Danger, Will Robinson!

User surly UX. Was going to book an impromptu multi-legged trip between San Francisco, Iowa and Arizona. American Airlines quoted a price, but the only available seats cost (around) $33 - $58 extra for each flight -- total was $200 extra. Bait and switch? So, I switched to Delta. But Delta's antique web design wouldn't allow a change. So, I attempted to talk to a Human. Voice menu was a bit schizoid: transitioning from voice to a touch-only menu. Love the response: "your selection was invalid" Who designs these things? A Lost in Space fan? [this video] Then I get to the part where it says: "You may choose to have us call you back ... or stay on hold ... wait time is over 3 hours". So, I cancelled.

Oh, btw, COBOL has the 2038 problem and it is right around the corner. We're going to need A LOT of new COBOL engineers to fix it. It runs so much of our world. We managed to save the world from Y2K in the nick of time. But, I'm not sure if we're going to have the minds necessary to solve 2038 by then as the can has just been kicked down the road without consideration. If anyone is worried there won't be jobs, there WILL be jobs. Not to be too macabre, but we need to transfer the knowledge while the people who have it are still alive, can remember and can teach others to pick up the torch. And, let us call it was it is, of those remain and still have the desire to make the effort to transfer that knowledge. It is easy to look back on y2k and think well that wasn't a big deal, but the only reason it wasn't is because people tirelessly worked to stop it. It is a testament to their success. Regarding y2k Robert Bemer tried to warn people in 1971, with 29 years left to go. And, Peter de Jager published his attention-getting article "Doomsday 2000," in 1993 (in Computerworld), with a mere 7 years left which finally put the fire under everyone's ass. Keep in mind, there were still many original COBOL programmers and mainframe experts left to talk to at that time. And, there was a lot less code to change back then than there is now. Voting tabulation, insurance, utilities, administrative systems, banking, ATMs, travel, healthcare, social security, point of sale, IRS, pension funds,