Recommended Resources
Cyberhaven.com Offshore havens, asset protection, global investing and other useful techniques.
The Year 2000 Bookshelf Books to help your evaluate the Y2K problems you face.

Gary North's Y2K Links and Forums - Mirror

Summary and Comments

(feel free to mail this page)


Category: 

Too_Late

Date: 

1997-01-13 00:00:00

Subject: 

Managers Still Don't Know!

Comment: 

Some people think that managers are on top of the y2k problem. Consider these reports from Canada and New York.

> >Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997 21:08:47 -0500 >From: Vikram Kulkarni > >>Date: Fri, 3 Jan 1997 18:22:00 -0500 >>From: _Stein, Gord_ >> >>Greetings: >>Our firm, Contractors Network Corporation, provides I/T professionals on >>a contract basis from our 4 Canadian and 1 American branch office and we >>currently have over 600 working at client sites. Incredibly, only 3 of >>them are working on Y2K projects. Sitting on the bench are 4 Y2K project >>managers and numerous P/A's. Surprisingly, we haven't seen any type of >>demand as yet for Y2K workers. Seems like most firms in Canada haven't >>really launched into their Y2K initiatives yet. I agree with the other >>metrics for Human Resource utilization. >> >>Gordon Stein >>VP Business Development >>Contractors Network Corporation >>gstein@cnc.ca

> >I live in New York and the situation is no different than in Canada. I >interact with a lot of computer people and I hear some talk about Year 2000 >problem, but the situation is very different from what is being depicted on >this mailing list. I have the following interesting observations and some >unanswered questions- > >1) I went to the local Barnes and Noble bookstore and asked how many books >are there on COBOL. They had one! There were hundreds of titles on Java >and HTML and people were buying those books like crazy. If COBOL >programmers were making $100 per hour, don't you think these people would >be reading COBOL books instead? Designing web pages pays only $40 per hour >:-). > >2) There was one book on the Year 2000 problem and they had sold 5 copies >of it in the last 6 months. In New York, where people are constantly >looking for the next big thing, this is not supposed to happen. > >3) Vendors are supposed to be overextended and are refusing jobs, right? >Then why is the list of vendors on the year2000.com site larger than ever >before? Also, why are all the major vendors spending thousands of dollars >renting booths at the major y2k seminars and exhibitions? Also, why are so >many vendors hiring Business Development Managers? Don't they need >programmers instead? > >4) I have several friends from India who are working in America doing y2k >work and they definitely are not making the kind of money that is being >discussed on this list. There is a lot of wishful thinking on the part of >programmers, but the reality is quite different. > >5) If banks and insurance companies have a big y2k problem, why are their >stocks trading at such high prices? Why is Dow Jones doing so well? Is >the market missing something? I know the problem is very serious, but why >would the market neglect it for so long even after so much publicity? Do >we need a _celebrity failure_ to convince the market that the problem >really exists? > >6) 1996 was the time when some financial institutions with 4 year time >horizons were supposed to run into problems. 1996 came and went. Nothing >happened. These institutions might have found a way to work around the >problem. What about 1997? Except for a small problem at Brussels stock >exchange that was solved in 3 hours and which may or may not be related to >y2k, nothing has happened in the last 7 days. > >6) Does anybody have any direct experience with a company that is facing >problem hiring >COBOL programmers after paying decent salaries? I am not talking about >those companies that are located in the middle of nowhere and are paying >less than $50,000 per year. I have read many people complaining about >trouble finding good programmers, but they cleverly forget to mention the >details. Are you offering them good pay? What about work conditions? >Benefits? Future prospects? Companies like Microsoft have no trouble >finding programmers who are willing to work 80 plus hours a week and are >ready to sacrifice their entire youths. In fact, Microsoft gets swamped >with thousands of resumes every month from the most talented people in the >world. Does Bill Gates know something that we all don't? > >7)One last question about the military. If American military could spend >millions of dollars during the cold war to find out the minute details >about Soviet computer systems, how can we assume that they would neglect >their own information systems? Russians have also spend millions gathering >information about Americans. If Americans don't have time to do inventory >of their own systems, maybe they should pay Russians for all those secret >reports. Cold war is over anyway :-). > > > > ****


Return to Category: Too_Late

Return to Main Categories

Return to Home Page