Tags: editorial | letters | Y2K

Letters to the Editor, Issue #28

Not tonight honey. I have a modem. Hey, Think peoples, and Praha peoples in general. This is Jeremy writing, the singer and guitar player - you know, Jeremy Saxon Band, used to be Old Town Squares.

Listen, it's been good and I'll be leaving now, going to sow my blue seed back home in San Francisco. I want to thank all of you before I go, not only for helping to support the band during these years, and not only for coming up to us during the gigs and telling us you liked what we were doing.

The main thanks is for those moments, when the volume was right and the feeling was right and the groove was on and the eye contact happened; and no one had to say anything about it because everybody knew. We couldn't have done that without you, you were part of it and it was like the best part of sex, when the personalities are indistinguishable and the rhythm rules. I grew up in this town, as far as I'll ever grow up.

I was a wannabe when I came here, and step by step, night by night and song by song while you were watching and drinking and thinking and listening and not listening, I've honed it down and worked it up, to the point where I'm doing damn near exactly what I want to be doing.

My fantasy has become my real life. Thank you for helping. Thank you for being here, and thank you for being beautiful. If you want to come by and say so long, we'll still be at Scarlett's on Thursdays and Red Hot & Blues on Saturdays, these last few weeks until the Millenium, plus the assorted other few shows I'm off to newer pastures now, and I hope to see you all at some point.

Wish me well, as I do you. Think of me fondly, as I do you. And keep on looking forward. My love to you all,

- Jeremy Saxon

Hello,

I am a student here in Prague, but I was born in Canada. I just wanted to tell you that Think is the best magazine ever! I love all of the party pics. And the stories. I think it should win a Grammy award!

But I also think you should put in more articles and less advertisements. I really like the magazine, but think it would be a whole lot better if you would put more stories. Also I think you should put in less articles about sex relationships because not very many people even care to read this.

I think there should be more about friendship, family relations and the environment. Well that is just my opinion, thanks for letting me express it. Anyways, I just wanted to say keep up the good work.

- Marielle Evans

Hi Marielle

Do they give Grammy Awards for magazines? Sign us up! Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't know about the sex part, seems to me everyone's interested in sex. How old are you anyway? Because if you're underage, you shouldn't even know about sex.

From Noel

Attention Praguers; my guitars and bass were stolen from my flat by breakers-in with taste, I guess - and respect they took put them all in cases. So if you happen to pass a music shop perhaps you could look in and if you see the bass of course - buy it for me, or reserve it and ring me or something - cos it didn't cost that much money - but it is unique - we think - and you might even recognise the guitars, whatever. Fridays will find us with borrowed instruments making the most of what we can - and singing as we piss in the wind

- love and laborious losing laughter, Noel

Hello,

Not sure who is still around at Think... but I would love to know what's up both with the mag and the town... Thinking about coming back after this Peace-Corps stint... after 2 year of tropical rain forest I will be ready for some brown coal and snow! Hey is think On-line?

- Peace, Glenn Tosten

Hi Glenn,

Yup, our lame site is still up, with an update coming soon. But if you want to see more current info, all the latest Think stuff can be found at www.think-magazine.com and http://prague.thinkexpats.com

Dear Editors,

I really love your magazine. I share it with my friends and I can't wait until the next one! Thanks a lot for making such a great magazine!

- Honey Bunny

Y2K Paranoia

Some really interesting comments on Y2K in your past few issues, but I'd like to put in my two crowns worth. First off, if at all possible, you shouldn't fly on or around the Millennium. That's when the FAA computer systems will have their problems. No one really knows for sure if it will work or if planes will crash.

They do know that the air traffic control computers are so outdated, they've been running them with the year set to the 1960s for some time now.

Being in the biz, I see the paranoia about Y2K causing more problems and chaos than processing errors. It's not like computers will simply stop running... they'll just spit out crap until they are fixed. I'm much more afraid of paranoid people than I am of any processing error.

Like people setting themselves on fire in public places and other people carrying signs saying the end is near. I bet that there will be lots more mass suicides and terrorist attacks before the end of the year. It all seems kinda silly, given the fact that our whole date system is completely made up. But I suppose if enough people believe, then it must be true.

Most computers will not 'crash'; they will simply process the data incorrectly. This could mean some serious billing headaches for everyone, but the problem is limited to things that do date comparisons. American banks and other financial institutions we're required to be Y2K compliant by the middle of this year or the gov't. would shut them down.

They didn't.

The fact that your PC might wakeup with Jan 1900 on New Year's Day is just the tip of the iceberg. Billing problems are also fairly insignificant. Very few people realize just to what extent the financial markets depend on current data about the assets and liabilities of corporations. Those in turn depend on properly time-coded transactions in databases.

Markets could fail. People could loose jobs just because the billing data is wrong. Computers also operate all kinds of industrial automation controls, so are power plants and railways. If that 8:15 doesn't get there on time or smart elevators cease to function or you lose your cushy job you'll have something else to b*tch about.

"Why didn't they warn us?! ! "

Granted this is not the end of the world but it might be the end of some pretty significant things. Some people believe January 1, 2000 marks the day of apocalyptic destruction. Stock up on freeze-dried pea soup while you still can.

See for yourself at www.garynorth.com

- James Golden

Hi James,

Thanks for the warning, knock the special knock on my bunker door if you wanna get in, but you'll have to bring your own beer and something good to read (no Prague Posts!). Actually, even us Mac guys are not safe, I read a report which says that the Mac OS goes kaput in 2008. Better late than never, I guess.