[ryansloan]

I think 220 Billion is a highly inaccurate number as well, but I'm not sure if I agree with his assessment of the Y2K stuff.

Granted, it -was- overhyped (stock up on batteries, rice, haz mat suits, etc.) but there would have been fairly significant problems if the companies developing these systems didn't prepare. The possible effects were exaggerated, but I still think it's a better example of "crisis" management than mass delusion or panic.

[AndrewDucker]

Agreed. Lots of code would have failed without significant amounts of work. That almost nothing broke on the day is down to a lot of very hard work.

[thismat]

I can believe there is that many lines of COBOL, after having learned and having to maintain/write COBOL, it's verbosity causes small simple programs to span hundreds of lines.