Description

A housewarming party ends in tragedy Steve Galanos a native Midwesterner reflects on his time in Northern California during the 1990s a time when the twodigit year emerged as the Y2K problem the burgeoning Internet fueled the expansion of the New Economy the dotcom bubble created unseen prosperity and real estate frenzies Yet its a housewarming party held in late 1999 that affects him the most At the request of John Goertz a group of technology managers and executives gather in a conference room Listening to the presentation is Steve Galanos who is suspicious of Goertzs approach and the dramatic way he describes the problem Goertz tries to convince his audience that a disaster awaits them unless they immediately address the twodigit year in the companys distributed systems and compiled code Its 1994 well before anyone has heard of the termY2K A promotion to run the newlycreated year 2000 compliance program earns John more skepticism and envy from Steve yet the two have much in common and soon become good friends A few years later John leaves for a startup and their lives trend in different directions By the time John cashes out from a successful IPO gets married and buys a house in Los Gatos his friendship with Steve has waned Its at Johns housewarming party where latent animosity and lingering distrust finally come to a head