19 years ago

[scooternub]

Anyone remember the y2k scare 19 years ago?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem

[tiny]

I was 1 of like 2-3 people in my college class that either didn't worry or in my case care.
Overblown stupidity as far as i was concerned

[jaybird]

I remember it well.

The excitement of seeing a new millennium, chased by the fear of the unknown. The mythical "Y2K bug", vague ideas that something, somewhere, would go wrong. Extra food in the pantry, a dozen bricks of ammo in the safe.

As for me, I spent that New Year's at home with friends, drinking Busch beer and whiskey, watching a stack of VHS movies. We woke up the next day to a new year with a hangover, but no apocalypse.

[90GTVert]

I definitely recall the news trying to convince us that all power would go out, nuclear missile systems would go crazy and kill us all, martial law, and so on. You know, the media doing what they enjoy the most... spreading panic and paranoia. Not long after that we had 9/11/01 and they tried to convince us that we weren't safe anywhere and stories were out about how to seal your home when the chemical gas attacks come and how your neighbor is probably a terrorist and all sorts of fun stuff.Atr the same time that they're telling us we're all gonna die, they're putting out the don't let the terrorists win feel good patriotic stuff while anyone that people thought may look arabic faced threats or worse. The early 2000s were a "special" time.

[oldgeek]

I worked in the IT field at the time. We had to check all the systems our company had for Y2K compliance, what a PITA that was. We many systems systems that would have had a date problem.

Y2K was a real issue, that was minimized by checking, patching in most instances, or replacing if necessary entire systems in advance of the event.

Had NOTHING been done there would have been many issues worldwide, but nothing Apocalyptic IMO. It should be noted that the work done and the redundant communication systems put in place for Y2K to prevent disaster in the financial district in NYC, and Manhattan specifically, were credited to have been a big help during the 9/11 attacks. As a result of the Y2K backup systems, global financial systems were stable during the attack and the time afterwards.

[otterbike]

Had two dive buddies make a dive offshore Panama in the Pacific just before midnight. They didn’t know if their dive computers would fail or if they would surface to an apocalypse.

[scooterpimp]

I Remembered the MSM spewing thier end of times Propaganda, I never fell for thier b.s. ,wasn't & still not dependent on computers, smartphones etc. Remembered people about to off thierselves thinking the end was here..,since y2k our World was supposed to end about 6 or 7 times...But were still Here.

[fuzzyruttin]

August 21, 1999 was a bigger day in infamy than y2k. As a matter of fact, prepare yourself for April 6, 2019! GPS week number roll-over --*ghost sounds*-- As part of due diligence this past week, I had to contact the manufacturer of the GPS modules that are used in our air traffic control ground stations. Naturally though, the "life" counter starts at the date of the firmware build, not the date of WNRO (modulo 1024).

[aeroxbud]

What a fun time. Was all a bit anticlimactic in the end.

One of the funny things about that day was that it was going to be such a big thing going into a new century. Clubs were asking stupid prices to stay open. People that were working wanted three or four times their normal new years eve rate to work. As a result a lot of clubs and bars just shut for the night. The ones that stayed open were empty.

[SMALL CC TEK]

Prince cashed in on Y2K Total stroke of luck for him He was in Vegas playing that night ! lol

[FrankenMech]

I did score a nice generator a few years later at a very very reduced price. I have only had to use it once since my transformer is right on a main power line that is repaired fast. The generator now has a plywood top and doubles as a roll-around work table out in the shop. I drained all the fuel and ran it through my lawnmowers.

[jer]

Gee, is it too late to blab?  I only joined last week...

I was working in the industry at that time, I ate real good in '98 & '99 and bought lots of gold coins to stash in the back yard.  All the systems I serviced were acid tested numerous times over long holidays like 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and YES, of course, Christmas!!!  BIG BUXXX!!!  Very simple:  Start hard backup at closing time, next morning push a time update to just before the witching hour, let it lapse and run each program thru a representative set of procedures and reports.  Never a hitch...then push the proper time back and re-run everything again.  By the time I ran this gamut the 4th time at Christmas, we were done inside of 3 hours.  I had heard a rumor about the communist Chinese requiring all their Air Force Pilots to be airborne at the stroke of midnight, I never heard any credible substantiation of it though.

I remember watching Andy Griffith & Opie that night on a cable channel in homage to my boyhood days.  I knew all my systems would survive so I didn't have a care in the world when I went to sleep.

There was one notable casualty of Y2K in my realm though.  The software title known as Peachtree Accounting encountered some rough spots with many different kinds of reports and the parent company, Sage Software, was never able to sort it all out.  They eventually sold it to Best Software.  After several years of tinkering, Peachtree Accounting still survives to this day and is, once again, the finest all-in-one, double-entry bookkeeping title available--BAR NONE!

Cheers Mates!