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Y2K Readiness

A funny un-official Y2K readiness page from Hart Scientific
(http://www.hartscientific.com/y2k.htm)

=======

Welcome to our unofficial Y2K page. It's filled with totally  unofficial
stuff which can't be relied upon by anyone for any reason, but it's okay
to enjoy it. In fact, we hope you like it so much you'll stop sending us
those twenty page long, complex questionnaires, which of course we never
send back. 

The first thing you need to do to prepare for the Y2K crisis is to finish
reading this web page before January 1, 2000. After Jan 1, this page will
still be posted in cyberspace, but because the world will be coming to an
end as a result of power grid failures and inadvertent launching of
nuclear weapons, you probably won't be able to hook up to the web, even if
you stop foraging for food and your portable power generator has enough
spare amps for surfing. 

However, we do have some good news for you! If the world does come to a
halt on January 1, 2000, or within a few days thereafter, it won't be
because of Hart Scientific instruments. Nope, if you're having a bad Y2K
day, it won't be because of us.

None of our instruments use dates--well, almost none. Only the 1560 Black
Stack, 1575 Super Thermometer  and 1590 Super Thermometer II use dates,
but the dates are input by the user.  Therefore, if you're the user and
you're Y2K compliant, your Hart thermometer will be too. So, whenever the
power grid is up and running again, all you'll have to do is input the
correct date and time and you're good for another millennium. For the
other 100 or so Hart instruments, you don't have to do anything except
turn them on. 

In addition to our instruments, we've tested all of the software we
sell. Because we wrote all of the packages, we know how they work. We
can't find any problems with any of them. We're not saying we're Y2K
experts because we're not. We've tried every test we can think of and so
far there are no problems. However, if for some unfortunate reason your
computer fails to turn on, or if it melts down right after it boots up,
there's a significant chance our software won't work either. Oh, if your
computer feeds our software the wrong date and time from your computer's
internal clock, our software is going to put the wrong date on your data.
You better check your computer clock for its Y2K compliance.

Let's summarize all of this. WE CAN'T FIND ANY Y2K PROBLEMS WITH ANY OF
OUR INSTRUMENTS OR OUR SOFTWARE---PRIMARILY BECAUSE 98% OF OUR STUFF
DOESN'T USE DATES, AND THE STUFF THAT DOES HAS PASSED EVERY TEST WE CAN
THINK OF!! 

Okay, anybody got any questions? 

Need more? We've got it for you. 

What about our own internal software programs and computer systems-things
like our accounting packages? Of course, we tested our own systems in
every way we could think of also, and everything passed. 

Even if our accounting software stops working on January 3, 2000, you can
count on us finding a way to bill you for whatever you bought from us
prior to Armageddon. Even if we have to write your invoice on the back of
bubble gum wrappers, we're going to bill you. This is the promise our
lawyers made to us and it's the same promise we're going to make to you.
It's the only thing we're going to guarantee you-but at least we're
guaranteeing something. 

We've checked our 401K and payroll programs too. They work!  Imagine how
glad our employees are. You can stop asking us if we're going to continue
to check these programs, because the answer is simple. We all want our
payroll program to cut those checks on time. If any banks are still
operating after January 3, 2000, we want to be able to deposit our checks
in them. Of course, once world peace is restored, and we're all living
under one world wide  government and monetary system, our dollars won't be
worth much anymore. However, we will still need toilet paper so everybody
will probably be asking to be paid in ones. 

Unfortunately, we can't answer many questions about our external
suppliers. We aren't expecting many problems, but who knows! We're
contacting 20 of our largest suppliers and maybe they'll tell us something
and maybe they won't. We've got a lot of suppliers. We already know some
of them are pretty good and some of them are idiots. We don't expect the
Y2K problem to change this.

Well, that's pretty much all we've got to say-almost. Our lawyers
tell us we can't promise you anything regarding Y2K (except maybe the part
about collecting our money). If you're using our equipment with someone
else's gear, who the hell knows what's going to happen. We sure don't, so
how can we promise you something specific, or even vague for that matter?
We can't, so we won't. However, we love our customers and like always
we'll do whatever is reasonable to solve whatever problems come up, if
there are any. 

If life as we know it comes to an end when everyone wakes up to flashing
lights on their alarm clocks the morning of January 1st, please remember
to keep all of the memories of the good times you had with your Hart
temperature calibration equipment. Don't ever let the memories die! 

Right after Armageddon, using your temperature calibration instruments may
come in a little low on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Food, shelter and ISO
9000 compliance may come first, but don't worry, as soon as there is a
millikelvin to be measured, we'll be there helping you get your job done
faster and better than ever before. 

Nothing on this web page supersedes our official policy, and it is
very official, so get your copy today if you feel you need to read it.
You can get a copy of it by writing on a plain 3 X 5 card 'SEND ME A COPY
OF YOUR OFFICIAL Y2K POLICY EVEN THOUGH I'M NOT ORDERING AT THIS TIME.'
Put your complete name and address on the card and send it to us. We'll
send you an official copy of our official policy, or you could just call
us and we'll mail it to you, or just click here to get to our official Y2K
page.  There are so many ways to get it, how much easier can we make it?

Now what happens if YOUR accounting software doesn't work next January?
Don't bother calling us with that feeble excuse. Just pick up a pen, open
the old checkbook, and HAND WRITE US A CHECK! If you have any employees
old enough to remember life before computers, have them help you with
this. The world actually existed before spreadsheets. It was a narrow,
somewhat boring existence, but in a pinch it will still do. 

So what scares us about Y2K? The only thing we really worry about is the
over reaction of some obsessive people, and we're not talking about the
nut cases burying Y2K compliant ammo in mountain caves, we're talking
about what people say to us when we tell them we're not sending their
questionnaire back. Wow! Mass panic could cause a mess. We recommend you
keep your cool, buy some Dinty Moore's beef stew in cans, and lay in a
good supply of toilet paper. 

Before you start thinking that we just don't get it, yes we do. Many
of our employees were actually there the day COBOL was invented. Some of
them started their computing careers on an IBM 1620 mainframe that was
slower than a Casio calculator. The nights were long back then. 

We do have one suggestion. Turn off all the equipment in your lab before
you go home for New Year's eve. If Armageddon does happen, you won't care
about the lab, and if everything continues along as usual, you'll have fun
turning everything back on January 3rd to see if it all works. 

Yes, we know it's also a leap year. Since the beginning of time we've had
about five of them. There has never been a Hart product fail because of a
leap year, at least not during a leap year when we were keeping records.
Don't call, and don't ask. Of course our instruments are all going to work
just fine on February 31st just like every other day of the year. 



Categories for this item: Computers, Y2K

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