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Message
Does anyone remember the hysteria from the Y2K "bug"? The first media scam I can remember
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:03 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:03 am
This came up the other day and I asked a few people, no one seems to remember the amount of hysteria this caused.
On December 31, 1999, all computer systems programmed with 2 digit date codes were going to reset at midnight to the year "00" supposedly confusing computer systems thinking it would be 1900 and causing a total system failure, banks, gas stations, atms, points of sale, ALL computer systems failed.
People rushed out and bought water, batteries, ALL the canned food and bread off the shelves. (shortages)
It was mass hysteria. I even remember all of us going into the woods and hanging out next to a bonfire all night, expecting to emerge to an apocolyspe, this is how the news covered it.
When we came out it was like nothing ever happened. It was barely even reported or retracted.
This was the first time I realized the media used fear and panic to spread false information. It ended up being a huge nothing burger, but many companies spent "millions" of dollars to "fix" the glitch, when in reality there was no issue.
They framed it as a rush against time and "programmers had to re-program the dates to 4 digits or 2000"
It was all BS, I was just breaking into the industry, but was a teenager in high school. It was just....gone
What are your Y2K memories?
Here are some of the only things I could find in the internet archives:
On December 31, 1999, all computer systems programmed with 2 digit date codes were going to reset at midnight to the year "00" supposedly confusing computer systems thinking it would be 1900 and causing a total system failure, banks, gas stations, atms, points of sale, ALL computer systems failed.
People rushed out and bought water, batteries, ALL the canned food and bread off the shelves. (shortages)
It was mass hysteria. I even remember all of us going into the woods and hanging out next to a bonfire all night, expecting to emerge to an apocolyspe, this is how the news covered it.
When we came out it was like nothing ever happened. It was barely even reported or retracted.
This was the first time I realized the media used fear and panic to spread false information. It ended up being a huge nothing burger, but many companies spent "millions" of dollars to "fix" the glitch, when in reality there was no issue.
They framed it as a rush against time and "programmers had to re-program the dates to 4 digits or 2000"
It was all BS, I was just breaking into the industry, but was a teenager in high school. It was just....gone
What are your Y2K memories?
Here are some of the only things I could find in the internet archives:
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:07 am
51
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:04 am to musick
Nope never heard of it
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:04 am to musick
yes.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:05 am to musick
Seems like you're making this up.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:05 am to musick
God it must have been clutch to be an IT guy in the kid 90s. Making bank and spooking everyone over something totally made up
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:06 am to Pettifogger
quote:
Nope never heard of it
Most people know about it, but brush it off like it was nothing.
The world was lit lol
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:06 am to musick
I have a warehouse of Y2K food 
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:06 am to musick
I think that all those people turning off their Gateway computers is what saved the day.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:06 am to musick
My AOL dialup was 35% slower on January 1, 2000. So don't blanket minimize the consequences pal.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:07 am to ShoeBang
quote:
I think that all those people turning off their Gateway computers is what saved the day.
Don't forget the Packard Bells
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:07 am to musick
My dad took the bait so hard. Bought tons of powdered milk and canned goods to stash in the basement. Needless to say, that shite sat down there for like 15 years before he got rid of it
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:08 am to musick
I remember around 2005 my buddy had to load buckets of dehydrated food in to his truck and drive them to church. his dad had stockpiled a shed full of rations to make it through Y2K
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:08 am to musick
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:08 am to musick
Yes my neighbor at the time in Mandeville managed an auto parts store. He picked up about two dozen plastic 5 gallon gas cans and gave some to us neighbors. The idea was Y2K would make the gas pumps not work so we wanted to be prepared.
The media was also talking about it affecting planes in the sky when we rolled into the new year. There is something like 40,000 planes in the sky at any time during the day or night. Not one had an issue.
The media was also talking about it affecting planes in the sky when we rolled into the new year. There is something like 40,000 planes in the sky at any time during the day or night. Not one had an issue.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:08 am to musick
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:09 am to musick
It was the first hoax the nerds were responsible for and got the ball rolling for the Bill Gates' of the world to do the shite they do today.
A lot of the bullshite we have going on right now can be traced back to nerds. fricking nerds.
A lot of the bullshite we have going on right now can be traced back to nerds. fricking nerds.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:09 am to musick
I don’t know if I’d call it a “scam”, though obviously in hindsight way overhyped. Just didn’t turn out as bad as it could have. Partly due to a lot of work done by companies, etc. More one of those things that could have been worse but fortunately wasn’t.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:10 am to Loup
quote:
I remember around 2005 my buddy had to load buckets of dehydrated food in to his truck and drive them to church. his dad had stockpiled a shed full of rations to make it through Y2K
I wonder how much "Y2K food" was wasted. Has to be in the millions of dollars
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:11 am to musick
quote:
The world was lit lol
Y2K ended up being nothing because there was a lot of reprogramming getting done. It really was "shite's gonna break" if you didn't fix it, so if it was an essential system it got fixed or replaced.
The hysteria was probably overblown because it assumed businesses would choose to go out of business and let things fail. But the hysteria probably also was important to help businesses and government agencies spend the money needed to fix it.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:11 am to FtHuntTiger
I worked for the gov't and everyone had to have a plan in place using nothing but pencils/paper. It was a nightmare.
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