The future's looking pretty good from this partygoer's viewpoint.
Why 2K is Better Than 1
The future's looking pretty good from this partygoer's viewpoint.
Mid-December, 1999—By this
time you’ve had your fill of annual, centennial, and millennial
retrospectives, Auntie hopes. Enough trees have been sacrificed
for millennium topics to have supplied oxygen, unfortunately,
to the entire Federal government, and it won’t end until
long after we cross 12 a.m., January 1. So, the last thing
Auntie feels like doing, while my Fabio mixes up a batch
of his notorious FireWallBangers, is to pound out a few
more words on the keyboard in a look back to a date in
1656 when some scientist, before his obligatory beheading,
discovered that combining phlogiston and saltpeter in
the presence of DOS LXIV resulted in the creation of limeade
and Rush Limbaugh.
Auntie prefers to take stock of the present and look
ahead. In our insular world of information technologies,
the present is darned good. There’s plenty of work for
those who’ve kept up their skills and been willing to
put in the effort to deliver quality work and solutions
to employers and customers. The money’s good if the work’s
good. While the past several months have been a bit slow
due to Y2K lockdowns, we all know that if business makes
it through Y2K in decent shape, there’ll be a lot of catching
up and plenty of business in 1Q00.
By the time you read this, Windows 2000 may have been
officially released to manufacturing. At the time of this
writing, Win2K is at the RC3 stage, and it hasn’t blown
up any box Auntie’s seen it on. It’s feature-complete
and fairly impressive. Early adopters have deployed it
in beta and RC. How will it perform on your WAN?
We have a new OS with a stronger security subsystem and
an integrated directory service, which developers can
leverage for new applications. Exchange 2000 is just around
the corner, a key selling point for Microsoft as it encourages
migration to Win2K. Exchange 2000’s improved development
environment and use of the Active Directory may very well
accomplish this, and how many of us would’ve believed
that six months ago?
Still, Auntie has some sage advice: Don’t try to migrate
an enterprise to Win2K without serious planning (so, the
advice is also obvious). This isn’t a “pop in the CD and
let ’er rip” upgrade. Your customers may groan at the
time spent, but they’ll be grateful in the long run. And
even if they aren’t, you’ll have already been paid.
Look for the next year to be busy in bookstores and testing
centers, as we mentally vacuum in study guides and Win2K
books and physically engulf triple soy decaf hazelnut
cappuccinos. If it hasn’t sunk in yet, Win2K is a heck
of a lot more complex than NT. Expect the new exams to
be a challenge; Microsoft is going to make sure that we
earn the MCSE-Win2K certification.
Maybe Auntie’s a bit maudlin, but it wouldn’t hurt any
of us a bit to give thanks (to whomever or whatever you
give thanks to) for our relatively good professional fortune.
The next time you’re grumbling about your job, step back
and get some perspective. Despite the market being in
flux, Y2K challenges looming, and new technologies keeping
one step ahead of you, if you agree that these things
make life and a career in IT better, write to me and tell
me why. If you disagree, also let me know (but don’t just
write, “Auntie, you’re nuts.”).
One More for the Y2K
Okay, so Em is eating her words. I haven’t written much
this year about Y2K, except for the occasional survivalist
joke. It’s well-covered in other media, and I see no point
in adding to the deluge. By now, you’ve done your checks.
If not, Auntie has no sympathy for you whatsoever.
I’m no seer, and I have no idea what to expect come New
Year’s day. I hope that IT professionals around the world
have been diligent enough that any Y2K issues that do
crop up only result in inconvenience, and that no human
being suffers physical harm because someone was sloppy
or lazy or because some business or government didn’t
give a damn to check their systems fully. What a coda
that would be for a millennium. In Woody Allen’s movie,
Sleeper, Miles Monroe is told that civilization was destroyed
when a man named Albert Shanker (in 1973, he headed New
York City’s teacher’s union) got hold of a nuclear warhead.
Let’s not give Woody any grist for his next film, okay?
Just in case, this gal and her Fabio have laid in extra
supplies of snacks and ferret treats, and we’ll be withdrawing
a few extra dollars out of the bank—but that’s about it.
May all the survivalists be proven wrong, and may none
of them be too disappointed that they didn’t get a chance
to use their bunkers.
As for you, best wishes for the holidays, and may your
New Year’s celebrations be joyous and otherwise uneventful.
About the Author
Em C. Pea, MCP, is a technology consultant, writer and now budding nanotechnologist who you can expect to turn up somewhere writing about technology once again.