Network and security consulting/contract programming
   Michael Richardson |         Firewalls, TCP/IP and Unix administration
 Personal: http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/People/Michael_Richardson/Bio.html
 Corporate: http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/SSW/
	ON HUMILITY: To err is human, to moo bovine.

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