Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 16:51:05 +0000
From: "JA de Beer (jennifer@grove.uct.ac.za)" <jennifer@grove.uct.ac.za>
Subject: Y zero K crisis
Willard,
A variation on the Y1K theme:
> Message from: Rome
>
> January 18, 1 B.C.
>
> Dear Cassius,
>
> Are you still working on the Y zero K problem? This change from BC to
> AD is giving us a lot of headaches and we haven't much time left. I
> don't know how people will cope with working the wrong way around.
> Having been working happily downwards forever, now we have to start
> thinking upwards. You would think that someone would have thought of it
> earlier and not left it to us to sort out at the last minute.
>
> I spoke to Caesar the other evening. He was livid that Julius hadn't
> done something about it when he was sorting out the calendar. He said
> he could see why Brutus turned nasty.
>
> We called in the consulting astrologers, but they simply said that
> continuing downwards using minus BC won't work. As usual, the
> consultants charged a fortune for doing nothing useful. As for myself,
> I just can't see the sand in an hourglass flowing upwards.
>
> We have heard that there are 3 wise guys in the east working on the
> problem, but unfortunately they won't arrive till it's all over. Some
> say the world will cease to exist at the moment of transition. Anyway
> we are continuing to work on this blasted Y zero K problem and I will
> send you a parchment if anything further develops.
>
> Plutonius.
>
~~~~~~~~
Jennifer de Beer - Project Assistant
Cape Library Cooperative (CALICO)
Shared Library Information System (SLIS)
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0)21 686-5070 Fax: +27 (0)21 689-7465
E-mail: jennifer@grove.uct.ac.za
http://www.adamastor.ac.za/Academic/Calico/portal.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Humanist Discussion Group
Information at <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
=========================================================================