Ballad of the Year2000

["Michael Kenney" <kenney@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To:   MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
cc:
Subject:  Ballad of the Year2000



On the lighter side.
  I just received this  through a co-worker. I a YK2 song,


   Sung to the tune of the "Gilligan's Island" theme song. Author unknown.


   Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale
   Of the doom that is our fate.
   That started when programmers used
   Two digits for a date.
   Two digits for a date.


   Main memory was smaller then;
   Hard disks were smaller, too.
   "Four digits are extravagant,
   So let's get by with two.
   So let's get by with two."


   "This works through 1999,"
   The programmers did say.
   "Unless we rewrite before that
   It all will go away.
   It all will go away."

   But Management had not a clue:
   "It works fine now, you bet!
   A rewrite is a straight expense;
   We won't do it just yet.
   We won't do it just yet."


   Now when 2000 rolls around
   It all goes straight to hell,
   For zero's less than ninety-nine,
   As anyone can tell.
   As anyone can tell.


   The mail won't bring your pension check
   It won't be sent to you
   When you're no longer sixty-eight,
   But minus thirty-two.
   But minus thirty-two.


   The problems we're about to face
   Are frightening, for sure.
   And reading every line of codes
   The only certain cure.
   The only certain cure.


   [key change, big finish]


   There's not much time,
   There's too much code.
   (And Cobol-coders, few)
   When the century is finished with,
   We may be finished, too.
   We may be finished, too.


   Eight thousand years from now I hope
   That things weren't left too late,
   And people aren't then lamenting
   Four digits for a date.
   Four digits for a date.






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