We’re just a few days from Y2K+10, ten years after the big scare of the whole world collapsing from a lapse in computer programming foresight.
I remember it closely, I spent a few hours in the later part of Dec 1999 backing up data at the small business my wife was working at. We were able to download nearly all of her company’s (a very small office) data onto just over a dozen zip drives, remember those? Funny that we could fit nearly all the digital files onto those drives –perhaps, if Y2K fears were to happen, it’s better than uploading to the cloud.
I also remember an army of Y2K consultants, and their concerns over liabilities, appear marketing how they’d offer CIOs Y2K enterprise proofing for companies that were concerned about losing all their data. I even had one slightly off-keel friend stay home on NYE 2000 eve with a gun in hand, military rations beside his bed. I wasn’t phased, I enjoyed reveling in downtown San Francisco with friends.
I want you to reminisce, do you remember what you did to protect your personal data, finances, work data, or what your company did in preparation for the Y2K apocalypse? Leave a comment, share with others, and take a look back 10 years ago. To trigger some memories, here’s a video to remind you of the fear, oh Leonard, really? Illogical.
So I'd actually been working on some large Y2k projects since 1998 and knew enough not to be worried. But, a few weeks before Y2k I was grocery shopping at Ralph's in West Los Angeles and people were hoarding all of the water and toilet paper. I mean they were taking every thing! The irrational part of my brain kicked in and I went to the mall and saw Brookstone was selling battery powered head lamps so I bought every single one they had which was just enough for my IT staff at the time. I worked for a large startup owned by the Seattle Times. It was half joking and half paranoia when I gave it to my staff. I had my entire staff on call for 2 days before and after while I stayed home watching the entire Y2k coverage on TV starting in Sydney until LA. I think I ended up staying up for around 48 hours watching my Nextel and email. Fun Times
Y2K huh? I was camped out by the nearest ATM, hoping money would come spitting out as the clock struck 12. Kidding…
I worked in a small office at an educational institution at the time. The IT guys had done all the patches they could find, but I admit I backed up my computer files (also on ZIP–ha!) as well. Shows how much faith I had in the IT guys. On New Year's Eve, I went out as usual, and had a wonderful time ringing in a new century. I was more “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” back then. Now I might take things a bit more seriously, who knows.
i was holed up with my husband at the time and good friends in a house in sag harbor. we had an amazing meal of horseradish crusted beef tenderloin, roasted garlic mashed potatoes and amazing wines. our only EXTRA item was a gallon of water. after much drinking and eating, we watched the ball drop on tv then all stood still for a minute – waited for the power to go out and for complete chaos. really though….nothing.
I threw caution to the wind: I was on an airplane at 40,000 feet when the clock struck 00:00Z of the new milennium. Despite the many warnings of catastrophic worldwide technology failure, the US Air Traffic Control system worked and I made it safely to my date and a great NYE celebration!
I worked at Scudder Investments in Boston on the eCommerce team and was horrified to learn that my mobile number was given to the IT group and I was listed as an 'essential resource' to the Y2K monitoring. I have no idea what I could have contributed since my job was acquisition marketing but back then any title that had 'e' in front of it was essential. LOL.
Having spent two years preparing major IT systems in the UK for the impending Y2K deadline, I was on call and staying sober – just in case. The only Y2K disaster I heard about was in Italy where some of the justice systems failed and they let out hundreds of prisoners early
I remember filling the tub with water and going to the grocery store which was sold out of toilet paper. The recruiters would call on the phone in the months preceding year end and ask if you knew Cobol or Fortran and “were you available for a short-term contract?” So much hype and fear-mongering. Well, we built those old programs better than that! (They were'nt still around calculating overtime pay, were they? LOL.) Jan 1 2000 was a nice day, as I remember.
In 1999 I was still living in South America and I remember some folks that would charge you to check your Microwave, Toaster, Fridge, etc and make everything Y2K compliant. Nice little sticker¦ what a great scam 🙂
I worked for an outsourcer with a major Canadian bank as a major customer, and was assigned as the shift manager for 2nd shift (i.e. 6 am – 2 pm Jan 1). I showed up at 6 am at the control room and was told that 10 of the 11 people who were to show up where already called and told to stay home because it was so quiet. We had only 2 minor problems – one on the mainframe and one on a Unix box, both associated with dates displaying incorrectly in logs. Quite a letdown!
We had arranged for satellite TV in our “crisis centre” so I and the few other people in the building could keep up on the news. So at least it wasn't a total loss – we could sit around and watch TV.
Believe it or not round that time I was still having a 486 DX4 with widows 3.1 just used couple of years to work. Feeling it kinda prehistoric with the state of the art running at 1999 , I thought there would be a good excuse to update my tools. However I was also having the weird feeling that while everyone else's data was going to fade away, mine was going to make it and would be still standing after the whole crash. Then they said they founded the solution, and it happened…My PC went back to January the 1st, 1902. The 2nd I just kept working my stuff in the same computer till 2002 I got a new one. HA!! I still remember that episode at Chris Carter's Millenium. Do you?…
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Fantastic time, really. On NYE we had a mountain of Cantonese duck. SF Bay Area was the best place to be for Y2K.