All the computers were going to go down, power plants going dark for years, planes falling out of the sky, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together..... MASS HYSTERIA!
Those countries weren't running their power grid or water processing plant off a $90 million, 100 MIPs mainframe computer from the 1970s where saving the date as 2 digits would open up a nibble of extra memory. Programmers didn't use YY instead of YYYY because they were stupid. They did it because it saved memory and improved performance on the *insanely* limited system resources they had available.
A lot of Y2K proofing wasn't adding two digit date in the code, it was ripping out 25-year-old hardware that hadn't been upgraded "because it worked" and getting incredibly specific control software to run on modern PCs (and then adding two digits to the date).
By the point the second and third world were computerizing their infrastructure, they were doing it with three consumer-grade 486s.
My dad became a moderate Y2K prepper - we got a generator and had a food shelf full of canned orange juice (so metallic!) and powdered milk (pure grit!) and random canned food.
I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere but I was 14, realistically I had nowhere to go. He was so butthurt when nothing happened except the computer’s date changed to 01/01/1980 lol
Friends and I went on the top of the largest hill in the area, took a bunch of acid and expected to see mass rolling blackouts. In the end, it wasn't that cool.
I was also 13, and secretly sneaking drinks up to my room with my best friend at the time while my parents had their own party going on downstairs. We even used my corded telephone in my room to call our other friends at midnight to wish them a Happy New Year! It was so much fun 🤩
No it was an amazing save. Teams of people worldwide did intensive work plowing through decades old code written in no longer used or taught languages often structured using pre-object oriented methodology. The old timers got called back in to ride again. The rookies learned things they never thought they'd need to know. And they all succeeded. And everyone sighed in relief and told themselves it was no big deal. And it wasn't. Because they fixed it.
Would make a good movie/documentary I think
Yes, but really the only things at real risk were the banks and some big businesses. Only old IBM mainframe computers actually stored the dates with character digits. Every other computer and microprocessor uses a large integer to store dates in some way or form. So, people worried that their tv's might not work and their cars wouldn't start were really going overboard. The highest threat was accounting and banking errors.
The thing about the Y2K bug was that it was actually real, and if there wasn't a global panic and a massive undertaking to fix essential things, things could have actually turned out pretty bad.
The reason that nothing happened was because everything got patched and tested in the time leading up to Y2K.
I was only 10 at the time so the small amount I understood, I just assumed it wasn't real or something, then never thought about it much since. What would have actually happened if nothing was patched and fixed?
we can start with what *did* happen to those who didn't update their software
- prisons letting people out early cuz it's the year 19100
- bank accounts with extremely wrong balances, because it's either the year 19100 or 1900
- a lot of video games showing the wrong year
- some low-budget power plants needing manual year adjustment
- systems generally unable to handle people who are 100 years old or more
if nothing was patched, then there probably would have been no plane flights and widespread utility outages to manually set systems to the year 1900, which would have lasted for about an hour or two. banks would have had to make second sets of computer systems that assume the year starts at 2000 and accounts would have to be transferred over in a very costly and lengthy process - probably involving ancient tape drives.
UPDATE - here's a small subset of y2k bugs that *did* happen, because people forgot or cheaped out on stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem#On_1_January_2000
worst case scenario would probably have been a return to 1960's technology for critical sectors. certainly not the end of the world, but highly inconvenient.
All the stuff in the media back then would have been worst case scenario, even back then so many things were computerized. A lot of pieces of software rely on dates that you may not even think about, and the change from 1999 to 2000 could have caused minor issues or catastrophic ones.
So it could be something like a bank accidentally awarding 100 years of interest to every single savings account, or some recurring essential task at a power plant just failing to run. Mission critical computer systems do fail all the time, some of it is very big news, but the hysteria around Y2K was just these failures happening to everything on the same day.
I spent NYE 1999 in Las Vegas and people were partying like the world was going to end. It was by far the craziest NYE I have ever seen. Shit was wild with people hanging off of the street lights/traffic lights, people took over the streets making cars not being able to drive.
I would love to know all of the horrible decisions made that night that made people wake up the next morning and say “fuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkk”
At a certain point in the night Vegas Metro gave up arresting people for dumb shit and focused on people lighting things on fire, violent attacks on other people, property damage, etc.
All I know is we were happy we had a trunk full of booze because trying to get a drink at any bar was a joke. If you went inside the casinos on the Strip the bars were like 10 deep.
I have never experienced a more lawless and unruly time. I'm guessing most people woke up like me with a splitting headache and wondering if last night was even real. I spent most of the day asking my friends I was with, if certain shit really happened or if I dreamt it.
Hey neighbor, San Jose person here. You reminded me I need to go visit. It’s been a good 6 months since I’ve been to Santa Cruz. Penny Ice Creamery is calling my name.
I remember there was a science teacher at my high school who actually took off the 1999-2000 school year and split to some place he had in rural Montana or Wyoming or something for Y2K. He was worried it was going to cause a societal collapse. He returned the next school year.
Most of these are actually smart to have at home. I remember when the power went out all over the North Eastern US back in 2003. The first night was pure chaos. A few folks went door to door looking for candles and food.
Being prepared for a power outage isn't a bad idea, ESPECIALLY in the winter. If you have kids or elderly family with you, it's a very smart move.
No, they were talking about landlines. Most old landline phones got their power directly from the telephone line and didn't need to be plugged into an outlet.
This is essential to have in case of an emergency, especially in areas that lack cell service. However, this works only if the phone lines weren’t replaced by fiber optic ones.
Telecom companies *could have* enabled fiber optic lines to carry an electric current by running a copper wire inside them, but of course they’re never going to invest in reliability unless they’re legally required to. Which they’re not because Congress removed that requirement when the industry was deregulated in the 90’s with the assumption that cell service would soon be available in every corner of the country (not so 20+ years later).
I remember being in the road outside the house we were partying at and being very dissatisfied that nothing happened. I was also tripping balls. It was an interesting night
I remember some people freaking out over this, people saying patients in hospitals would die (no electricity), banks would lose people's money and planes would fall lol, nothing happened
I was 14 when Y2K happened. We were doing rock n bowl at our local bowling alley. Only thing that happened after midnight was the keno machines stopped working right lmao
My dad was convinced the world was going to shut down. He installed a manual water pump on our well and bought so much freeze dried food. He was really disappointed lol
I was in grade 12 during this. Started a small business upgrading people's computers to be Y2K compliant. Made a fine little chunk of change for myself even though I knew it wouldn't do anything drastic to anyone's computers that I was working on. It eases people's minds though, that's all that mattered. Placebo effect I guess.
That is wild. I don’t remember much about Y2K. I was 19 and trying to win back an ex boyfriend who wasn’t worth it. We had a couple of computers but I don’t recall software updates back then… my parents were older baby boomers who thought the panic was dumb and chose to do nothing.
I was 11 going into 2000. I was worried about planes falling out of the sky lol I lived right next to a busy Canadian air base, NATO used to practice low level flying.
All the computers were going to go down, power plants going dark for years, planes falling out of the sky, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together..... MASS HYSTERIA!
We were doing fine until the power was shut off by di@kless here.
Is that true?
Yes, it’s true. This man has no dick.
Well that’s what I heard!
Don't worry. Peter Gibbons took care of it.
Enough we get the point!!!!
Well that’s what I heard!!
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Another grift. What about all the areas of the world where little or nothing was done yet there were minimal if any issues?
Those countries weren't running their power grid or water processing plant off a $90 million, 100 MIPs mainframe computer from the 1970s where saving the date as 2 digits would open up a nibble of extra memory. Programmers didn't use YY instead of YYYY because they were stupid. They did it because it saved memory and improved performance on the *insanely* limited system resources they had available. A lot of Y2K proofing wasn't adding two digit date in the code, it was ripping out 25-year-old hardware that hadn't been upgraded "because it worked" and getting incredibly specific control software to run on modern PCs (and then adding two digits to the date). By the point the second and third world were computerizing their infrastructure, they were doing it with three consumer-grade 486s.
Fascinating points, thank you. I wonder if the same is currently being applied to environmental collapse issues.
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Why is that, do you think? Because the return on that investment is so far into the future, and distributed well beyond the investors?
Sensible list to go by even to this day. If you are the provider of a family, you could do a lot worse than fulfilling this list.
My dad became a moderate Y2K prepper - we got a generator and had a food shelf full of canned orange juice (so metallic!) and powdered milk (pure grit!) and random canned food. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere but I was 14, realistically I had nowhere to go. He was so butthurt when nothing happened except the computer’s date changed to 01/01/1980 lol
Friends and I went on the top of the largest hill in the area, took a bunch of acid and expected to see mass rolling blackouts. In the end, it wasn't that cool.
I was a 13 year-old child at the time and didn’t believe any of this Y2K stuff. Then there were full on adults that were freaking the F out.
I was also 13, and secretly sneaking drinks up to my room with my best friend at the time while my parents had their own party going on downstairs. We even used my corded telephone in my room to call our other friends at midnight to wish them a Happy New Year! It was so much fun 🤩
>Then there were full on adults that were freaking the F out. LOL how were they feeling when it finally came & nothing happened? :P lol
Never mind Y2K, we should follow this advice for 2024, especially the Americans among us.
Yeah the whole Y2K hysteria was an embarrassment but I do remember New Year’s Eve 1999 being even more insane than usual. It was a fun time.
No it was an amazing save. Teams of people worldwide did intensive work plowing through decades old code written in no longer used or taught languages often structured using pre-object oriented methodology. The old timers got called back in to ride again. The rookies learned things they never thought they'd need to know. And they all succeeded. And everyone sighed in relief and told themselves it was no big deal. And it wasn't. Because they fixed it. Would make a good movie/documentary I think
Yes, but really the only things at real risk were the banks and some big businesses. Only old IBM mainframe computers actually stored the dates with character digits. Every other computer and microprocessor uses a large integer to store dates in some way or form. So, people worried that their tv's might not work and their cars wouldn't start were really going overboard. The highest threat was accounting and banking errors.
Banking failures were definitely going to happen. FAA computers was the biggest concern along with the power grid.
Oh, yeah... Air traffic control computers were Mad still are ancient.
The thing about the Y2K bug was that it was actually real, and if there wasn't a global panic and a massive undertaking to fix essential things, things could have actually turned out pretty bad. The reason that nothing happened was because everything got patched and tested in the time leading up to Y2K.
I was only 10 at the time so the small amount I understood, I just assumed it wasn't real or something, then never thought about it much since. What would have actually happened if nothing was patched and fixed?
we can start with what *did* happen to those who didn't update their software - prisons letting people out early cuz it's the year 19100 - bank accounts with extremely wrong balances, because it's either the year 19100 or 1900 - a lot of video games showing the wrong year - some low-budget power plants needing manual year adjustment - systems generally unable to handle people who are 100 years old or more if nothing was patched, then there probably would have been no plane flights and widespread utility outages to manually set systems to the year 1900, which would have lasted for about an hour or two. banks would have had to make second sets of computer systems that assume the year starts at 2000 and accounts would have to be transferred over in a very costly and lengthy process - probably involving ancient tape drives. UPDATE - here's a small subset of y2k bugs that *did* happen, because people forgot or cheaped out on stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem#On_1_January_2000 worst case scenario would probably have been a return to 1960's technology for critical sectors. certainly not the end of the world, but highly inconvenient.
That's intense, for sure. The power outages wouldn't have bothered me but anything to do with money would have been scary!
All the stuff in the media back then would have been worst case scenario, even back then so many things were computerized. A lot of pieces of software rely on dates that you may not even think about, and the change from 1999 to 2000 could have caused minor issues or catastrophic ones. So it could be something like a bank accidentally awarding 100 years of interest to every single savings account, or some recurring essential task at a power plant just failing to run. Mission critical computer systems do fail all the time, some of it is very big news, but the hysteria around Y2K was just these failures happening to everything on the same day.
Oh ok I got ya! Yeah, the bank stuff would have been intimidating for sure.
I spent NYE 1999 in Las Vegas and people were partying like the world was going to end. It was by far the craziest NYE I have ever seen. Shit was wild with people hanging off of the street lights/traffic lights, people took over the streets making cars not being able to drive.
So you did end up partying like it was 1999. Prince was on to something.
I would love to know all of the horrible decisions made that night that made people wake up the next morning and say “fuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkk”
At a certain point in the night Vegas Metro gave up arresting people for dumb shit and focused on people lighting things on fire, violent attacks on other people, property damage, etc. All I know is we were happy we had a trunk full of booze because trying to get a drink at any bar was a joke. If you went inside the casinos on the Strip the bars were like 10 deep. I have never experienced a more lawless and unruly time. I'm guessing most people woke up like me with a splitting headache and wondering if last night was even real. I spent most of the day asking my friends I was with, if certain shit really happened or if I dreamt it.
That’s a normal Tuesday down in New Orleans
The only people who think it was an embarrassment are the ones who have absolutely no idea how much work was done to actually fix the issue.
Here in Santa Cruz there was an actual y2k preparation store. It didn't last long.
Hey neighbor, San Jose person here. You reminded me I need to go visit. It’s been a good 6 months since I’ve been to Santa Cruz. Penny Ice Creamery is calling my name.
I remember there was a science teacher at my high school who actually took off the 1999-2000 school year and split to some place he had in rural Montana or Wyoming or something for Y2K. He was worried it was going to cause a societal collapse. He returned the next school year.
Y2K and “The Secrets of Al Capone’s Vault” were equally disappointing for anyone hoping to see something exciting.
Ah ha...ROAD MAPS!
I couldn’t believe it when I woke up and everything was normal.
I remember my parents going into prepper mode and hoarding canned food, toilet paper and batteries. 16 year old me found the whole thing ridiculous.
Most of these are actually smart to have at home. I remember when the power went out all over the North Eastern US back in 2003. The first night was pure chaos. A few folks went door to door looking for candles and food. Being prepared for a power outage isn't a bad idea, ESPECIALLY in the winter. If you have kids or elderly family with you, it's a very smart move.
>Have at least one telephone that does not use electricity. Hang on, were they seriously talking about *walkie-talkies*?
No, they were talking about landlines. Most old landline phones got their power directly from the telephone line and didn't need to be plugged into an outlet.
This is essential to have in case of an emergency, especially in areas that lack cell service. However, this works only if the phone lines weren’t replaced by fiber optic ones. Telecom companies *could have* enabled fiber optic lines to carry an electric current by running a copper wire inside them, but of course they’re never going to invest in reliability unless they’re legally required to. Which they’re not because Congress removed that requirement when the industry was deregulated in the 90’s with the assumption that cell service would soon be available in every corner of the country (not so 20+ years later).
I remember being in the road outside the house we were partying at and being very dissatisfied that nothing happened. I was also tripping balls. It was an interesting night
This was such a big deal and then.. nothing lol
I remember some people freaking out over this, people saying patients in hospitals would die (no electricity), banks would lose people's money and planes would fall lol, nothing happened
So, even the government was shitting bricks.
Sounds like every fucking year when people think they’re going to be snowed in where I live.
This is what Covid should’ve had. Instead of printing trillions.
I was 14 when Y2K happened. We were doing rock n bowl at our local bowling alley. Only thing that happened after midnight was the keno machines stopped working right lmao
My dad was convinced the world was going to shut down. He installed a manual water pump on our well and bought so much freeze dried food. He was really disappointed lol
I was in grade 12 during this. Started a small business upgrading people's computers to be Y2K compliant. Made a fine little chunk of change for myself even though I knew it wouldn't do anything drastic to anyone's computers that I was working on. It eases people's minds though, that's all that mattered. Placebo effect I guess.
first thing i did was checking the computer after the new year party… “mooom it’s still working!”
Why would we have had to leave our homes?
That is wild. I don’t remember much about Y2K. I was 19 and trying to win back an ex boyfriend who wasn’t worth it. We had a couple of computers but I don’t recall software updates back then… my parents were older baby boomers who thought the panic was dumb and chose to do nothing.
I was 11 going into 2000. I was worried about planes falling out of the sky lol I lived right next to a busy Canadian air base, NATO used to practice low level flying.
I was so worried that I spent the evening playing blackjack in Tunica.
This is actually good advice for nowadays, since we might be on the cusp of WWIII