Re: Re: Y2K clearance sale

[Sunder <sunder@sunder.net>]

Matthew Gaylor wrote:
> 
> At 2:54 AM +0000 1/9/00, Anonymous wrote:
> >I think that this was a good test. And many failed. I will certainly
> >not take seriously anything from someone I know was "preparing for Y2K" *.
> 
> If you are at all worth your salt you would have been already
> prepared regardless of Y2K.  What kind of idiot isn't prepared?  That
> would be like being proud of not having a fire extinguisher in the
> home or not having a spare tire in a car.
> 
> If necessary, I can stay in my home for over a year with the power
> and water cut.  I didn't prepare out of any concern over Y2k,  I've
> been relatively prepared for the last 20 years or so.

Ignore him.  It's assholes like him that didn't patch his own computer and
probably paid $50 for some shitware to do so for him.

IMHO, the reason that New Years went so smoothly was because of us Y2K
preparing morons.  I've left no machine I've responsibility for unpatched. 
I've been screaming bloody murder at the management about systems that weren't
for at least a year.  They all were replaced.

The usual prisoner's dilemma square does take effect:

        You    Prepared | didn't
Y2K Fizzled :   1 win   |  2 win
------------------------+-----
Y2K disaster:   3 win   |  4 fucked


If Y2K fizzed (and it did):
1. And you prepared for it - you're out $500 on supplies and canned/preserved
groceries which you can reuse.  You still win.

2. If you didn't prepare for it, you didn't spend any money, nothing happened
to affect you.  You win.

If Y2K was a disaster:

3. And you prepared for it, you've won.
4. And you didn't prepare for it: you're fucked.


Which is better?  To prepare or not?   The 2nd pair is uncertain.  The first
doesn't harm you no matter what you do, so you don't lose.  Infact, should
there be a serious emergency in the future, you're already prepared.  So what
do did you lose?

I've learned my lesson hard a long time ago.  A while back I had this shit 286
system and I backed up my drive.  Back them tapes were expensive, so I just
reused the tape. Lucky me.  Norton backup locked up in the middle of a backup,
destroyed my files on the drive, and since the backup didn't complete, I
couldn't restore it.  

You can bet your ass I'd be anal about preparing for anything.  (And buying
extra backup tapes. :)


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