I've been asked to write a missive about what Y2K means to the body programmer. Here is my treatise. It is 4:25am and I'm supposed to be up in 5 hours.

Y2K

• It's more than just a buzz word. It means a new life for aging COBOL programmers. Old Programmer Homes were scoured to find anyone who knew this programming language well enough to fix a company's key systems within a year or less. These programmers, who were cast to the wayside before, will be cast away again once the new year has come and gone. Companies will go back to redesigning already working systems in sexy languages such as C++, Java, ADA, and others of their ilk because it looks good on their company's dossier.

• Programmers and computer operators in general were once thought of as gods and goddesses who could incant complex sequences of characters to make systems run and to cull information from them. Once computers became commonplace, the Great Unwashed was able to perform functions which before were known only to the gurus. The facade started to fail. People realized that some of these programs were buggy and didn't do what they wanted and crashed their computers. They saw the man behind the curtain. Y2K is yet another stone around the neck of demigodury which programmers once enjoyed.

• Programmers are assured of a continuing job for years to come. Most, if not all, new hires at companies were to throw more people at fixing the Y2K bug. Normal development all but ceased at most places. If we still have electricity in the new age, then programmers will eat and eat well.

• Most programmers will be relieved once this irrelevent milestone has been reached. Other calandars record the date as being far greater than 2000. However, people seem to like even numbers. Some even believe God to like them as well. Similar hysteria was evident around 1000AD.

• But, most importantly, the year 2000 DOES NOT mark the beginning of the new millenium. The new millenium starts in 2001. (Note, there couldn't have been a year 0 since 0 didn't exist when they created the Gregorian calandar).

Laurels are hard to rest upon ... they itch ...