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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 9:41 am to musick
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:41 am to musick
the federal government was still working the y2k bug until Trump ordered them to stop 17 years after y2k.
Bloomberg article.
Bloomberg article.
1
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:42 am to musick
our company made a ton of money doing Y2K compliance testing.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:46 am to musick
quote:
Still no one here that worked on fixing Y2K huh?
At least two posters so far have given examples of working on it themselves.
ETA: “They told me I’d be stranded on the side of the road if I didn’t put gas in the car before I drove to Houston. So I put fuel in. When I got there I didn't even run out of gas! frick the media!”
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:51 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:46 am to cajunandy
Hmmm
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:46 am to musick
I sometimes forget how young some of you guys are.
Yeah, obviously. Not to mention, it's the entire plot of Office Space.
Yeah, obviously. Not to mention, it's the entire plot of Office Space.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:48 am to musick
Original version I just wrote was too long so I will summarize.
The media had no fricking clue about the error or the scope involved and took the worst case scenario as being extremely likely.
Problems are that a lot of the systems they thought would be affected are ones where they weren’t written in COBOL, which was the main language that was a problem because it was not used widely anymore.
On top of that, a lot of the issues involved wouldn’t have suddenly hit on 1/1/2000. Anything using a future date would have hit it before then, such as an expiration date for inventory.
The media had no fricking clue about the error or the scope involved and took the worst case scenario as being extremely likely.
Problems are that a lot of the systems they thought would be affected are ones where they weren’t written in COBOL, which was the main language that was a problem because it was not used widely anymore.
On top of that, a lot of the issues involved wouldn’t have suddenly hit on 1/1/2000. Anything using a future date would have hit it before then, such as an expiration date for inventory.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:48 am to Gloryheauxl
quote:
At least two posters so far have given examples of working on it themselves.
Like everything, there were minor issues here and there and were patched just like a normal software patch at the time. Nothing out of the ordinary. If the media doesn't take this and run, software companies in their normal operation resolve this and it's a non story.
This was just used to inject fear and it wasn't going to effect 99.99% of computer systems. It was likely a front for laundering money.
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:50 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:49 am to GeauxTigerTM
Part of the plot, not the entire plot.
It is ostensibly what Peter does and is a cover for why their crime wouldn’t get noticed if done properly but it gets a few random mentions and that is it.
It is ostensibly what Peter does and is a cover for why their crime wouldn’t get noticed if done properly but it gets a few random mentions and that is it.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:49 am to musick
I was in Kosovo at the time....nobody there paid any attention to it.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:50 am to musick
The main reason I remember Y2K is because I saw Billy Idol play one of the side stages at the Fiesta Bowl New Year's Eve Block Party. It was an awesome show.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:50 am to teke184
quote:
Problems are that a lot of the systems they thought would be affected are ones where they weren’t written in COBOL, which was the main language that was a problem because it was not used widely anymore.
I worked for a company that ran COBOL from 2007-14 (yes, still)
They were not affected in Y2K. Said as part of a routine patch fixed that issue back in 1985. But it was centered on COBOL I do remember that for sure as part of the narrative.
Here is a pretty good link explaining it from the times:
(Good call) BTW This is from 1998
https://homepages.wmich.edu/~rea/Y2K/FAQ.html
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 9:55 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 9:57 am to GeauxTigerTM
Was the threat from Y2K overblown to give bureaucrats something to get their names in the paper? Yes, but that doesn't mean there weren't serious problems.
I'm a coder and I made a lot of money 1998-99 rewriting a lot of old DOS apps, with their 6 digit dates. Several local chemical companies used these old DOS apps to control processes, all of that had to be rewritten. Yes, they had years to prepare, but too many waited until the last minute.
I'm a coder and I made a lot of money 1998-99 rewriting a lot of old DOS apps, with their 6 digit dates. Several local chemical companies used these old DOS apps to control processes, all of that had to be rewritten. Yes, they had years to prepare, but too many waited until the last minute.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 10:03 am to andouille
quote:
I'm a coder and I made a lot of money 1998-99 rewriting a lot of old DOS apps, with their 6 digit dates. Several local chemical companies used these old DOS apps to control processes, all of that had to be rewritten. Yes, they had years to prepare, but too many waited until the last minute.
Finally someone that was there. So are you saying you went into closed source code and altered the variables that stored the date to use the correct digits, then re-compiled and deployed it out to the live systems? Were these COBOL? Seems to be the main language affected at the time (and lines up with what you said)
I was under the impression that most of it was routine patches sent out from the companies themselves, and it was minimal impact.
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 10:06 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 10:04 am to musick
I worked for a place which still had live COBOL mainframes until the mid-2000s when it got replaced by MS SQL server and a VB front end.
They had to do COBOL boot camps for programmers because no one in the state trained anyone on it anymore.
I think the more affected systems tended to be the very old legacy government systems where development stopped decades ago and no one was doing much maintenance on it.
To call COBOL an oddball language is an understatement because it is one of the few I know that is positional rather than procedural, object oriented, etc. Trying to bring in programmers who had never worked on it and bring them up to speed would have been a major exercise in frustration.
They had to do COBOL boot camps for programmers because no one in the state trained anyone on it anymore.
I think the more affected systems tended to be the very old legacy government systems where development stopped decades ago and no one was doing much maintenance on it.
To call COBOL an oddball language is an understatement because it is one of the few I know that is positional rather than procedural, object oriented, etc. Trying to bring in programmers who had never worked on it and bring them up to speed would have been a major exercise in frustration.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 10:04 am to musick
Musick, irrational people like you are the ones who caused the Y2K hysteria. Like the media, you have no problem holding an opinion on a topic you clearly don't understand.
Sort these numbers from highest to lowest:
00
99
98
Sort these numbers from highest to lowest:
2000
1999
1998
Do this math problem: 00 - 99
Do this math problem: 2000 - 1999
Can you not see how two-digit years were a problem? Take a second to think about things, before you spew your ignorance everywhere.
Sort these numbers from highest to lowest:
00
99
98
Sort these numbers from highest to lowest:
2000
1999
1998
Do this math problem: 00 - 99
Do this math problem: 2000 - 1999
Can you not see how two-digit years were a problem? Take a second to think about things, before you spew your ignorance everywhere.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 10:07 am to TAMU-93
a computer knows (there are functions that take this into account) that going from 99 to 00 meant 1999 to 2000
Computers don't run off pure logic (and sort logic to boot)
Even with the two digits. Unless it was coded very shitty
I have written code since 1995 yet I'm the issue and dont know what I'm talkin about?
Ok with that,
Computers don't run off pure logic (and sort logic to boot
) Even with the two digits. Unless it was coded very shitty
I have written code since 1995 yet I'm the issue and dont know what I'm talkin about?
Ok with that,
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 10:08 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 10:08 am to musick
Musick, you know just enough to think you know what you're talking about, but you don't. Put the keyboard away and walk away from this thread.
Y2K was a nothing burger because everyone busted their arse fixing things behind the scenes. I was there. You'd rather believe that it was a big media conspiracy than a real problem worked on by real people. That's how crazy people think the world works. Did the media get some things wrong? Sure. That doesn't mean it was a conspiracy.
Y2K was a nothing burger because everyone busted their arse fixing things behind the scenes. I was there. You'd rather believe that it was a big media conspiracy than a real problem worked on by real people. That's how crazy people think the world works. Did the media get some things wrong? Sure. That doesn't mean it was a conspiracy.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 10:09 am to musick
Well it wasn't a scam to begin with, but yes a little over-hyped.
Reprogramming had been going on in the background for years before the public even became aware of it, about time 1999 rolled around most institutional systems had been upgraded.
Reprogramming had been going on in the background for years before the public even became aware of it, about time 1999 rolled around most institutional systems had been upgraded.
Posted on 5/10/22 at 10:10 am to BitBuster
quote:
Did the media get some things wrong? Sure. That doesn't mean it was a conspiracy.
Media scam that took something that was 1% of the problem in the world and overblew it.
That was my point.
As a coder I see through the bullshite, I'm aware there was an actual issue, but much like COVID, they took it to the extreme and lots (LOTS) of money was thrown at it.
This post was edited on 5/10/22 at 10:19 am
Posted on 5/10/22 at 10:10 am to fr33manator
I was the year 2000 compliance coordinator at a local hospital. My job was to call manufacturers of items and ask if they were compliant. Some of the worries seemed legit with it being a hospital and all, but sometimes i would call and they would be like, "uhh, its a tongue depressor, so im pretty sure itll be fine."
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