The Y2K bug, 22 years later

[Harpy Eagle]

I was reading an article looking back at the Y2K bug. Some people today will say it was just one more panic that did not pan out. That it was all over blown.

But the fact of the matter is that it was a real problem that was discovered in 1993. Once it was found people took it seriously in the US alone we spent 100 billion dollars fixing it. I have seen estimates of over 2 billion man hours used to correct the problem.

The result of it being taken seriously is that when 2000 hit, there were no issues thanks to the work done for 7 years.

Then I wondered if something similar was found today, what would be the outcome.

Would we agree to spend the time and money to fix it, or would it become yet one more political tool and one side would be for fixing it so the other side would have to be against doing so. Would we spend our time fixing it or would we spend our time calling each other names and blaming the problem on the other side?

I am not confident we would be able to do what we did between 93 and 2000.

 

[TNHarley]

I just watched a movie on netflix called "just look up." Same thing.
And it plays out the way it probably would in RL. Greed, stupidity and politics.
Some things shouldnt be politicized but it is just the way it is now. Of course, what else do you expect when 2 cults butt heads?
Maybe one day they will realize how similar they are and shut the fuck up.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

I just watched a movie on netflix called "just look up." Same thing.
And it plays out the way it probably would in RL. Greed, stupidity and politics.
Some things shouldnt be politicized but it is just the way it is now. Of course, what else do you expect when 2 cults butt heads?
Maybe one day they will realize how similar they are and shut the fuck up.

We watched that, too over the top for me but yes, it was for sure the very thing. Thanks.

 

[JGalt]

I was reading an article looking back at the Y2K bug. Some people today will say it was just one more panic that did not pan out. That it was all over blown.

But the fact of the matter is that it was a real problem that was discovered in 1993. Once it was found people took it seriously in the US alone we spent 100 billion dollars fixing it. I have seen estimates of over 2 billion man hours used to correct the problem.

The result of it being taken seriously is that when 2000 hit, there were no issues thanks to the work done for 7 years.

Then I wondered if something similar was found today, what would be the outcome.

Would we agree to spend the time and money to fix it, or would it become yet one more political tool and one side would be for fixing it so the other side would have to be against doing so. Would we spend our time fixing it or would we spend our time calling each other names and blaming the problem on the other side?

I am not confident we would be able to do what we did between 93 and 2000.

We have our own Y2K bug today: It's called "COVID". And like Y2K, it's way overblown.

 

[JoeMoma]

We watched that, too over the top for me but yes, it was for sure the very thing. Thanks.

Yes, way over the top. But it had funny parts.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

We have our own Y2K bug today: It's called "COVID". And like Y2K, it's way overblown.

People only think that Y2K is overblown because the problem was fixed prior to 2K.

You remind me of people whose doctors tells them to quit smoking and drinking or they will be dead in 6 months. So they quit smoking and drinking and than a year later call the doc stupid for saying they would be dead in 6 months.

But, you did answer the question as to what we would do today if this came up, people like you would make it 100% political and not fix the problem. Thanks for that

 

[JGalt]

People only think that Y2K is overblown because the problem was fixed prior to 2K.

You remind me of people whose doctors tells them to quit smoking and drinking or they will be dead in 6 months. So they quit smoking and drinking and than a year later call the doc stupid for saying they would be dead in 6 months.

But, you did answer the question as to what we would do today if this came up, people like you would make it 100% political and not fix the problem. Thanks for that

COVID is 110% political. The left didn't let a good crisis go to waste, got rid of a great President, and replaced him with a worthless POS.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

I was reading an article looking back at the Y2K bug. Some people today will say it was just one more panic that did not pan out. That it was all over blown.

But the fact of the matter is that it was a real problem that was discovered in 1993. Once it was found people took it seriously in the US alone we spent 100 billion dollars fixing it. I have seen estimates of over 2 billion man hours used to correct the problem.

The result of it being taken seriously is that when 2000 hit, there were no issues thanks to the work done for 7 years.

Then I wondered if something similar was found today, what would be the outcome.

Would we agree to spend the time and money to fix it, or would it become yet one more political tool and one side would be for fixing it so the other side would have to be against doing so. Would we spend our time fixing it or would we spend our time calling each other names and blaming the problem on the other side?

I am not confident we would be able to do what we did between 93 and 2000.

Most of the issues I saw after 1/1/2000 had to do with the clocks (date) on the computers at the time and their relationship to the software (database, spreadsheet calculations) that ran on them. We spent a good six months tearing through our customer's computers, upgrading and patching, working 80+ hours a week sometimes to cover everything we could. It was a little anti-climactic when the phones were largely silent after the year 2000 came. There were issues, but they were mainly software or computers that had been overlooked.

We already have an example of something similar found today happening. And the tech world came up huge. Don't know if you've seen the Log4j issue that affects Apache software? The software is literally EVERYWHERE. Tech companies came up with fixes within a few hours to days and are working non-stop to come up with patches for their software.

Log4j –

 

[Otis Mayfield]

Everything was fixed ahead of the deadline.

Everything had to be checked.

That's what cost all the money.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

COVID is 110% political. The left didn't let a good crisis go to waste, got rid of a great President, and replaced him with a worthless POS.

everything in your world is 110% political, it is all you know.

 

[JoeMoma]

People only think that Y2K is overblown because the problem was fixed prior to 2K.

You remind me of people whose doctors tells them to quit smoking and drinking or they will be dead in 6 months. So they quit smoking and drinking and than a year later call the doc stupid for saying they would be dead in 6 months.

But, you did answer the question as to what we would do today if this came up, people like you would make it 100% political and not fix the problem. Thanks for that

Part of it being Way Over Blown is that it was Fixed before 2000 but many people were hysterical thinking it wasn't fixed and that there would be world wide catastrophe on 1/1/2000. The MSM helped make it overblown.

 

[Obiwan]

I was reading an article looking back at the Y2K bug. Some people today will say it was just one more panic that did not pan out. That it was all over blown.

But the fact of the matter is that it was a real problem that was discovered in 1993. Once it was found people took it seriously in the US alone we spent 100 billion dollars fixing it. I have seen estimates of over 2 billion man hours used to correct the problem.

The result of it being taken seriously is that when 2000 hit, there were no issues thanks to the work done for 7 years.

Then I wondered if something similar was found today, what would be the outcome.

Would we agree to spend the time and money to fix it, or would it become yet one more political tool and one side would be for fixing it so the other side would have to be against doing so. Would we spend our time fixing it or would we spend our time calling each other names and blaming the problem on the other side?

I am not confident we would be able to do what we did between 93 and 2000.

If something like that were to happen today, the Democrats would ask for $100 trillion to fix it....

Then the Fucktard would forget about it, and go to get an ice cream cone and get his diaper changed!!!!

 

[Harpy Eagle]

If something like that were to happen today, the Democrats would ask for $100 trillion to fix it....

Then the Fucktard would forget about it, and go to get an ice cream cone and get his diaper changed!!!!

Again you support my view that the whole thing would be make political and we would never fix the problem.

Seems I did not underestimate you all

 

[Harpy Eagle]

Part of it being Way Over Blown is that it was Fixed before 2000 but many people were hysterical thinking it wasn't fixed and that there would be world wide catastrophe on 1/1/2000. The MSM helped make it overblown.

True, but I do not think most people knew how the "fixing" was going. I was living in Japan at the time and my Mother-in-law called us at 10 minutes after midnight to see if everything went to shit. She even tried to convince my wife to fly home with our daughter before Y2K hit just to be safe!

 

[22lcidw]

If something like that were to happen today, the Democrats would ask for $100 trillion to fix it....

Then the Fucktard would forget about it, and go to get an ice cream cone and get his diaper changed!!!!

The real issue is to know the truth about these scam artists.

 

[yidnar]

everything in your world is 110% political, it is all you know.

the left has made everything political ! though the right politicizes to much too the left is guilty by 10 fold .

 

[Uncensored2008]

I was reading an article looking back at the Y2K bug. Some people today will say it was just one more panic that did not pan out. That it was all over blown.

But the fact of the matter is that it was a real problem that was discovered in 1993. Once it was found people took it seriously in the US alone we spent 100 billion dollars fixing it. I have seen estimates of over 2 billion man hours used to correct the problem.

The result of it being taken seriously is that when 2000 hit, there were no issues thanks to the work done for 7 years.

Then I wondered if something similar was found today, what would be the outcome.

Would we agree to spend the time and money to fix it, or would it become yet one more political tool and one side would be for fixing it so the other side would have to be against doing so. Would we spend our time fixing it or would we spend our time calling each other names and blaming the problem on the other side?

I am not confident we would be able to do what we did between 93 and 2000.

The "Y2K bug" was a media hoax.

CICS

Do you have any idea what it is?

Customer Information Control System is a function library used on very old IBM 360 class mainframes from the 1950's

In 1956, computer random access memory was highly expensive, IBM found a way to encode dates using a nibble, which is half of a byte, or 4 bits of data. The 4 bit hash could reference integers 00 through 99, consider that in most systems a single digit integer requires 8 bits. They did in 4 what most machines require 16 to do.

It was really quite brilliant - to call it a "bug" is simply stupid. Not only was this not a bug, but it was meticulously documented.

Did I mention this ONLY affected IBM mainframes running Z/OS and using CICS? This means that by the 1990's only a tiny handful of computers were affected.

The CPF based System 38 based network used by Bank of America was in no way impacted by this date encoding.

Nor were the VAX/VMS systems running Unix that Wells Fargo used.

No, the machines in question were nearly all US Government and non-critical.

What was the potential impact? Getting a date wrong. If the machine thinks it's 1901 rather than 2001 and prints that on a check, it could be a problem. Would it end the world the way the media claimed?

Nope.

Old hoaxes that have been debunked for decades don't justify new hoaxes.

 

[Uncensored2008]

People only think that Y2K is overblown because the problem was fixed prior to 2K.

Oh really?

So what would have happened if the code wasn't updated in time?

Would nuclear missiles think it was the wrong century and fire, because reasons?

Fact, the failure of McSlurry machines has a bigger impact than the Y2K issue ever had potential for.

It was a hoax.

You remind me of people whose doctors tells them to quit smoking and drinking or they will be dead in 6 months. So they quit smoking and drinking and than a year later call the doc stupid for saying they would be dead in 6 months.

You remind me of someone reading BatBoy articles in supermarket tabloids and then imagining that you have actual knowledge.

But, you did answer the question as to what we would do today if this came up, people like you would make it 100% political and not fix the problem. Thanks for that

It wasn't anything but an administrative task hyped by a corrupt and unethical media.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

The govt spent over 2 billion on obamacare website and it wouldn't work. You may as well have back doored it and started writing in code. Our govt spent trillions fighting a war with people who rode camels for 20 years and walked away with nothing. No, our govt does nothing but waste. But hey, go get you some duct tape and plastic........

 

[imawhosure]

I was reading an article looking back at the Y2K bug. Some people today will say it was just one more panic that did not pan out. That it was all over blown.

But the fact of the matter is that it was a real problem that was discovered in 1993. Once it was found people took it seriously in the US alone we spent 100 billion dollars fixing it. I have seen estimates of over 2 billion man hours used to correct the problem.

The result of it being taken seriously is that when 2000 hit, there were no issues thanks to the work done for 7 years.

Then I wondered if something similar was found today, what would be the outcome.

Would we agree to spend the time and money to fix it, or would it become yet one more political tool and one side would be for fixing it so the other side would have to be against doing so. Would we spend our time fixing it or would we spend our time calling each other names and blaming the problem on the other side?

I am not confident we would be able to do what we did between 93 and 2000.

Golfing, I agree to some extent with you, but also disagree.

Why?

Because politicians have absolutely no clue about anything, especially if they have been politicians most of their adult lives. You even admitted the Y2K problem was discovered 1993; and it took 7 years?!?!?!?! While I appreciate everyone that worked on that problem very hard and for so long to solve it, why 7 years? Seems a bit long to most; doesn't it to you?

Let us fast forward to COVID! How long was it projected before a vaccine? Why 5 to 7 years was the projection of course. Sound familiar? So how did we get it in 9 months? Maybe because a politician wasn't in charge? Just saying.

People can despise Trump all they want, but his use of Federal funds, out and out threats to the drug companies if they tried to profit over the top after he funded them to create it, and his funding of them in advance so that the product would be available as soon as it was developed and approved by the FDA saved hundreds of thousands of lives, if not millions across the globe. In fact, Trump's investment of billions has now given us a pill that can help. For a supposed incompetent boob, he cut through all the red tape, and possibly helped save one of all our family members from severe illness.

I wish for Joe Biden the same success, and we could surely use it now. I am an American, and while I believe Joe has no idea what he is doing because he is a life long politician, I still hope for his success in this matter of COVID. He should not be worried about talking to other politicians for solutions, he should be going to the medical experts and drug companies with wallet in hand.

I don't like LEFTISTS perse, but I love them because they are Americans! Joe needs to be wise and save Americans because, after all; we are all in this together, like it or not.