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101 Comments
- DreamVsPs2, on 05/30/2009, -0/+74damn, 9 years went by so quick.
- CK20XX, on 05/30/2009, -1/+49I remember that the Animaniacs were the first to take steps to avert that disaster. They simply edited their schedule so you could watch them every Mondak, Tuesdak, Wednesdak, Thursdak, and Fridak.
- RetlawST, on 05/30/2009, -2/+38y2K was a very real threat. The only reason it DIDN'T happen was because a *****-ton of programmers were hired to fix the problem.
As a side note, a chunk of banks and financial institutes in South America didn't fix the problem ahead of time and were paying programmers nearly $150 an hour to be flown down to work on that mess. Took about 3 weeks to fix and the lucky people who caught on to the opportunity made about half a years wage in those 3 weeks. - santogold, on 05/30/2009, -2/+38The real disaster started a little over a year later, January 20, 2001.
- HCviolence, on 05/30/2009, -3/+38Hello. I'm Leonard Nimoy. The following tale of Y2K is true. And by true, I mean false. It's all lies. But they're entertaining lies. And in the end, isn't that the real truth? The answer is: No.
- marx2k, on 05/30/2009, -0/+31You get a second chance to laugh at them in 2012
- jmpeagle, on 05/30/2009, -1/+24but they just changed the y's to k's, that's not a solution....oh....I get it
- Restil, on 05/30/2009, -2/+23There WAS a problem. Fortunately, it was a problem that had a known date, it was recognized with several years of lead time, and it was easy to individually test. So although it was a monumental problem in terms of the required resources to fix, it was one we could easily solve. And we did. The problem is, the justified and constructive concern that people were expressing in 1995 turned into rampant fearmongering by late 1999, when the
problem had been mostly solved.
It wasn't like Jan 1, 2000 wasn't an uneventful day. There were countless software glitches, most of which were fixed within a few days. But the planes stayed in the air, the power stayed on, the cars still started. - LugaZap, on 05/30/2009, -2/+22All the people who were really pushing this end of the world ***** really looked like jagoffs the next day. Man that must have been embarrassing.
- Greengoo, on 05/30/2009, -0/+20I'll be the first to admit I didn't get it till you said that.
- novenator, on 05/30/2009, -1/+18Office Space is all you need to know
- marciot, on 05/30/2009, -2/+18Y2K was just a test of the emergency broadcasting system. 2012 it happens for real.
- MaxxusFlamus, on 05/30/2009, -3/+18it looks all really stupid right now, but there was a considerable amount of work done to make sure none of that happened.
- 16x9, on 05/30/2009, -3/+18What is it with some people that they think the less they know about something, the more valuable their opinion on the matter?
The Leonard Nimoy thing was a TV show. It's purpose was to scare people so they'd watch. So ignore that for a moment.
The Y2K situation was very real, however. If not for the effort, time and money put into correcting this issue on a global scale, we would almost certainly have been in a world of hurt at the turn of the century.
To morons who say that Y2K turned out to be nothing? Well, duh! It's as if you warn someone that if they don't get their car's breaks fixed they are going to get into a crash soon. So the goof with the bad breaks gets 'em fixed, doesn't crash, and then brags that because he didn't crash that replacing his breaks was unnecessary. Gee! That makes sense. - WootZoot, on 05/30/2009, -1/+1310. The craze was happening in the late 1990s.
- blahbbs, on 05/30/2009, -0/+12Obviously, there wasn't a problem with Y2K because Leonard Nimoy went back in time though a black hole caused by igniting red matter and told 1999 Leonard Nimoy how to fix the problems.
duh.. - Mollives, on 05/30/2009, -0/+12I reckon the bloke in that video who had all the bottles of water was secretly quite disappointed that the world didnt cease to exist as we know it.
- Neworab, on 05/30/2009, -1/+12SPOCK!
- inactive, on 05/30/2009, -0/+10"And I urge everyone, as I have been for years, do not use plastic bags for your toilet!"
Why is he going around for years telling people not poop in plastic bags. I read a report of him screaming at elementary school kids about this. - sheldonnbbaker, on 05/30/2009, -1/+10EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE
- blahbbs, on 05/30/2009, -0/+9...And again in 2036.
- breakneckridge, on 05/30/2009, -1/+9And in some other western countries they DIDN'T do much of any work to fix y2k bugs beforehand, and they fared just as well as us, except they didn't waste billions of dollars.
- beabis, on 05/30/2009, -0/+7I bought a software upgrade kit for my car at a flea market so I didn't have a problem. You just had to plug the little module into the cigarette lighter and it installed the software automatically. Worked great.
- ThatsUnpossible, on 05/30/2009, -0/+7One of the reasons the Y2K problems didn't manifest is precisely because, due to all the hype, engineers were employed to fix the issues before the year 2000 hit. Had there not been as much hype, you likely would have seen ***** hitting the proverbial fan.
- bfrank72, on 05/30/2009, -1/+8Thank you for that.
- leif77, on 05/30/2009, -0/+6I always wondered why people thought cars wouldn't start... sure you might not have gotten a radio signal... but I'm pretty sure your engine is an independent little machine, and isn't too worried about the date...
- sphark, on 05/31/2009, -0/+5Did it go "bleep bleep bloop bloop" with lots of flashing lights... you know... so you KNOW it was working? If not, you got ripped off.
- venom8599, on 05/31/2009, -0/+5My cousin, who I was hanging out with on New Years Eve that year went to the electrical box and turned off the breaker a few seconds after the ball dropped. For a few seconds I just sat there thinking "Oh, *****..." and then heard maniacal laughter.
- coondog35, on 05/31/2009, -0/+5Right now, there is a family in a home-made bomb shelter waiting a generation for the dust to settle and the zombies to starve.
- 16x9, on 05/30/2009, -0/+5Planes crashing and Nuke Plants going boom? Highly unlikely. Most talk of these kinds of instantaneous disasters was media hype.
Though there were and still are countless legacy systems that manage power distribution, help run airport control towers, handle the distribution of food and products, control all kinds of manufacturing -- and yes, handle the movement of money (not just billing but payments too) -- that had to be updated.
Had no fixes been made then the results would likely have been far worse than "bummer, I didn't get my electric bill." It could have actually wrecked the economy to the point where what we're going through right now might look tame in comparison.
Look, I agree that media hype made this Y2K situation seem like we were facing the so-called "end times" and when nothing bad happened people understandably thought the whole thing was some kind of gag. But the truth is that nothing bad happened because a ton of work went into fixing a bazillion lines of code so that everything would keep humming along. And the effort paid off. We're still here. :) - inactive, on 05/30/2009, -9/+14Fun fact. Ron Paul jumped on the fearmongering bandwagon too, no surprise to anyone. Ron Paul predicted that the Y2K bug would cause the financial system to collapse, ensued by crisis and chaos. Then, on Y2K day, nothing happened... Our beloved century old white supremacist prophet was dead wrong.
That must be the reason why Ron Paul is playing it safe on the cautious side today by brushing off the H1N1 pandemic as pointless hysteria from the media. What is funny about it is, Ron Paul is wrong again, he fail to realize that the definition of the word pandemic is not about the quantity of victims, but rather about the dencity of victims spread across worldwide in a given amount of time.
Oh Ron Paul, how does it feel to be wrong all the time? Don't worry, old chap, your loyal paultards will try to bail you out of that one again. - mikemehak, on 05/30/2009, -0/+5All I know is that it was a perfect excuse to buy a 5 year supply of twinkys
- 16x9, on 05/30/2009, -2/+6You'd have thought "minor issue" when our entire monetary system came screeching to a halt.
- mbelrose, on 05/30/2009, -0/+4Believe me, there is still code from the 70's running even today. The hardware changes, but that doesn't mean the software gets upgraded.
- digitalArtform, on 05/30/2009, -1/+5Code from the 70's didn't take the new century into account?
Hell, I'm not sure I can even run code from the late 90's. Where is my Jaz drive? - V3NOM, on 05/31/2009, -0/+3True story: a friend of mine (really stupid) bet another friend of mine $50 that the world would end in Y2K.
He didn't think about how he would collect if he won. - Denominator88, on 05/30/2009, -0/+3Quite Logical.
- linuxpenguin, on 05/31/2009, -0/+3Not sure where you learned that from. If you would have problems at all. you would have problems with records AFTER 1900 because your computer would think that it WAS 1900.
THAT'S the problem. (Or rather, what could've been a problem.) All your records created after 1900 (as in, all of them) would be seen by the computer as being erroneous - they were created in the future as far as it's concerned - which it knows is impossible. - HawkieEyes, on 05/30/2009, -1/+4As someone from a country other than America, who has no idea who Ron Paul is, I kinda have to disagree with you.
Swine flu may be defined as a pandemic due to its global spread, however how many people has it killed when compared to the normal flu? Thus the beat-up is pointless hysteria from the media - innovati, on 05/31/2009, -0/+3why are people digging this down - this is exactly what it was!
As long as you can keep people terrified, glued to their TV set, and a captive audience for commercials you've got good ol American Capitalism running at full power! - beabis, on 05/31/2009, -0/+3It did all of that for less than the price of one car payment.
- sethpr, on 05/31/2009, -0/+3You're talking about the year of the Linux Desktop...
- jpohl, on 05/31/2009, -0/+3good times, good times.
- scotchw, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2What??
- PainToad, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2Then you don't understand it, there's nothing to "believe", it was a basic programming fact.
- linuxpenguin, on 06/01/2009, -0/+2@ozroy: most systems are not 64-bit yet, they're still 32-bit. Also, what matters is the OS - if the OS isn't 64-bit, then it doesn't matter if the hardware is.
@lordmike: mainframes and PCs alike could've been affected. It has to do with the software, not the hardware. You just didn't notice anything because the problem was fixed (or rather, delayed) in most software way before the media hype. That's why there were relatively few glitches with the mainframes also - everyone in the field knew about the "problem" so the only software that still had an issue was older software (which is why people were worried - banks and corporations prefer to NEVER upgrade if they don't need to). - cyberprunes, on 05/30/2009, -1/+3They weren't lies. They were speculating. There was a bit of hyperbole and fear mongering.
- langzaiguy, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2I actually own this on VHS. I bought it from Goodwill 'cause it looked pretty funny. I mean, come on, Y2K Survival Guide narrated by Leonard Nemoy.
- batguano, on 05/31/2009, -1/+3Gods, I'm going to have to bring in the Gramar Forensics Lab to decipher that ass-vomit sentence of yours.
- Shogun213, on 05/30/2009, -0/+2Froinlavin!
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