The short-sightedness of computer programmers 30 years ago will result in a major headache for mainframe operators when the clock ticks one second past midnight on Dec. 31, 1999. In an effort to save two bytes of memory, many programmers eliminated the first two digits of the year in software essential to the functions of some of the world's biggest financial and business institutions. These guys knew what they were doing. According to Harper's Index, the ratio of worldwide military spending, per soldier, to educational spending, per school-age child, is 25 to 1. Most of the hype from online advertising and multimedia comes from companies that expect to make a profit selling hardware and software to other companies that will use it and then find they wasted revenue.
People get online to play games and read alt.sex newsgroups.
That's why Roseanne and Bay Watch are such popular TV shows, and most people think Gettysburg was a Viet Nam battle. Bertelsmann is the second-largest media company in the world. Unless you believe the stock can go higher. Son went to school at UC Berkeley where he won a patent for a pocket computer translator that eventually became the Sharp Corp. wizard organizer. Son is a Korean and had to fight years of official resistance to become a Japanese citizen.