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POLL: Looking Back at Y2K

Which assessment comes closest to your impression of the Y2K scare? (vote for up to 2)

  • It was a hoax or scam

    Votes: 10 11.9%

  • It was a legit concern but in reality turned out to be trivial

    Votes: 30 35.7%

  • It was a legit concern, but blown way out of proportion to give more power to the federal government

    Votes: 2 2.4%

  • It was a legit concern, but blown way out of proportion by media

    Votes: 31 36.9%

  • It was a legit concern, but blown way out of proportion by the tech industry to make a big profit

    Votes: 13 15.5%

  • It was a legit concern that was averted by good government and industry actions

    Votes: 21 25.0%

  • What's Y2K?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    84
What Would Jesus Do?

What Would Jesus Do?

HB King
Nov 28, 2010
87,266
41,911
113
Maryland
Without doing any research, what's your recollection and assessment of the Y2K scare leading up to the new millennium?

For those who are too young or may have forgotten, the Y2K scare refers to the concern that millions of computers and other tech would encounter massive, possibly deadly problems when systems using 2-digit year coding (most of them) were confronted by the date 00. Algorithms making date-based decisions that require dividing by the year being among the most obvious looming problems.
 
I work in IT. The place I worked before Y2K and during Y2K had to replace all their software. What they had simply would not have been able to handle the date change. Both places invested ass loads of money to get prepared.

it’s a huge reason the economy surged. My guess is most places were in same boat.

I never worried about my car microwave water or electricity stopping. That was crazy talk.

The ability to do billing and manufacturing reporting was the problem. I never thought devices wouldn’t just go cold.
 
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I was always amused by people who afterward pointed to the fact that no major catastrophes happened and claimed the whole thing was a hoax, ignoring the fact that if we hadn’t taken preventive measures, a lot of shit would have happened.
 
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I'm in the tech industry. There were definitely issues with how dates were stored that would have affected different kinds of date related calculations. That said, everything wasn't going to come crashing down.
 
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I have an in-law who works for a major aerospace firm who was certain that things were going to be a disaster. I believe it was part of the reason they moved to Arizona around that time.
I bring it up every now and again with him.
 
I say this completely seriously.

Around summer of 1999, I was assigned to a Quick Reaction Force to respond to any major issues, from security to resource management (for power grid, water/sewer, cell), that might occur as a result of any issues because of Y2K. I spent about 1-2 days per week for months training to do different tasks that we might have to perform.

The worst part was, I was on call, and had to call in just after midnight, on New Year's Eve/Day that year. So no alcohol at all, and had to have a go bag ready, and be available to report at any time during that time.

I tell young troops about that time now and I get blank stares.
 
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Legit concern that was blown out of proportion by the media and averted by people with foresight to make sure it never happened.

Basically all the companies and government went and took care of the problem and said "We got this" but the media kept shouting over them about the power going out and the apocalypse.

But fear mongering is a big thing for the media. Not just nationally but locally. I swear any time we get a snow storm here the local media tries to make out like it will be a massive blizzard. They talk about stocking up on food and how you might not be able to leave your house for like the next 4 days. But instead the next day you see 2 inches of snow on the ground, it's already plowed off the streets and school isn't even delayed. Same thing happens for thunderstorms. The media acts like we're gonna get the equal of a cat 5 hurricane with several cat 5 tornados. Instead you see some elevated winds and heavy rain for about 10 minutes, you don't even lose power.
 
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Working for Insurance company and we had to test and put into place updates (created by our IT) for all the programs we used. Bet almost every company did what we did and had groups tasked with looking at the updates and doing as much as possible to make sure they would work.
 
Run&Blade said:
The place I worked before Y2K and during Y2K had to replace all their software. What they had simply would not have been able to handle the date change.
Click to expand...
Ditto. And, where I worked at the time meant planes would not have been flying if we didn't make major changes leading up to 2000.
 
Run&Blade said:
I work in IT. The place I worked before Y2K and during Y2K had to replace all their software. What they had simply would not have been able to handle the date change. Both places invested ass loads of money to get prepared.

it’s a huge reason the economy surged. My guess is most places were in same boat.

I never worried about my car microwave water or electricity stopping. That was crazy talk.

The ability to do billing and manufacturing reporting was the problem. I never thought devices wouldn’t just go cold.
Click to expand...

I agree with all of your sentiments, but in particular, the one that I bolded and underlined. Regardless of who was POTUS, whether there was a Rep or Dem majority in the House, etc, THIS(Y2K problem avoidance spending) was a very big reason for the booming economy of the late 90's.

Something that many overlook when harking back to better times, etc.
 
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Old_wrestling_fan said:
I agree with all of your sentiments, but in particular, the one that I bolded and underlined. Regardless of who was POTUS, whether there was a Rep or Dem majority in the House, etc, THIS(Y2K problem avoidance spending) was a very big reason for the booming economy of the late 90's.

Something that many overlook when harking back to better times, etc.
Click to expand...
Also the birth of the internet was a huge factor.

in the early 90’s companies had zero online, they were still buying their domains from squatters. In a few years we go from static html to full blown online ordering with web services controlling billions of information requests.

the only hope for that type of growth again is AI, problem is AI will wipe out jobs, not create.
 
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I was throwing up that night before I had my first drink. Being young and dumb, I still went out and drank but never got drunk because I was in the bathroom between almost every drink. I didn't give a shit about the world ending because dying sounded pretty good to me right around midnight 19 years ago.
 
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I was in San Diego at the time and the thing that sucked the most about it on New Year's Eve was that what should have been the blowout of the century ended up being the most lame New Year's Eve ever. I went out to a few places and the whole city was a ghost town. Just boring AF. Then again, given all the media drama about it, a boring Y2K was what most people wanted. That was a weird time to be alive. Nothing has really seemed quite right since that time.
 
Old_wrestling_fan said:
I agree with all of your sentiments, but in particular, the one that I bolded and underlined. Regardless of who was POTUS, whether there was a Rep or Dem majority in the House, etc, THIS(Y2K problem avoidance spending) was a very big reason for the booming economy of the late 90's.

Something that many overlook when harking back to better times, etc.
Click to expand...
Clearly we should schedule more Y2K-type situations.

Kidding aside, battling climate change could be exactly that sort of economic boost, yet we mostly hear that if we try to tackle climate change the economy will tank.
 
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We did not go out to celebrate because of concern about the effects of Y2K. I remember hoarding about 10K in our safe just in case the banks had problems. I’m glad society had the foresight to deal with it. If I recall correctly, there were a few problems that developed, but mostly to businesses that did not do enough to prepare themselves.
 
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HawkMD said:
We did not go out to celebrate because of concern about the effects of Y2K. I remember hoarding about 10K in our safe just in case the banks had problems. I’m glad society had the foresight to deal with it. If I recall correctly, there were a few problems that developed, but mostly to businesses that did not do enough to prepare themselves.
Click to expand...

Did you honestly think that if society fell apart cash would have any value?
 
Jimmy McGill said:
Agreed, but you would have been better off spending that money buying supplies. If the grid had shut down, society would value goods more than a piece of paper.
Click to expand...

You thought they’d never figure out how to update some software?
 
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Run&Blade said:
I work in IT. The place I worked before Y2K and during Y2K had to replace all their software. What they had simply would not have been able to handle the date change. Both places invested ass loads of money to get prepared.

it’s a huge reason the economy surged. My guess is most places were in same boat.

I never worried about my car microwave water or electricity stopping. That was crazy talk.

The ability to do billing and manufacturing reporting was the problem. I never thought devices wouldn’t just go cold.
Click to expand...

This. It was just an accounting issue. It was a massive accounting issue, but nothing life and death.

But it was a great time to be an independent IT guy!
 
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The posts about not celebrating because of y2k are hilarious, was the best New Years Eve I ever had. We had a huge party that had over 100 people at it. It was awesome.

Oh and it was a joke, we tested the systems at work to make sure dates wouldn't be a problem and moved on.
 
Run&Blade said:
I work in IT. The place I worked before Y2K and during Y2K had to replace all their software. What they had simply would not have been able to handle the date change. Both places invested ass loads of money to get prepared.

it’s a huge reason the economy surged. My guess is most places were in same boat.

I never worried about my car microwave water or electricity stopping. That was crazy talk.

The ability to do billing and manufacturing reporting was the problem. I never thought devices wouldn’t just go cold.
Click to expand...
So did you ever hear of cases where the updates were not made and someone's world came crashing down?
 
I was a law clerk at a law firm. There was an attorney (non-equity partner) that had convinced all the equity partners that Y2K was the next huge mass tort. They funded her endeavor for 18 months, where she basically "marketed" i.e., traveled to different conferences all around the world. She was permitted not to handle a regular case load because she was handling Y2K. And she was not bashful about representing her perceived status within the firm.

As we know, January 2nd comes, the problem had been fixed. No huge lawsuits. She is scrambling looking for work related to Y2K and the main partner has me clean out her office on Friday afternoon and put all her stuff in a box by the elevator. Rough business...
 
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Jimmy McGill said:
Did you honestly think that if society fell apart cash would have any value?
Click to expand...
I was not worried about society falling apart. I was worried electronic banking might be vulnerable to Y2K and liquid cash might come in handy until it was fixed.
 
HawkMD said:
If you think having $10k in cash is hoarding cash, you are a poor.
Click to expand...

No, it means you are a paranoid that will not survive if there was a true catastrophic situation. You think being wealthy would get your survival. Those of us with true life skills will outlast your 10K.
 
I worked in IT. it was a legit concern. spent a lot of time preparing. Thank God I'll be retired or dead by Jan 2038.
 
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