Who here thinks Y2K was a big hoax?

[Louie Detroit]

It wasn't, it was real. Please weigh in with your expert opinion arguing my position.

I can't wait for the "But Igor at the tractor factory in Smolensk had no problems printing shipping labels" argument.

[dvarapala]

Originally Posted by Louie Detroit

It wasn't, it was real. Please weigh in with your expert opinion arguing my position.

Of course it was real. We only avoided disaster because we threw hundreds of millions of dollars and an army of COBOL programmers at the problem during 1999.

[Aerovette]

Just to be safe, I took the advice of Prince and partied like it was 1999.

[KenHorse]

Y2Dems is a bigger problem.....

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by dvarapala

Of course it was real. We only avoided disaster because we threw hundreds of millions of dollars and an army of COBOL programmers at the problem during 1999.

Probably more like many billions and don't forget RPG programmers too.

[slewfoot]

Beats me but I saw a lot of stupid people buying generators and survival shit they didn't need

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by aerovette

Just to be safe, I took the advice of Prince and partied like it was 1999.

My partying was delayed, I had to report to work at 4am New Years day to verify shit. However the large Y2K bonus I received funded many good party sessions later on.

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by slewfoot

Beats me but I saw a lot of stupid people buying generators and survival shit they didn't need

That's the kind of shit you don't need until you need it.

[IB4TL]

Originally Posted by slewfoot

Beats me but I saw a lot of stupid people buying generators and survival shit they didn't need

The parents of a girl in my class (yes, I was in 8th grade in '99) built an underground bunker and stocked it with something like 10yrs of rations.

[Torqaholic]

Was used to working night shift in the IT department alone. Never had so much company. Everybody was there! Other than the huge amount of shrimp cocktail I ate that night it was a big nothing burger.

[Mick]

No, it was totally fake. The Gateway 2000 desktop I was using at home at the time, with no remediation at all, kept chugging along like nothing had happened.

[Steve_R]

No nuclear power plant meltdowns or nuke weapons oops, so that was good. It could have meant some interesting work though.

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by Steve_R

No nuclear power plant meltdowns or nuke weapons oops, so that was good. It could have meant some interesting work though.

Do you have any info on the Y2K expenditures for Nukes? I'm guessing in the billions.

[Rodnok1]

Spent most of 99 flying around updating systems.
We had a few nodes so old they didn't work as no updates were available. It was a known so that wasn't a suprise. Guy I knew worked satellites did have some get knocked off line that were very important. They all came back online eventually.

Think about this with so much being computer controlled now it would be a nightmare if we were at this level in 99. Imagine the outrage and chaos if Fakebook went down

[Steve_R]

Originally Posted by Louie Detroit

Do you have any info on the Y2K expenditures for Nukes? I'm guessing in the billions.

I’m not in IT so no actual numbers. I know power plants, including nukes, were preparing years in advance. No clue how much DoD and DOE spent on nuke weapons infrastructure but I’m sure it was a scary big number.

[Frankie the Fink]

I was the Y2K Program Manager for the Securities & Exchange Commission and responsible for the remediation of the entire agency and ensuring all the investment houses became compliant. Yes, Y2K was real, although the SEC had no failures (after my staff and I worked 14-16 hour days for months) some banks I know for certain had issues that were quietly covered up an fixed quickly once discovered.

My interview on the topic in Government Executive Magazine is about 13 paragraphs down in this article ( or you can just search for "Frank" and "SEC"):

https://www.govexec.com/magazine/200...se-of-it/7201/

[Datawiz]

It was real, and I made a KILLING that year as a consultant. Most money I made in a single year, yet to be surpassed...but I'm close with my current gig.

[bsmith]

One of the sister companies to the one I work for is IT related.
The boss has this as his profile picture.

[DAB]

my 1999 and my 2000 vintage hand chisels look remarkably similar.....

[Onebadcad]

Had a very high sex incident count in 1999, especially in second half, as convinced the wife the world would end on New Year's Day.