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>>> Y2K was a fear of programs that already were in working order.

You a programmer???

I am... and I was directly involved with updating software for Y2K. Using a 2 digit field to store what needed to be a 4 digit number by Y2K would have resulted in catastrophic logic errors that would have brought down systems indefinitely. Fixing this problem is relatively easy... but also very tedious and extensive because you have to trace the use of these date fields through all code.

The problem was real... the problem was fixed.

Businesses with actual skin in the game understood the problem, and got it fixed right on time.

Agree... I was project manager on Y2K projects and the work was very necessary. One of those situations where it was handled so well that after the fact, people didn't believe the problem was really that bad.

That said, although I agree "never ascribe to malevolence, that which can be adequately explained by incompetence" - the Healthcare.gov rollout and the subsequent information that's coming out about the way it was handled are simply shocking. Incompetence does not adequately explain it, and therefore as a professional in the industry I have to ascribe a certain purposefulness to the disaster unfolding.

Cloward-Piven-flavored information technology, headed for single payer, does adequately explain the current situation. The incompetence here may not be accidental, but appreciated and accelerated.

You simply do not release a product of that scale and impact with that little testing ("six days" is being reported). As a PM I would refuse to do that; it would be unethical.

Perhaps I do not have accurate information on the rollout process; but "disaster" is not even approaching the correct description. Were I brought in as a recovery PM on effort I would be characterizing it as a "business disaster of existential proportions" and personally reviewing whether an accreditation standards violation took place at the hands of my predecessor.

Just my $.02.

Businesses with actual skin in the game understood the problem, and got it fixed right on time.

This is probably why Obama is so careless. Y2k was a an early fear that got the problem fixed. Even the government got things fixed. This 0bummer care program was not seriously addressed or they did not do due diligence. 0 is a clueless incompetent armature.

Fixing this problem is relatively easy... but also very tedious and extensive because you have to trace the use of these date fields through all code.

Finding and fixing date code is one thing -- you know exactly what to look for, and exactly how to fix it.

Finding faulty logic in a program that doesn't work, is another thing entirely.

Y2K remediation kept me very occupied at Lufthansa in Frankfurt-am-Main. It was a lot of work. We succeeded in fixing the problem. It was no picnic. The Germans hired us because their union/insurance rules restricted allowable work hours to the point that they had no hope of finishing in the time permitted. As American contractors, we didn't have the same restrictions as the German employees. By the time we finished, I was pretty burned out on foreign travel.