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OMG, it’s been 20 years since the hysteria and fear over Y2K!
My ex-wife and I were living together and cooking in the kitchen when we heard our kids crying. Because of where we lived at the time we only had access to one clear antenna channel. The kids had the TV on and it was a religious organization playing a doomsday program about Y2K showing all the things that is going to happen. It was followed by all the survival products you could order from them to help you survive. My ex-wife may be a devout Christian but she’s also a former sailor and a very angry protective mother. Can’t type here the words she used when she called that group.
At work the bosses were in a panic to backup all software. Some bosses even proposed extra staffing on New Year’s Eve saying the security was worth the extra holiday pay (either more sensible or more frugal minds prevailed). I was working that night. Midnight came and went with nothing happening.
I spent from June-December 1999 working overtime so that "nothing" happened on 1/1/2000
Many of the big tech companies joined forces and coordinated efforts to check code, get changes out as patches/fixes and also jumped into the Linux community to help.
OMG, it’s been 20 years since the hysteria and fear over Y2K!
My ex-wife and I were living together and cooking in the kitchen when we heard our kids crying. Because of where we lived at the time we only had access to one clear antenna channel. The kids had the TV on and it was a religious organization playing a doomsday program about Y2K showing all the things that is going to happen. It was followed by all the survival products you could order from them to help you survive. My ex-wife may be a devout Christian but she’s also a former sailor and a very angry protective mother. Can’t type here the words she used when she called that group.
At work the bosses were in a panic to backup all software. Some bosses even proposed extra staffing on New Year’s Eve saying the security was worth the extra holiday pay (either more sensible or more frugal minds prevailed). I was working that night. Midnight came and went with nothing happening.
Any Y2K stories or memories?
I worked in the data center for a major company at the time. It was a madhouse, and for the cherry on top? One of my coworkers was a prepper who - for the entire year - never shut up about the global catastrophe that he insisted was looming no matter what we did. He insisted that everything in the world with a computer chip in it would malfunction when the year rolled over. I vividly remember a surreal conversation in which I tried, with no success, to explain to him that, no, under no circumstances was my coffee-maker going to refuse to brew me coffee on the morning of January 1, 2000. He was adamant that it would not work.
His delusions also held that the government knew exactly what was going to happen and was concealing the truth to 'prevent panic' (I never could get him to logically explain why the government would prefer the even greater panic that would result if something was concealed and then happened, rather than issuing a forewarning that would at least allow some preparation for the supposedly inevitable, thereby mitigating some of the supposed panic).
Quote:
Originally Posted by TMSRetired
I spent from June-December 1999 working overtime so that "nothing" happened on 1/1/2000
Many of the big tech companies joined forces and coordinated efforts to check code, get changes out as patches/fixes and also jumped into the Linux community to help.
And ..."nothing" is exactly what happened !!
And nothing also happened for those companies that didn't prepare.
It was a minor problem. It's resolution was simple, although in many cases entailed annoyingly tedious fixes. The result? Some minor glitches. And it is worth remembering that there were industries and parts of the globe that did virtually nothing in preparation for Y2K and... in those industries and parts of the globe, the result was still just... some minor glitches.
99% of the cottage industry over Y2K was based not in solving any problems but on fanning the flames of hysteria in order to make money off said fear in a variety of shameless ways.
I worked in the data center for a major company at the time. It was a madhouse, and for the cherry on top? One of my coworkers was a prepper who - for the entire year - never shut up about the global catastrophe that he insisted was looming no matter what we did. He insisted that everything in the world with a computer chip in it would malfunction when the year rolled over. I vividly remember a surreal conversation in which I tried, with no success, to explain to him that, no, under no circumstances was my coffee-maker going to refuse to brew me coffee on the morning of January 1, 2000. He was adamant that it would not work.
His delusions also held that the government knew exactly what was going to happen and was concealing the truth to 'prevent panic' (I never could get him to logically explain why the government would prefer the even greater panic that would result if something was concealed and then happened, rather than issuing a forewarning that would at least allow some preparation for the supposedly inevitable, thereby mitigating some of the supposed panic).
And nothing also happened for those companies that didn't prepare.
It was a minor problem. It's resolution was simple, although in many cases entailed annoyingly tedious fixes. The result? Some minor glitches. And it is worth remembering that there were industries and parts of the globe that did virtually nothing in preparation for Y2K and... in those industries and parts of the globe, the result was still just... some minor glitches.
99% of the cottage industry over Y2K was based not in solving any problems but on fanning the flames of hysteria in order to make money off said fear in a variety of shameless ways.
When the first report about the possibility of Y2K came up I grabbed my VCR, set the date and time to 12/31/99 12:55pm. Did the same with my desktop and my VHS camcorder. Nothing happened. At work I took reasonable precautions. I worked in a hospital boiler room monitoring the fire alarm system, HVAC system, and medical gas system. Should the electronics fail, there were manual overrides. Nothing happened.
I was yet another worker caught up in the Y2K hysteria and watched as consultants were hired, IT working overtime, controls put in place - which turned out to be a whole lot of nothing.
I guess if nothing else lots of IT consultants make some money, I almost wonder if the hysteria was a self-serving non-existent crises created by the IT industry just for that purpose.
As a computers/technology guy, I knew all along that the Y2K stuff was nonsense. I told everybody I could ahead of time too. And sure enough, nothing major happened, just as I suspected.
But of others? People were and are gullible and inclined to freak out, rather than research and think for themselves. If anything, people are even more gullible and easily led by opinions swirling around them now. I rarely ever see a person immune to the daily nonsense, and instead exhibiting a brain in control and disciplined, and only focused on and seeking out truth.
OMG, it’s been 20 years since the hysteria and fear over Y2K!
My ex-wife and I were living together and cooking in the kitchen when we heard our kids crying. Because of where we lived at the time we only had access to one clear antenna channel. The kids had the TV on and it was a religious organization playing a doomsday program about Y2K showing all the things that is going to happen. It was followed by all the survival products you could order from them to help you survive. My ex-wife may be a devout Christian but she’s also a former sailor and a very angry protective mother. Can’t type here the words she used when she called that group.
At work the bosses were in a panic to backup all software. Some bosses even proposed extra staffing on New Year’s Eve saying the security was worth the extra holiday pay (either more sensible or more frugal minds prevailed). I was working that night. Midnight came and went with nothing happening.
Any Y2K stories or memories?
Yeah, and I'll be forever pissed.
I worked my whole career in computer programming and systems design and the hysteria that this little issue provoked still angers me. I knew it was gonna be a big nothing burger because people didn't realize what a truly trivial 'problem' this presented.
Sure, a few programs might be bugged, but no one (except us professionals) knew that PROGRAMS BOMB AND SCREW UP EVERY NIGHT, EVERYWHERE!
And they always will..so we fix them.
I was yet another worker caught up in the Y2K hysteria and watched as consultants were hired, IT working overtime, controls put in place - which turned out to be a whole lot of nothing.
I guess if nothing else lots of IT consultants make some money, I almost wonder if the hysteria was a self-serving non-existent crises created by the IT industry just for that purpose.
True, it was for news "value" and news "gain". $ensationalism $ells!
And the truth?.... eh, that's unfortunately boring in comparison, and isn't what many want deep-down. People want thrills and emotion.
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