The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170917   Message #4162069
Posted By: MaJoC the Filk
11-Jan-23 - 10:01 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: MaJoC's ditties
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: MaJoC's ditties
Here's one I originally writted in the late 1990s, and sang (for old times' sake) last Monday. It's still a protest song: even I have noticed how much the wretched machines have come to dominate Hom Sap.

THE TIME_TS ARE A-CHANGING
By: Dr M J Carter
Tune: The Times They Are a-Changing (Bob Dylan)

Come gather round users wherever you moan
And admit the computers around you have grown
So supportive you now cannot stand on your own
        If your mind for you is worth saving
Rediscover your legs or you'll drop like a stone
        For the Time_Ts are a-changing.

Come post-dated programmers profit now by your pens
Set your cursors to stun, 'tis the sweetest revenge
That this bugfest has got your old firm in a spin
        Only you can tell who that it's maiming
And their sheer desperation's your lucrative win
        When the Time_Ts are a-changing.

Come captains of industry throughout the land
And don't blindly re-use what you don't understand
Programmer supply's way outstripped by demand
        Your COBOL is rapidly ageing
So don't sever those old but experienced hands
        For the Time_Ts are a-changing.

Come beaureaucrats, businessmen, it's your last call
You've whittled your margin of error so small
By your procrastination, tomorrow you'll fall
        This problem is of your own making
Now it's hitting the fan and repainting your walls
        For the Time_Ts are a-changing.

The dateline is drawn, the cursor is cast
Millennium roll-over's coming on fast
As it steps on the landmines of five decades past
        Disorder and chaos are gaining
And the first code fixed is most likely to last
        Till the Time_Ts are done changing.

This parody Copyright © 1997, 1999 Martin J Carter
Filkstamp: Fri Jun 20 20:55:34 1997

Footnote: Y2K was the panic which worked: tens of billions of dollars in remediation meant that no planes fell out of the sky, though there were minor skirmishes that need not detain us here. Some kind soul even carefully corrected my misspelling of millennium ("an easily corrected Y2K problem", says Chris Holden).

At the time of typing, we are more than halfway from Y2K to Y2K38 (where 32-bit time_ts really will wrap round), but the latter is more than halfway to being solved at (ahem) source.