Here is another story, unrelated to Gary North, that raises the same
question:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth060.htm

It says, in part:

"International Data Corp., an analyst firm, put the amount wasted in the
United States as high as $41 billion [out of $100 billion], including $2.7
billion on extra staff who spent the holiday weekend twiddling their thumbs
after Y2K failures failed to materialize."


Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]     Therm-O-Link, Inc.
Phone: (330) 527-2124                   P. O. Box 285
  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   Garrettsville, Ohio  44231

----- Original Message -----
From: Jeanne Pitts <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2000 1:12 PM
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] Y2K: The Greatest Hoax of the Millennium?


> I didn't start programming in COBOL until the 80's and other than the HP,
> the IBM was the only computer I had experience on - Fortran, was the first
> language I learned.  And, of course, the HP ran circles around the IBM
back
> then as far as "user-friendly" goes.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerry Fochtman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> At 09:25 AM 1/6/2000 -0800, Jeanne Pitts wrote:
> >Actually that should read - every bit, nibble, and byte counted (anyone
> >remember the nibble?  I believe it was 4 bits and was an HP3000 term).
>
> Yep, nibble is 4 bits, but sorry, the term 'nibble' pre-dates the HP3K...
>
> I believe it may have been arrived as a part of the packed-decimal format,
> which was developed as a part of COBOL simply to help conserve storage of
> numeric values when indeed machine sizes and storage capacities were
> measured in k-bytes. (However, I'm sure Wirt, or someone will locate a URL
> that will give us a more concise answer...:)