::: Area #157 (comp.sys.acorn.programmer)
Message: #30384 (Read 11 times, has 0 replies, 2204 bytes)
Date   : Wed Apr  1 14:31:57 1998
From   : James Taylor of fidonet#2:254/27.2
To     : All
Subject: Re: Millenium Bug Busters...

In article <482f25e7f5xemik@argonet.co.uk>, Mik Towse
<URL:mailto:xemik@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
>
> In article <ant302051d07vrZg@debussy.demon.co.uk>,
>  Neil Coffey <neil.coffey@st-annes.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
> > This is not really on-topic. I was intrigued to hear today about
> > the government's plan to pump money into training people to fix
> > the Millenium Bug. The way I interpreted it was that they were
> > actually hoping to within the space of one year train 20,000
> > non-programmers to a level of programming where they could "check
> > and fix" hardware/software with the "bug".
> >
> > Have I misinterpreted the proposal? -- as I understand it it seems
> > completely bonkers.
>
> Instead of pumping taxpayers money into this, they should be passing
> legislatioin to force the instigators of the problem to correct it for
> free.

Instead of pumping taxpayers' money into this, the government should
be subsidising British made computer systems that don't suffer from
the problem, perhaps with incentives to buy British (read Acorn).

The government should be investing in the development of the home IT
market, and not lying down on its back to be swamped by the American
invasion. Perhaps a fund for developers producing software/hardware in
the Internet applications, small business, and education markets. It
would all be British made, spelt in English not American, and adhering
to proper standards rather than the deliberate perversions of
standards that a certain American company insidiously tries to force
upon us all in its quest for total world domination.

The trouble, is I don't think anyone in Acorn *or* in the government
has the faith or vision to do anything about it. It's all about money
these days - who cares if we all go to hell grabbing for it?

--
James Taylor <james@nospam.demon.co.uk>
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