Time after time... :)

This is a well known song by Cyndi Lauper... but sometimes, like tonight, this is also the incredible things we have to do, as a computer programmer...

Warning: This is a tired sleepless blog post. It's similar to a drunk post, except that the mind is rev'ving at full speed, while I'm physically exhausted.

So I imagine this conversation with my son... years later, asking various questions about the incredible things I've done as a computer programmer.

-So you could work at home, dad?

-Ayup, it's called VPN.

-Very Pathetic News? I don't understand.

-First, stop watching Fox News. They are very pathetic thank you, and second, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. Over the internet, it brings the office to my home.

-Ah. This is like what mom is doing with her brand new hip megafliflop iPhone UltraLite LX ?

-Yup, except that dad got bigger toys to play with. A big computer, heh. :D

-What ?!?

-Size does matter, and I'll explain to you, when the time has come. :)

-Dad, can you explain again what you were doing on this day in October 2007?

-Nothing and I was paid overtime, my dear son.

-Overtime?

-Overtime to have a lot of time on hand.

-Huh?

-Overtime to keep at all time a watchful eye at the time.

-Why?

-Because the time could have gone wrong at any time. :D

-Huh ?!?

I don't want to waste your time, you know. ;)

-Dad... let me know if I get this straight.

-STRAIGHT ??!?!?

My son smiles. He knows and he's proud of his dad. Great kid. :)

-Dad... so you were paid overtime to do time in checking the time because it could go wrong at any time.

-You got just in time, son. :)

- and only during the weekend of Saturday October 27, 2007 was the right time to do so?

-Yup. That was the right time.

-Not before?

-Weeeell, I did that also in March 2007... and we had something similar on December 31st, 1999.

-Oh, that's the Y2K bug?

-Yup.

-The thing that was blown off because nothing happened?

-Nothing happened because thousands of programmers have worked hard to make sure that nothing would happen.

-And?

-And thousands of us were killing time on that December 31st, 1999, while our families were enjoying the festivities of the New Year and the Millennium. Not exactly fun.

-Same thing today? Not fun?

-Well, it's Hallowe'en. I was thinking about this kilt, you know...

-DAD!!!

-Ok, ok... I, along of thousands of computer programmers all over Canada and the United States, and even overseas were killing time.

-Why?

-Son, we're also thousands of computer programmers asking the exact same question. :)

-Ah.

-Do you know George Dubyah Bush?

-Oh, the most despised, lunatic, idiotic (and a long list of very flattery words) president in the history of the United States?

-That's the one!

(I knew this kid is brilliant, just like his father. :) )

-In school, have you read Don Quixote?

-You mean... The guy who was fighting against a bunch of energy wind turbines?

-Ahem... Sort of. :)

(This must be a heck of a revised edition since I've read Miguel de Cervantès' famous novel. :D )

-And you know how absurd it was?

-Well, no more absurd than what our governments do these days, dad.

-You got it right son!

(I'm telling you, this kid is brilliant. :) ).

-So what Bush did?

-Another absurd thing, what else? :)

We chuckle.

-Son, as absurd it was to fight windmills, err... energy wind turbines, Bush fought time.

-And he won?

-No, but your father and thousands of his colleagues all over the continent are laughing big time at the money we made thanks to him!!!

-How?

-To save energy, (and I assume to fight the need for more ahem... wind turbines? Mhhh.... ) he believed that by extending daylight saving times even further would help, from mid-March to November.

-All the way into November ?!? This is dumb!

-You got it, son! This is also why Bush thought it would be a good idea in the first place. :D

We chuckle.

-Thanks to Bush, thousands and thousands of programmers have worked hard to fix computers to compute time correctly, according to the new standards he has set. Also thanks to Bush, on this day, all over the North American continents in many data centers, there are teams of programmers, killing time to make sure there isn't a computer abiding by the old time rule...

-And paid overtime?

- (silence here)

-What else, dad?

-Thanks to Bush, his cost saving measure has cost the economy millions of dollars.

-Typical of conservative thinking. Was any electricity saved, by the way?

-I'm not sure whether the meager amount of electricity presumably saved has compensated for the thousands of additional laptop computers running, along with the many lights that were kept on during the night...

-I got it, this time.

Brilliant kid. :)

Cheers!

-E