Re: Peter de Jager

From: Brock (bhinzmann@sric-bi.com)
Date: Sat Sep 21 2002 - 01:00:59 EEST


Actually, Peter de Jager's September 6, 1993 Computerworld article, Doomsday
2000, was one of the first popular publications on the Y2K issue. By 1997/98,
many other authors had jumped on the bandwagon. In a three-inch thick Y2K file
I just looked through, I can see only a couple references to de Jager. In a
1997 debate, Clifford Stoll, author of Silicon Snake Oil, argued in a debate
with de Jager that the Y2K problem could be fixed in a long weekend. Names
like Michael Harden and Edward Yardeni seem to appear more often. The stocks
of Y2K start-up consulting firms had already begun to crash by the end of
1998. Much of the hype appeared in Business Week, which predicted $1trillion
in needed fixes, which got all sorts of negative feedback from business
readers. Probably the Gartner Group, Cap Gemini, and other consulting firms
probably made the most money, giving people lots of advice about how to fix
what turned out mostly to be a nonproblem or one that couldn't be fixed until
after it showed up (Al Hastbacka pointed out, for instance, what would happen
when people's RP service agreements would expire). Sellers of ERP systems and
new IT equipment made a lot of money, in the short term, as companies replaced
entire systems, rather than trying to root out problems in legacy systems. The
subsequent drop off in sales only contributed to the post dot-com stock market
crash. The post analysis was that the people who did nothing had no more
problems than the people who spent tons of money to fix it and that virtually
all problems were fixed within a couple months into 2000. So I'm not sure
being associated with all that hype is a good thing. However, people have
short memories.

Brock Hinzmann
Technology Navigator
SRI Consulting Business Intelligence

"B. J. Arnold-Feret" wrote:

> I recently received a solicitation from Peter de Jager who wanted money in
> order to popularize RP to the masses. In talking with him today, he
> admittedly does not know anything about the technology, does not have any
> idea of the manufacturing processes, qualification for the technology
> application or anything about RP manufacturing.
>
> However, he does want the RP community to fund him as he does the talk show
> circuit.
>
> He believes he is the best one to do this - because he claims that he
> started the Y2K media hype that drove the development of all Y2K products.
> And he claims that he can bring the media to us. Yet when I asks why I
> never heard of him if he founded this incredible ground swell that drove a
> market, there is no answer.
>
> I would heartily suggest that one don't buy into the scheme unless you are
> very, very sure of the return on investment to your business.
>
> B. J. Arnold-Feret
> ppsltd@airmail.net
>
> For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://rapid.lpt.fi/rp-ml/



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