• jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      5 months ago

      It’s funny you say that, because this scenario was how I explained it back in the day…

      Imagine the US comes out with a shiny new quarter, it’s super cool, but won’t fit in any existing coin slot.

      Upgrading one machine isn’t too bad if you know what you’re doing, but then doing every machine on a block, or a street, or a city, or a state? Suddenly way more complicated.

      Oh, and they ALL have to be done by a specific date.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        my dad was a UNIX sysadmin. His assertion- at the time- that we’d be fine, did not live up the vast amounts of overtime he put in in during '99.

        (To be clear it was never the then-modern systems, like windows ME, or '95 that were at problem. it was all the old-as fuck stuff… every major institution still uses. Like IRS’s COBOL database… that’s… still being…used.all of that stuff, they needed to patch to make it okay.)