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re: Does anyone remember the hysteria from the Y2K "bug"? The first media scam I can remember
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:22 am to musick
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:22 am to musick
quote:
This came up the other day and I asked a few people, no one seems to remember the amount of hysteria this caused.
We're the people you talked to very young in 2000? That's the only way I can think of that someone wouldn't remember all the stuff around Y2K. If you were at least 10 years old, you remember.
1
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:23 am to fr33manator
Many companies made fortunes updating software.
While there was a huge amount of Hyperbole and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) around Y2K, from an IT perspective, there were legit issues with some software failing. Most companies undertook a massive review of their software and fixed any issues from the dates.
While there was a huge amount of Hyperbole and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) around Y2K, from an IT perspective, there were legit issues with some software failing. Most companies undertook a massive review of their software and fixed any issues from the dates.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:23 am to IAmNERD
quote:
We're the people you talked to very young in 2000? That's the only way I can think of that someone wouldn't remember all the stuff around Y2K. If you were at least 10 years old, you remember.
Most people remember it but not the extent of the panic. And yea, I work with some younger people, some who've never even heard of it.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:24 am to Chromdome35
quote:
there were legit issues with some software failing. Most companies undertook a massive review of their software and fixed any issues from the dates.
I dont think so. I'd like you to cite a single firm that had to "update their date code" in software. It would surely be in news archives.
Hell, I'm waiting for a poster that even knows a company that did that.
So far, nothing burger, just a lot of people with buckets of dehydrated food
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:25 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:24 am to Homesick Tiger
quote:
Just do the following and you will be okay.
They used to scare the shite out of little kids. Teachers have been terrorizing children for decades.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:25 am to musick
You can make light of it, but the stock market says hello.
“The reason I don’t believe the stock market of the late 1990s was a bubble is because, as an engineer working in the aerospace industry, I saw firsthand what was propelling it. Technology companies were all the rage, because their profits, quarter over quarter and year over year, kept going up. There seemed no end to the boom. Everyone was heavily investing in hardware and software, and in software consulting. Then the tech-heavy NASDAQ fell from over 5,000 to less than 2,000 – a greater than 60% decline – in less than six months. Why? The answer is Y2K.”
Stock Market
“The reason I don’t believe the stock market of the late 1990s was a bubble is because, as an engineer working in the aerospace industry, I saw firsthand what was propelling it. Technology companies were all the rage, because their profits, quarter over quarter and year over year, kept going up. There seemed no end to the boom. Everyone was heavily investing in hardware and software, and in software consulting. Then the tech-heavy NASDAQ fell from over 5,000 to less than 2,000 – a greater than 60% decline – in less than six months. Why? The answer is Y2K.”
Stock Market
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:26 am to LSUtoBOOT
Stock market hysteria? The fear was seeded for months, the market reacted.
Also the massive dot com bubble bursting.
Still no firms "fixing their date code" with "endless amounts of work around the clock"
Also the massive dot com bubble bursting.
Still no firms "fixing their date code" with "endless amounts of work around the clock"
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:28 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:27 am to musick
It wasn’t a media scam, it was just unknown the effect it would have. The tech companies didn’t know either so how is a reporter supposed to know. They were just reporting on the risk of the unknown although it did get massively out of control, they kept on with the worst case scenario. If was nothing like what we see today.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:29 am to musick
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:29 am to DavidTheGnome
quote:
It wasn’t a media scam, it was just unknown the effect it would have. The tech companies didn’t know either so how is a reporter supposed to know.
I was 15-16 and I knew, just a punk kid hacker in chat rooms on IRC. We were all making fun of the world because it was literally impossible and nothing was gonna happen.
We were right
Certainly a media scam. They ramped up the fear 100x for this. If it was unknown it should have not been reported on as apocalyptical.
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:31 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:30 am to musick
Yeah, my parrain was the head of a branch of his company at the time and I remember him telling me several months before New Years that it was all bullshite.
He went into detail telling me about how multiple test had been run on their network. Doing it in sections, they set the date and time to 12/31/1999 11:58PM to see what happened when it reached midnight. They had someone come in to talk to them to tell them why it was all bullshite, etc, but there were people convinced society was about to collapse.
For some reason I remember this, but there was this idiot at the New Years Eve party I was at who couldn't grasp the fact that midnight already passed in other time zones. And his argument was "midnight is midnight! If its going to happen, it will happen when it hits midnight. Its not really midnight in those other areas until it hits midnight here".
I will always remember 2Yk because of that idiot.
He went into detail telling me about how multiple test had been run on their network. Doing it in sections, they set the date and time to 12/31/1999 11:58PM to see what happened when it reached midnight. They had someone come in to talk to them to tell them why it was all bullshite, etc, but there were people convinced society was about to collapse.
For some reason I remember this, but there was this idiot at the New Years Eve party I was at who couldn't grasp the fact that midnight already passed in other time zones. And his argument was "midnight is midnight! If its going to happen, it will happen when it hits midnight. Its not really midnight in those other areas until it hits midnight here".
I will always remember 2Yk because of that idiot.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:31 am to musick
quote:
It was all bullshite. The dates were never coded that way. They might have had 6 computers left in the world in 1999 that used "double digit date codes that would reset in time" because even the ones that had it, were smart enough to know 00 meant 2000
You have no clue what you're talking about.
quote:
Btw not a SINGLE PROBLEM was reported. So we are to believe the entire world fixed every single computer in 1999 before Dec 31
No, just the ones that mattered. And it wasn't the computers that were the problem, it was the software. So most businesses buy software so they would just buy the upgrade. It was the businesses that had custom built software that had to fix their own stuff. So they either fixed or replaced them. I worked with a small business that shifted its entire architecture from Unix to Windows to get the software they needed to avoid problems. It wasn't cheap, but it was the only way to keep doing business so it got done.
Again, was the worst case scenario the media was selling unlikely? Yes, but it wasn't a scam. A lot of money was spent fixing this which is why the worst case scenario never happened.
quote:
How big a deal was Y2K? In the run-up to new century, the United States spent about $100 billion combating the bug—around $9 billion by the federal government, and the rest by utility companies, banks, airlines, telecommunications firms, and just about every other corporate entity with more than a few computers. The rest of the world was no slouch, either; estimates for global Y2K-readiness spending range from about $300 billion to $500 billion.
LINK
You don't spend that much money on a hoax. Also, this pumped a lot of resources into IT departments, which in part fueled the tech boom of the last 20 years. So even if it was partly an overreaction, we still got good long term benefits from it.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:31 am to musick
Haha yup. I was 9 but I still remember it.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:32 am to OweO
quote:
I remember him telling me several months before New Years that it was all bullshite.
Most of it was. Not all.
People freak out and believe anything. There were actually those who thought the world would end.
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:32 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:32 am to TigerinATL
quote:
You don't spend that much money on a hoax. Also, this pumped a lot of resources into IT departments, which in part fueled the tech boom of the last 20 years. So even if it was partly an overreaction, we still got good long term benefits from it.
You do if you dont know what the frick your doing. Or you are working on a false pretense from computers in the 1950s
I'm a programmer, this was a scam. Still no one here that worked on fixing Y2K huh? For a globally widespread problem you'd think we'd have one poster that at least knew someone that re-coded something.
From your link:
quote:
How big a deal was Y2K? In the run-up to new century, the United States spent about $100 billion combating the bug—around $9 billion by the federal government, and the rest by utility companies, banks, airlines, telecommunications firms, and just about every other corporate entity with more than a few computers. The rest of the world was no slouch, either; estimates for global Y2K-readiness spending range from about $300 billion to $500 billion.
Government laundering scam from the beginning. Probably one of the first ones they were seeing how much people really knew about computer code at the time.
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:35 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:32 am to FtHuntTiger
quote:
though obviously in hindsight way overhyped
As is every threat for the last 20 years,
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:34 am to musick
quote:
I'm a programmer, this was a scam. Still no one here that worked on fixing Y2K huh? For a globally widespread problem you'd think we'd have one poster that at least knew someone that re-coded something.
It was a joke.
We almost set up a small LLC to do this because every business was scared of losing everything. It was a quick fix and easy money.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:37 am to Blutarsky
quote:
It was a joke.
We almost set up a small LLC to do this because every business was scared of losing everything. It was a quick fix and easy money.
I know it was. I worked for a IT contractor in BR early 2000s and he had major BR businesses under contract. The owner told me it was based on the unknown, but it was total bullshite and he did NO work in BR for the 'Y2K BUG" He did mention it was based off some programming theory in the early, early computer days. Modern computers in 1999 wouldn't have been affected. Maybe super old shite in banks or schools that were 30 years old. Talk to any programmer you know and ask him how this was even possible.
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:41 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:40 am to fr33manator
quote:
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 9:41 am to musick
My mom had so much food stockpiled in her guest room. Canned goods for everyone she knew and the food bank for a long time
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