October 17, 2005

• Ah the good old days. I recall writing a satirical article titled "Are you Y2OK?" which included such sage advice as melting down gold fillings into suppositories and the most under-reported Y2K bug, that being vending machines which would no longer recognize coins with stamped dates later than 1900.
• Y2K was a real joke now wasn't it? The computer security companies made a killing by jacking up the fear when all that actually happened was some kid's computer in Sri Lanka crashed while playing Sims (or something). The religious right cleaned up on it too, as the whole Y2K thing played into the whole "signs of the apocalypse" thing they promote. My father in law still has stacks of videotapes from Jack Van Impe and other religious nutjobs with titles likeY2K-the beginning of the end of everything! I'm sure they're releasing something soon of the likes of Bird Flu- this really is the end-we're not kidding this time!. One of the more amusing things I remember about that time was hearing that the spokesman for the Amish had issued a declaration in advance of the big event declaring that "the Amish people are proud to note that we are fully Y2K compliant". I had never thought they had a sense of humour before that point.
• For Y2K I was working as a retail manager for a natural foods store. New Years Eve was spent watching yuppies buy water and canned-tuna in a frenzy. For some extra money, I volunteered to stay and watch the store (in case of wandering mobs!) and reset the register system in the morning. I spent the night on the roof with another manager getting loaded on champagne and weed. No mobs. No end of the world. One hangover.
• Y2k generated paranoia had to be the biggest con in history, especially by the I.T. industry. Watched it happen and was gobsmacked by the utter stupidity and total lack of any logical or rational thought in the majority of people. T'were a steep learning curve and, since then, collective stupidity has no chance of ever gobsmacking me again. For instance, not one hair of the eyebrows qivered in even a smidgen of an attempt to raise when G Dubbya was re-elected.
• I recall a close relative that works in the IT field, having to carry 3 cell phones and a pager, at the 2000 party. 'If lights don't go out as 12:00 EST, we're in the clear'. Kept calling the poor guys who got to babysit the operations center at her company. 'Nothing to report here; we're watching the Paris firewoks...' By 1:00 a.m., she had turned off the phones and pager.
• I worked for a mainframe computer and dasd provider during the y2k panic. We had techie sales types who were spreading the news years before the countdown, and a small raft of consultants who would have been glad to use our magical tools to analyse your systems to make sure you didn't blink out on Jan. 1, 2000. But it was not a huge effort. I wound up being the person who responded to inquiries from our customers to reassure them that our equipment would not be compromised. We didn't sell software, so that was relatively easy. And, maybe our customers only had a person or two who made those inquiries, but I had the impression that there were groups of software engineers and lawyers out there for each customer who put together the questionaires, with lots of rules as to how they should be evaluated, and probably just an administrator who logged the answers in, and didn't do any evauation so long as they got a response. I always wondered whether there was an employment downturn when all those engineers and lawyers were no longer needed on Jan. whatever, 2000, and nothing had happened.
• At the time, I was working for a company that wrote software for retail banking. I was doing Y2K testing: had to work two miserable nights to get the system to myself so that I could test it in isolation. Discovered one nasty bug that would have shut down a large part of the operations of one of the UK's biggest banks, and got it fixed. Yes, some nutcases latched onto Y2K, some others exaggerated it, but it was a real problem. Nothing major happened, but that was because we worked to fix it. Almost wish I hadn't bothered now.
• Yeah I was working at a company fixing the dates on programs for Y2k compliance, too. Then I had the idea that I could glean money from the company one cent at a time via computer transaction. Unfortunately the scheme went a bit awry and too much money was taken out, but luckily the building burned down and no one found the evidence.
• I like practical jokes so I bought $300 worth of canned goods and several gallons of distilled water, put them in two large boxes and wrapped them up as xmas presents. Gave them to my cynical technophobe brother, but made sure he opened them when I was there. Once he opened them he had a worried look on his face and asked "do you know something I don't know?" Of course, buying $300 worth of canned goods and water got me some weird stares at the checkouts... and my taxi driver didn't believe me when I told him it was for a prank. But the look on my brother's face was so worth it.
• What surprises me is the way the whole thing was accepted as if it were an act of God. Suppose someone sold you a new car; after five years, they ring you up and tell you there's a risk it will blow up on you -"Hey, we never dreamed you'd keep it this long. Anyway, you're going have to pay us to check it out, or it could be fatal." What would your reaction be? "Please make sure you check it thoroughly, never mind the cost."? I think I'd sue, myself.
• I love the idea that The Long Now foundation are preparing for the Y10K problem!
• I was told that I could listen to my radio at a reasonable volume...
• One of the worst things about Y2K was the stupidity of Edward Yourdon. He was supposed to be a frickin' computer scientist fer Chrissakes. But he helped stoke the hysteria by publishing a book claiming that cars would stop running on Jan 1 2000. Oh yes, also that elevators wouldn't work too. It didn't even occur to him to go *talk* to the manufacturers and ask whether there would be a problem. The thing about Y2K was that it was all about fear and not about finding the facts.
• Your TPS report is late, Chy.
• I wouldn't say I'm missing it, Bob
• My favorite thing about Y2K was ESPN's hilarious SportsCenter commercial (available here) of their Lord of the Flies-style Y2K Test. "Oops."
• One of my favorite parts of that time, in addition to the y2k hysteria, was the way know-it-alls felt it necessary to point out whenever possible that the new millennium wouldn't begin until 2001.
• Likely everyone has seen this by now but just in case: Millennium Actually Starts In 2001, Terrorists Note.
• Opera 10's Y2K bug. Double-digit versions will break browser detection.