What was Y2K really like?

Question

Let me hear the testimony of this history from you old peeps 🐥

MrOracle · Accepted Answer

It was relatively uneventful... BUT that's because there was a massive effort, mostly starting about 5 years prior and really ramping up about 3 years prior, with over a trillion dollars spent to review and update code and in many cases to FINALLY migrate systems from antiquated mainframes to more modern databases.

Had that effort not been made, things almost certainly could have collapsed, but businesses (particularly big businesses) took it seriously enough, and pressured the government to take it seriously enough, that virtually all the important stuff was fixed prior to the date.

I had just started working for a bank, and had to work over that transition - they'd staffed up that weekend just for this reason - and we had no issues, despite being connected to the credit card system (with many millions of transactions per hour) and operating large databases across multiple platforms and OSs, and having 12 major office locations including 3 international locations.

There were a handful of stories in the news about things that had failed in some way, but they all tended to be nothing-burgers - annoying or maybe slightly embarrassing, but nothing that disrupted commerce in any significant way.

I will say this, though: the amount of fireworks and gunshots going off from about 11:45pm to about 12:30am was absolutely insane. It sounded like a combat zone, and no New Years or 4th of July in my lifetime, before or since, has ever come close.

WindAtMyBack · Accepted Answer

I flew across the country on Jan 1st 2000. I remember someone telling me "You have more balls than I do." I just shook my head and thought they were nuts. I never heard a single person on the plane or at the airports say a word about it. It was a non-issue. I wasn't concerned about Y2K, as long as the pilot didn't have a hangover from partying too hard the night before.

It wasn't a big deal. It was mostly the media doing what they always do - hyping things all out of proportion. I think the vast majority of people didn't give a crap about it. It was just another day.

Apparently the late 90s were a slow time for the media so they hyped the Y2K thing. The "dot com" bust was boring news, so the media tried Y2K, which ended up being just as boring as dot com.

Smoke-n-Growls · Accepted Answer

Lmao, a big pile of nothing.

My dad worked in IT at the time and so the only concern I had was whether the clocks would really revert to 1900 - they didn't, of course, and my dad explained they wouldn't.

I don't live in America, though. There were only a few stores that popped up to cash in on the small panic, but they were mostly novelty shops. Most sold fireworks and New Years shit, some had MREs and manual flashlights and such.

Honestly where I was, it was just a bigger New Years. Not really any real panic that I remember, but again, that could be because my dad dispelled the myths for us.

I remember America being in a huge panic, though. And treating it like a big capitalist holiday with all sorts of sales. American companies will make anything a consumerist holiday.

Emii_Urashima · Accepted Answer

I was not alive during that ancient time, but I have heard stories from my family. The entire world was watching at midnight to see what would happen in Japan because we were the first to reach the year 2000. Microsoft has made a lot of huge mistakes, but this one was the most stupid. I could understand the need for a two-digit year back when they first started in the 1980's, but they should have updated to a four-digit year at least by the time Windows 95 came out.

exitseven · Answer

I was the technology director for a school district. I went to a three day seminar about how to plan for the big event. The week before Jan 1 I did backup of all our data and updated all out servers. There was an older system being used by the office staff that may have been vulnerable. I did updates and some other work on that one.

On Jan first I went into work and checked on everything. I rebooted all the servers and did systems checks on everything nd it was pretty much a non event.

ArrowheadSW · Answer

Well, it was good that all of the prep work was done by all of the companies around the world, to prevent major computer crashes. But when that day hit, I really didn't hear of anything out of the ordinary happening anywhere.

I asked a friend who was watching the news that day, if there was any word of any Y2K issues. He said some guy in the UK couldn't get money from an ATM... LOL I wasn't convinced that it was due to Y2K... LOL

But it was a big deal ahead of time, trust me. IT people all over testing their systems to make sure it would be OK.

AviatorTom · Answer

Y2K was pretty much a non-event. Most places took the necessary steps in 1999 to update their computer systems and equipment. Those that didn't had some issues that they either fixed or decided to live with. There was no doom and gloom that some had predicted.

The company I worked for at the time, which makes equipment for railroads, made a lot of money "fixing" customer equipment. Many others did the same.

dustybiker · Answer

They had already tested the theory in a number of companies and such. The wrong people just ran with the fear mongering. Embarrassment which people immediately forgot about. Typical human nature.

convo_king89 · Answer

I few things I remember about 2000, I remember there was all this panic of all things that run on computers would be fucked since after 1999, since 9 was the highest single number.

2000s also make think if the whale tail fad. And girls from like 13 didn’t wear thongs like today. I remember in school at like 14 I kept seeing their underwear waistband show in the back while they were sitting.

MCheetah · Answer

It was a big Nothingburger and most people weren't concerned about it. But I was at my friend's house on New Years Eve 99 and his big brother cut the power to the house when the clock hit midnight as a prank.

genericname85 · Answer

you're old enough to remember 2012 and how they said the world was gonna end cause it's the end of the mayan calender right? pretty much like that xD

Prettygurl12 · Answer

I was 6 or 7 and apparently people thought that computers weren't going to be able to transition from the numbers 1999 to 2000 and so humanity would collapse because human kind have never been able to exist without technology lol

PeteBy · Answer

There was panic that the internet, global banking etc would descend into chaos. Everyone woke up on January 1st and nothing happened. Twas just another day.

SteveSmith1985 · Answer

It was super-mundane and unexciting. By the time like 1998 rolled around, "they" were pretty sure that they had figured shit out. It became more and more of a fringe belief to actually worry/think that anything was going to happen.

It was a very regular New Years. People did the regular New Years thing. Personally, I spent it smoking ridiculously-sized joints and making pot brownies with my girlfriend at the time.

Anonymous · Answer

So some people were saying that the entire world was going to collapse at midnight because the entire world depended on computers that had been built 30-40 years prior and then people kept saying we were all going to mysteriously die right exactly at midnight but then right at midnight nothing happened and a bunch of people who were worried over nothing are now part of the Flat Earth Society.

andreasderjuengere · Answer

There was anticipation in the air. And a number of worried voices talking especially about some ''computer problems'' coming up. In the end it was just like any other new year coming along.

DJB72 · Answer

Fuss about nothing. The whole "crisis" was manufactured by the media hype. I mean seriously, did anyone really think computer systems more advanced than the Apollo lunar computers couldn't cope with counting to 2000?

AndrésC64 · Answer

It was really like nothing. Although that could have a lot to do with the months of work getting things ready ahead of time.

joeldalton · Answer

So people were legitimately freaked out. I was working in IT at the time, and we were working feverishly to prevent everything breaking. I also had to work new years day to make sure all the systems still worked. I remember watching the countdown on TV and wondering if the lights would go out after the ball dropped, lol. But nothing happened in the end. Whether through hype or exceptional planning/work by everyone there were no issues.

mike5150 · Answer

Nothing happened. Honestly, I probably was playing N64 in my parent's room when midnight happened.

altaboy · Answer

It was a non-event, as far as a the computer problems were concerned. I didn't go out. I had a couple beer, listened to some music by myself and went to bed. I was never much of a party goer.

Anonymous · Answer

Two years of hard bug fixing and oh no the world is going to end and planes will fall it of the sky... January 1, 2000. Oh. Well. Is that it. Nothing happened.  (That'd be the bug fixing then)

FilmGuy93 · Answer

The world was ending, and we're still living with the consequences of that.

Andres77 · Answer

Like, nothing. nothing happened and noone died. really pathetic

boobliker · Answer

a big jump as we did not know what the computers would do?## hay we got through it and no one died over  but some got rich out of it

Heolurt · Answer

Panic and then just nothing, life continued, I didn't die, I hated that.

HaveNoName · Answer

Wait till you encounter Y10K. If change of century was a problem, wait till we will need an additional digit in the date.

MrTaboo · Answer

For 99% of us it was a whole lot of nothing. But it did cause lots of troubles for servers and larger systems.

Fuentes · Answer

Well I would not know I fell asleep at my uncles house cause my mom had to work. Nothing special another day as a kid for me.

Zolly99999 · Answer

Lots of hysteria fir nothing. . It was just another normal day.  It was good new years eve party though 😁😁

HighValue · Answer

Nothing happened. I was proven correct and the majority of people and large companies that fell for the scam and bought new computers were all proven to be morons.

BCRanger10 · Answer

Existence as we know it became a massive computer simulation. Everything you think you know is just an illusion.

Anonymous · Answer

It was great, literally everyone alive knew what the term 'boomer' meant.

Anonymous · Answer

I was at a party dancing, getting high and drunk and enjoying myself with a room full of people.

mantelk · Answer

Absolutely nothing happened whatsoever. And people didn't really think too much it would.

Still-alive · Answer

i was too busy playing pokemon and smash bros on my n64 to care about that at the time lol

Lynx122 · Answer

I was 9, at a party with my parents it was fun :)

Anonymous · Answer

Sorry you're too young. Maybe when you get a little older. 🤣😜

bolverk · Answer

A damp squib, a lot of panic and nothing happened. I think it was a marketing ploy by 'Big Tech' to make people buy new PC's and Software.

Adam1978 · Answer

It was a regular new year, for none IT guys.

Likes2drive · Answer

Nothing happened, people thought we would go back to the Stone Age and lose the grid and bank accounts

Agape93 · Answer

A lot of hype for absolutely nothing

driven159 · Answer

Not a big deal but I am sure people make a lot of money off it but in reality, it was just another day

ThisDudeHere · Answer

I was only 5 so I have no clue tbh.

TonightYouu · Answer

Don’t remember I was like 9 months olds

spartan55 · Answer

Whole lotta nothin.

Iron_Man · Answer

It was all hyped up nothing ever happened

MiseriaCantareAFI · Answer

STFU

What was Y2K really like?

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