You think it was a hoax? IMO, it was a very critical warning that every major company around the globe examined and agreed with, and then invested a lot of money in fixing. The only reason that those things didn't happen is because of the advance warning by people like Yourdon.
+1
Of course, the hoopla was overblown by the media. I've had a lot of experience dealing with reporters over the years. Every time, and I mean _every_ time, they did a story that I was involved in, or knew the facts about, there was at least one major error in what they reported. Specialist science and technology reporters are no better at being accurate than generic journalists. Every news story that you see, from every source, contains errors, and the headlines, which are written by editors, not reporters, are often way off base in relation to the content of the story.
The media coverage of the problem was a hoax. The problem was very real.
Ken Dibble www.stic-cil.org