I don't normally forward stuff, but for all the Y2k guys out there who now
feel under-appreciated for a pretty resounding success, this is for you.
It made me feel good.
All those thoroughly uninterested please delete now.

Brian
Former Y2K Flunky

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2000 2:07 PM
Subject: We did it!

>
> Y2kNews 11 January 2000
> The heroes of Y2k
> By Judy Backhouse
>
> The truly crazy headed for the hills with fortified bunkers and
> ammunition.   The more cautious bought water and tinned food.
> Even the most optimistic drew some extra cash the week before.
> Everyone speculated about the outcome.
>
> But in the IT world, we worked.
>
> We checked code.
>
> We corrected code.
>
> We tested code.
>
> We rolled dates forward and backward and forward and backward
> until our nerves were paper-thin.
>
> We upgraded hardware.
>
> We upgraded operating systems (to cope with the new hardware).
>
> We upgraded compilers (to cope with the new operating systems).
>
> We modified more code (to cope with the new compilers).
>
> And then we began the cycle again of testing and rolling forward
> and testing and rolling backward.
>
> We initiated great, complex Y2k projects.
>
> We compiled project plans.
>
> We filled in endless forms about the state of our Y2k projects.
>
> We wrote monthly reports about the progress of the Y2k projects.
>
> We went to meetings where we were told how the future of the
> company depended on the Y2k project being completed in time.
>
> We dealt with panicked business people.
>
> We soothed troubled nerves at dinner parties.
>
> We were asked to predict the outcome by distant cousins who
> knew we were "in IT".
>
> We became overnight experts in the working of diesel generators,
> photocopiers, motor vehicles and washing machines.
>
> And, collectively, we averted the disaster.
>
> Like superman of old, the IT professionals of today managed to
> intercept nothing less than the end of the world.   In an industry
> where projects run notoriously over the most pessimistic time
> estimates, we met the deadline.
>
> The clocks ticked over to the year 2000 with nothing more than
> minor hitches.
>
> And were they grateful? Did the world thank us and laud us as the
> heroes we quite clearly were?
>
> No!
>
> They turned around and called it "all hype".
>
> They questioned the money spent.
>
> We did our jobs so damned well that the only question remaining
> was whether there had been any need to do the job at all.
>
> So, to all those IT people out there who slaved away at the Y2k
> problems over the past few years, who endured the pressure
> of fearful but helpless managers; who lost endless sleep testing
> things at night because there wasn't a separate test machine; who
> cancelled their December leave; who couldn't be in exotic places to
> welcome the start of the new millennium; who stayed sober on
> New Year's eve because they were on standby; who went to work
> on the 1st and the 2nd to boot up the machines - I say put your
> feet up, pat yourselves and each other on the back and go and get
> some much needed sleep with a smug smile on your face.
>
> We did it.
>
> The IT people across the planet are heroes - even if unsung ones.
> Like housework, what we do is not appreciated unless we don't do
> it.   But like the housewives of old we go on doing it, knowing that it
> is good, honest, necessary work - and that it gives us inordinate
> power.
>
> So, my fellow programmers, system administrators, database
> administrators, operators, analysts and support staff -
> congratulations on a job well done.
>
> Ours may be the youngest profession on the planet, but this 21st
> century belongs to us.
>
> Judy Backhouse is an IT professional who does freelance writing in
> her free time.
> Online Editor: Carel Alberts +27 11 789-1808
> @ Copyright 1999 Systems Publishers (Pty) Ltd -
> All Rights Reserved
>