Infernal machines

If Y2K had gone down as some feared, I pretty much would have been screwed. Didn't buy any bottled water. Didn't stock up on batteries. Didn't have much in the way of non-perishable food. Lucky for me, my prediction that things would go smoothly came out fine.

On the other hand, this year's change in Daylight Saving Time is starting to worry me. We've been getting ominous messages at work that Outlook may explode. Several times a week, it takes forever to shut down the computers because that's when they install the updates. (Aside: At 3 a.m., I just want to go home, so instead of waiting for the updating to complete and putting my laptop into that unlocked drawer, I slyly perch my keyboard over the computer to hide it. Although the laptop police have backed off a lot lately.)

Also, the time stamps in one key program have been switched to GMT in an apparent, half-assed attempt to temporarily get around the DST problem. This has the side effect of many bewildered cries of, "Wait, when did that get updated?" throughout the day.

On a side note, the technology woes at my office also have affected the men's room, where the toilets and urinals have automatic flush systems. But the sensor in one of the urinals keeps breaking, so it doesn't flush. No one ever bothers to post a note saying the urinal is broken, so people keep using it. Toward the end of the day, it smells lovely in there. I can't prove the DST issue has anything to do with this, but I bet it does.

So I'm not predicting Armageddon or anything, but I won't be surprised one bit if we wake up on March 11 and find robot armies marching down the streets of our major cities. Not one bit.