the "Millennium Year Application Software System".

[Bill Gates]

This memo is to announce the development of a new software system. We are
currently building a data center that will contain all firm data that is
Year 2000 complaint. The program is referred to as the "Millennium Year
Application Software System". (MYASS).
Next Monday at 9:00 a.m. there will be a meeting in which I will show MYASS
to everyone. We will continue to hold demonstrations throughout the month so
that all employees will have an opportunity to get a good look at MYASS. As
for the status of the implementation of the program, I have not addressed
the networking aspects, so currently, only one person at a time can use
MYASS. This restriction will be removed after MYASS expands.
Several people are using the program already and have come to depend on it.
Just this morning I walked into a subordinate's office and was not surprised
to find he had his nose buried in MYASS.
I've noticed that some of the less technical personnel are somewhat afraid
of MYASS. Just last week, when asked to enter some information into the
program, I had a secretary say, "I'm a little nervous. I've never put
anything into MYASS before." I volunteered to help her through her first
time and when we were through, she admitted it was relatively painless and
she was actually looking forward to doing it again. She went so far as to
say that after using SAP and Oracle, she was ready to kiss MYASS.
I know there are concerns over the virus found in MYASS upon initial
installation, but I am pleased to say the virus has been eliminated and we
were able to save MYASS. In the future, however, protection will be required
prior to entering MYASS. We planned this database to encompass all
information associated with the business.
So, as you begin using the program, feel free to put anything you want into
MYASS. As MYASS grows larger, we envision a time when it will be common
place to walk by an office and see a manager hand a paper to an employee and
say, "here, stick this in MYASS." This program has already demonstrated
great benefit to the company. In a recent audit, an employee was asked where
he had secured the numbers on the report. He proudly exclaimed, "I just
pulled them out of MYASS."