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Summer 1999
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With only six months to go before That Date, and the more apocalyptically-minded in the populace already searching the skies for signs and portents, Stacker invites you to reflect for a moment upon the terrible dangers of literalism.
I have completed the 3 years of work, on time and under budget. I have gone through every line of code in every program in every system. I have analysed all databases, all data files, including backups and historic archives, and modified all data to reflect the change.
I am proud to report that I have completed the "Y-to-K" date change mission, and have now implemented upgrades to all programs and all data to reflect the following new standards:
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Januark |
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Sundak |
I trust that this is satisfactory, because to be honest, none of this Y-to-K problem has made any sense to me. But I understand it is a global problem, and I am glad to help in any way possible. And what do Y and K have to do with it? Speaking of which, what do you think we ought to do next year when the two digit year rolls over from 99 to 00?
I'll await your instructions.
Well done, a very impressive result.
However, I'm afraid you might have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere, and done rather more work than was required.
You'll recall, I'm sure, that this project was always described as the Y-to-K project. It was only ever the upper-case letters that we intended to affect.
Indeed, there has been considerable discussion about the best way to deal with lower-case letters. As lower-case is, in a sense, the opposite of upper-case we had thought that we should handle them in the opposite manner i.e. a 'k-toy' project. This came to a grinding halt when some smart alec pointed out that there were no 'k's in the day or month names. No decision has yet been made and, in any case, it was always intended to be a separate project, following on from yours.
So, if you wouldn't mind changing all the 'k's back to 'y's, but leaving the 'K's alone, we would be very grateful. By the time you have completed that we might have made a decision about the proper fate of lower-case letters.
As for the year number roll-over, somebody else mentioned that a while back. I don't really see the problem myself. '00' still fits in the same size field as '99' doesn't it?
Anyway, we have started a study to understand the problem, if indeed there is one, and we hope to have an initial report by the middle of next year. We will then decide what action to take, if any, and produce a project plan. Hopefully, you will have finished the 'k-to-y' correction by then and might be available to implement any changes that will be required?
Once again, thanks for all your hard work over the last 3 years and I hope you will continue to get the same level of job satisfaction in the years to come.
Last Updated: 13 December 1999