Re: USA collapse (was: why a gun)

Hara Ra (harara@shamanics.com)
Wed, 17 Dec 1997 18:36:20 -0800


I know what you mean, but perhaps the Y2K will cut so far into profits
that sanity might just happen..... :)

O----------------------------------O
| Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> |
| Box 8334 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 |
O----------------------------------O

Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> Hara Ra wrote:
> >
> > Yes the Y2K problem is a hassle and there will be losers. IMHO, the Y2K
> > is an opportunity - all that old software and hardware should go on the
> > junk heap anyway, and this will merely ensure that new software on new
> > hardware will replace all this undocumented old kludgy stuff. And good
> > riddance.
>
> I wish this were the case, but it is not. I perform high-level
> technology consulting. In my experience, big corporations are spending
> millions if not billions to have their old hardware and software patched
> and kludged around the problem. In most cases, the cost of "fixing" the
> old software is much higher than rebuilding the entire system from
> scratch, with new software on new hardware. But, it is too scary for
> management to abandon their old systems and/or commit to entirely new
> systems. Thus, they rather spend more money. I do not believe they
> really understand the complexity and costs of keeping their own systems.
>
> My experience is that it is much easier to do build something correctly
> from scratch than to try to add pieces onto a poorly designed system to
> make it outperform its intended design.
> --
> Harvey Newstrom (harv@gate.net)