Monday, November 23, 2020
The Y1K bug
In 1999 there was considerable hubbub over the Y2K bug in old programs, many of which were in COBOL. The language itself wasn't busted; its date functions have four digits. But the early mainframe programmers in the '60s and '70s had to make extremely careful use of limited memory space, so they formed the habit of using only the last two digits of dates in calculations.
Those old programmers were already operating in Github mode, assuming that everything would change and improve fast, so it wasn't necessary to think 40 years ahead. They didn't realize that their machines and their code would still be running steady in 2000, 2010, 2020, ad infinitum.
= = = = =
The date bug in the real world was even weirder. The real odometer has four digits, but the leftmost wheel froze up. The odometer turned over from 1999 to 1000, not 2000 or 0000.
Now we're back in 1000, when inbred demonic imbeciles ruled a patchwork of duchies and fiefdoms, united by the crazed theology of the One Universal Church. We're before Ockham and Galileo and Jenner. Logic and experimentation and immunity haven't been discovered yet. Angels with A-bombs dance frenziedly on pinheads, multiplying beyond all necessity. Most of the world is permanently locked into an infinite supercrime with no exit.
We're back in 1000, when China and Arabia and the Mayan and African empires were WAY AHEAD of Europeans in thinking and medicine and math and engineering.
Even the specific problems that were going to be caused by the 0000 bug didn't turn out to be problems. Interest on savings was zeroed out in 1008, so long-term calculations on that side of the ledger are no longer needed. Interest on loans is being zeroed out in 1020, freeing bankers from all contractual obligations so they can simply dispossess the peasants at will.
The real engineers and architects of the first 1000 were not in Github mode. They built houses and cathedrals to last, because they understood technology was not going to improve soon. The scribes put artistry into their handwritten books, knowing that the books would be used and maintained for centuries. They tried to provide beauty and pleasure for the maintainers, to insure better and longer maintenance. Bookkeepers used indelible ink on heavy paper, and 'illuminated' their ledgers with similar artistry.
Continuing the theme of beauty for the maintainers.
Now we're back in 1000, when inbred demonic imbeciles ruled a patchwork of duchies and fiefdoms, united by the crazed theology of the One Universal Church. We're before Ockham and Galileo and Jenner. Logic and experimentation and immunity haven't been discovered yet. Angels with A-bombs dance frenziedly on pinheads, multiplying beyond all necessity. Most of the world is permanently locked into an infinite supercrime with no exit.
We're back in 1000, when China and Arabia and the Mayan and African empires were WAY AHEAD of Europeans in thinking and medicine and math and engineering.
Even the specific problems that were going to be caused by the 0000 bug didn't turn out to be problems. Interest on savings was zeroed out in 1008, so long-term calculations on that side of the ledger are no longer needed. Interest on loans is being zeroed out in 1020, freeing bankers from all contractual obligations so they can simply dispossess the peasants at will.
The real engineers and architects of the first 1000 were not in Github mode. They built houses and cathedrals to last, because they understood technology was not going to improve soon. The scribes put artistry into their handwritten books, knowing that the books would be used and maintained for centuries. They tried to provide beauty and pleasure for the maintainers, to insure better and longer maintenance. Bookkeepers used indelible ink on heavy paper, and 'illuminated' their ledgers with similar artistry.
Continuing the theme of beauty for the maintainers.
Labels: 2000=1000, From rights to duties, NOW I SEE
¶ 10:23 PM
