Does anyone have any good Y2K stories?

[exitseven]

I was the technology Director at a K-12 School system. I actually went to a course in preparing for the big date. I drove into my office on New Years Day to survey the damage. It tuens out that everything was running fine.

[hahahmm]

There were people who didn't even know software spreading fear in the media. I knew it wouldn't be a problem because I was one of the people getting software updated prior to Y2K. Companies aren't stupid... they weren't going to let their businesses fail over an avoidable problem. They also weren't going to fix it 5 years in advance. They waited till a year before to start dealing with it.

[exitseven]

that is what I did.

[hahahmm]

Cool. I also remember people not believing me when I told them Y2k wouldn't be a big deal.. because they heard an "expert" on tv who was really just a random nut job on some talk show like Jerry Springer type thing

[DrPepper12]

Just another hangover tbh...

[OlderAndWiser]

It was a tremndously overblown, for the most part fabricated crisis. The earth did not stop spinning and the sun did not stop shining.

[exitseven]

I expected to see airplanes fall out of the sky.

[OlderAndWiser]

Yes, and the parade of horribles to which we were exposed was just the media using the opportunity to flex their power.

[msc545]

Is everything you dislike the result of a nefarious plot, or was the concern about Y2K justified? Do you really understand why many people were worried about technology at that time?

[ReesesThins2]

@msc545
Were the tech giants worried?

[OlderAndWiser]

@msc545 If anyone truly suspected cataclysmic failures, they could have tested the hypothesis by setting up a system sufficiently isolated so that it couldn't correct from external cues, advance the date to December 31, 1999 at 11:59 pm, and then watch what happened.

[msc545]

That was done. It was the interaction of the problem with large systems and databases that people worried about and that could not be practically tested.

[msc545]

"Systems were extensively tested before Y2K because there was a widespread fear that many computer systems, due to their design of storing dates with only the last two digits, would malfunction when the year rolled over from 1999 to 2000, potentially causing major disruptions in critical sectors like finance, transportation, and power grids, leading to the need to thoroughly check and update all date-related functions in software before the transition to the new millennium"

[OlderAndWiser]

@msc545 If the threat was perceived as real, why were there planes in the air at midnight?

[msc545]

Planes actually did not use anything that Y2K would have affected adversely enough to cause an accident. At most, an inconvenience. Even now a similar situation would cause the plane to need to be manually flown and navigated, but pilots are trained to do that even in small planes. I was.

[msc545]

Also "Despite the widespread fear surrounding Y2K, planes remained in the air at midnight because extensive testing and preventative measures were taken to ensure critical systems like air traffic control could handle the date change, meaning that while there was concern, most systems were deemed sufficiently Y2K compliant to continue operations as normal; essentially, the fear of widespread chaos never materialized as anticipated. "

[OlderAndWiser]

@msc545 And how did the widespread fear of chaos originate?

[msc545]

I don't really know the answer to that.

[OlderAndWiser]

@msc545 Every day, for many months beforehand, the MSM told us that the sky was falling.

[msc545]

I don't think that is what was said.

[msc545]

Hyperbole much? :)

[exitseven]

@OlderAndWiser. I was able to patch all my Windows 2000 Servers so the date would ha e 4 digits. I built one for test and it performed fine so I tested one if the others with the same result. I took the threat seriously but it was overblown

[msc545]

Thank you for doing that - that is a LOT.

[OlderAndWiser]

@msc545 Google Y2K problem

[msc545]

I googled it and unfortunately, the results did not add anything to my present knowledge of the events. What did I miss?

[OlderAndWiser]

@msc545 Google disingenuous

[msc545]

Google unamused.

[OlderAndWiser]

@msc545 Google "no sense of humor"

[msc545]

Google: despite the best intentions of friends, some things are just not particularly funny.

[ArrowheadSW]

All companies prepped for it. The company that I worked for prepped for it well in advance. But on the other hand, they made every location get lousy gasoline generators "just in case". I don't know what good the gasoline powered generators would do if the computers were down.

[ArrowheadSW]

On a worldwide basis, I didn't really hear of any problems. Maybe there were some individual users who had issues if they didn't make the appropriate upgrades.

[TrueConfection]

I chose to ignore the mass hysteria created over a scare tactic to keep everyone from leaving their homes. I had a great time!

[DryGermanGuy]

Our and other counties' administration software was not Y2K safe and as a result all the people that were or turned 100 got a baby welcome package send to their address. :-D

[Beckybooboo]

I'm an interesting story! 😂😂 All indications are, I was conceived on Jan. 1st. 2000. I was an, "oops" baby, from a very horny dad and a slightly intoxicated mother lol but I became the daughter they always wanted.

[exitseven]

Thst is an amazing story.

[Wiredone]

So you weren't an oops, you were a welcomed surprise.

[Beckybooboo]

@Wiredone Yes, I was. My mom always said, "I'm glad I had too much to drink that night, otherwise, I wouldn't have you". She had three son's, that are amazing but she always wanted a daughter.

[Wiredone]

I'm sure you made them proud.

[RingOfFire]

Here's something I would like to know. There's probably something about it online but I was too lazy to look it up. However I've thought about it now and then ever since that Y2K day.

Like so many other predicted catastrophes Y2K turned out to be a dud.

It was supposed to be the end of the world. They were predicting dire consequences.

But just like the government shutdown that they portray as impending Armageddon, no one even noticed on Y2K day.

So here's a question. Did it turn out to be such a non-event because we were so well prepared for it and took measures to prevent it? Or did it turn out to be such a non-event because it would have been a non event anyway whether we prepared for it or not. Yes it would have been problems but yes we would have also fixed them in short order.

[exitseven]

a few companies still had older systems but most of them prepared for it. I attended a seminar about Y2K preparation and I found out what kind of equipment would be vulnerable.

[RingOfFire]

It was a lot of that Cobalt code.

[RingOfFire]

🤣 I said COBOL, and the phone wrote it correctly but when I posted it it came out as Cobalt.

[exitseven]

hahaha yes, guys that new COBOL were all of a sudden in demand again.

[RingOfFire]

Yes they were. At the time I was in charge of an IT department and we hired some.

[najekim]

Yup. There were about a dozen families in the clubhouse at the nudist club we belonged to at the time. Right we hit zero on the countdown the power went out in the clubhouse. Some of the adults went WTF and a couple of the younger kids still awake started to cry, then power came back on a minute or two later and a couple more families walked through the doors laughing their asses off at us since it was them that killed the main power breaker to the building.

[HighValue]

To this day I still laugh about all the "experts" and multi-million dollar companies that bought into the lie that could easily be forseen with logical problem solving. The majority of the world fell for the lies so people/politicians that invested in Dell computers that claimed to be "Y2K compliant" could make a fortune.

Just as many people fell for the mRNA covid vaccine scam too.

[Anonymous]

I broke into a K-Mart on New Years Eve because I thought that everyone else would be trying to get in as soon as midnight struck. They had everything I needed in case the world stopped functioning - food, clothing, and ammo. Midnight came and went and nothing happened so I just pretended to be a shopper and went home at like 11AM.

[Iron_Man]

I spent Y2K in Orlando, Florida visiting friends and I brought my family. I knew that was a bunch of hype. All that computer shut down and everything

[KrakenAttackin]

I worked as a Patrolman until 10:00pm. After clocking out I went to Walmart and bought a 12 pack of Molsons and three boxes of.45 ammo.

The whole Y2K ended up being a non event but it did make for an interesting time.

[Notherndude84]

Lost my virginity in 1999 lol 😝

[Aphrodite2001]

Before my time.