The Y2K bug, 22 years later

[Uncensored2008]

What does this have to do with Y2K?

This entire thread is a flaccid attempt to support newer hoaxes by supporting long debunked hoaxes.

Most of you morons don't know the first thing about the facts, you just think it might lend credence to the steaming shit you're shoveling now.

{

The Hidden Origin of the Y2K Disaster Scenarios​

In addition to the three reasons above (which were widely publicized), there were two less-publicized reasons the "experts" were so convinced a Y2K disaster was inevitable:
Reason 1: the Y2K "experts were making big money selling books, seminars, and consulting. The more dire the danger, the more money they could charge. That's why the "experts" quickly wiped the Y2K stuff from their bios and websites when nothing happened. What had been an asset--"I'm a Y2k Expert" became an embarrassing liability. (Uh oh... I printed hard copies and filed them away.)

Reason 2: some Y2K "experts" predicted an apocalypse is because the Bible told them so.
(OK, remember the pin you put in the name "Gary North"? We're going there now.)
While there had been several bestselling books published on the Y2K threat, the nexus of online information about Y2K was GaryNorth.com, whose site was like a Reddit thread (this was before Reddit) where he posted links to every article or news report about Y2K that hit the Web, along with his commentary.
Because North was at the center of the online Y2K world, North became the "go-to" source for reporters looking for new wrinkles on the Y2K beat, where he was usually quoted in Y2K "the end is near" articles as a "computer expert" or "programming expert."
Few of those reporters ever bothered to check on North's background. A better description of North than "computer expert" would be "world-class wing nut."
For example, in 1976, North published None Dare Call It Witchcraft, which asserted that witchcraft was real--the real-live broomstick-flying kind--who were summoning the devil on a daily basis. This is not a joke. North thought witchcraft was as real as science.

But that's not all. North's other writings identify him as a "Christian Reconstructionist." For those who aren't familiar with it, Christian Reconstructionism is an ultra-right-wing sect that believes that the second coming of Christ is imminent. The Reconstructionists (and many, many evangelicals) went BIG for the idea that "since God created the world in 4,000 B.C., the world would end on 2,000 A.D." (Each millennium being one of the six days of creation... get it?)}

The Y2K Disaster Scenarios Were a Hoax

The Y2K bug was real but the predictions of a world-shaking disaster were utter nonsense.

www.inc.com

You're all a bunch of fucking cretins without a hint of a clue what you're talking about. Doesn't matter, you have a political agenda.

 

[Uncensored2008]

There actually is a another Y2K coming in 2038.

Many companies use Oracle and many of those systems use timestamps. The problem with timestamp in Oracle is that it can't store a value greater than '2038-01-19 0307' UTC.

Oh my ALLAH, we're all GUNNA DYE......

Fucktard.

 

[Faun]

Oh my ALLAH, we're all GUNNA DYE......

Fucktard.

Your brain already did.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Your brain already did.

What's really sad is this truly IS the best you can do...

Now go clean your cab.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

This entire thread is a flaccid attempt to support newer hoaxes by supporting long debunked hoaxes.

Most of you morons don't know the first thing about the facts, you just think it might lend credence to the steaming shit you're shoveling now.

{

The Hidden Origin of the Y2K Disaster Scenarios​

In addition to the three reasons above (which were widely publicized), there were two less-publicized reasons the "experts" were so convinced a Y2K disaster was inevitable:
Reason 1: the Y2K "experts were making big money selling books, seminars, and consulting. The more dire the danger, the more money they could charge. That's why the "experts" quickly wiped the Y2K stuff from their bios and websites when nothing happened. What had been an asset--"I'm a Y2k Expert" became an embarrassing liability. (Uh oh... I printed hard copies and filed them away.)

Reason 2: some Y2K "experts" predicted an apocalypse is because the Bible told them so.
(OK, remember the pin you put in the name "Gary North"? We're going there now.)
While there had been several bestselling books published on the Y2K threat, the nexus of online information about Y2K was GaryNorth.com, whose site was like a Reddit thread (this was before Reddit) where he posted links to every article or news report about Y2K that hit the Web, along with his commentary.
Because North was at the center of the online Y2K world, North became the "go-to" source for reporters looking for new wrinkles on the Y2K beat, where he was usually quoted in Y2K "the end is near" articles as a "computer expert" or "programming expert."
Few of those reporters ever bothered to check on North's background. A better description of North than "computer expert" would be "world-class wing nut."
For example, in 1976, North published None Dare Call It Witchcraft, which asserted that witchcraft was real--the real-live broomstick-flying kind--who were summoning the devil on a daily basis. This is not a joke. North thought witchcraft was as real as science.

But that's not all. North's other writings identify him as a "Christian Reconstructionist." For those who aren't familiar with it, Christian Reconstructionism is an ultra-right-wing sect that believes that the second coming of Christ is imminent. The Reconstructionists (and many, many evangelicals) went BIG for the idea that "since God created the world in 4,000 B.C., the world would end on 2,000 A.D." (Each millennium being one of the six days of creation... get it?)}

The Y2K Disaster Scenarios Were a Hoax

The Y2K bug was real but the predictions of a world-shaking disaster were utter nonsense.

www.inc.com

You're all a bunch of fucking cretins without a hint of a clue what you're talking about. Doesn't matter, you have a political agenda.

Wow, that's a lot bile and vitriol to waste on something that happened 20+ years ago. We were prepared for it. And there were legitimate concerns with
how tightly integrated computers were with our infrastructure. And there were some software issues that popped up that had to be taken care of.

You're just using a twenty year old issue to justify your selfishness, ignorance, and stupidity today.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Wow, that's a lot bile and vitriol to waste on something that happened 20+ years ago. We were prepared for it. And there were legitimate concerns with
how tightly integrated computers were with our infrastructure. And there were some software issues that popped up that had to be taken care of.

You're just using a twenty year old issue to justify your selfishness, ignorance, and stupidity today.

You realize I didn't write the INC. article?

Mostly though, you of the fascist left think that by rehabilitating old hoaxes, somehow the new hoaxes you peddle are more believable.

 

[Faun]

What's really sad is this truly IS the best you can do...

Now go clean your cab.

You broke another one, Fruitcake.

 

[Uncensored2008]

You broke another one, Fruitcake.

 

[Faun]

View attachment 583311

LOL

Drools the forum mental patient who thinks I'm from North Korea AND Iraq and thinks I drive a cab.

 

[Rigby5]

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.

No, old IBM mainframes were not the only problem.
Microsoft DOS and Windows used a small space for the year by just allowing 2 digits.
So 1999 would be stored as just 99.

{...
Nowadays, many people feel the Y2K bug was a myth and never really presented a serious problem, but in January 2000 there were many computer failures across the world.

Some bank customers received bills for 100 years worth of interest and many credit card systems and cash machines failed.

Across the world, 15 nuclear reactors shut down, and in New York, a customer at a state video rental store was handed a bill for $91,250 (£68,013) - the cost of renting the film The General's Daughter for 100 years.
...}

And there is a new bug right now with MS Windows.
{...

Remember the Y2K bug? Microsoft confirms new Y2K22 issue​

As digital calendars around the world changed to 01.01.2022, Microsoft customers found their Exchange servers stopped processing emails.

Alexander Martin
Technology reporter @AlexMartin
Sunday 2 January 2022 07:31, UK
...}

Remember the Y2K bug? Microsoft confirms new Y2K22 issue

As digital calendars around the world changed to 01.01.2022, Microsoft customers found their Exchange servers stopped processing emails.

news.sky.com

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

You realize I didn't write the INC. article?

Mostly though, you of the fascist left think that by rehabilitating old hoaxes, somehow the new hoaxes you peddle are more believable.

I don't care if you wrote or read it scratched on the back of napkin. You're here parroting it as fact. When it's just some asshole's opinion.
Worse, you carry it forward to include a pandemic that's killed over 800K in THIS country...a first world democracy with supposedly the
greatest healthcare system in the world.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Y2K was completely overblown.
The problem was real, but mostly for old systems...as in decades old systems.
The problem was fixed by most software in the early 90s. Before the hysteria.
I remember the media had everyone believing that Jan1 was going to be a holocaust.
The entire electric grid is at risk!!! Every computer may not turn on!!!
OMG!!! AUUUGGHH!!!
Quietly... Jan 1st past... and nothing happened.
For sure in the mid 90s, there were companies in old systems that had to do a fair amount of coding to prepare. But the truth was - 99.8% of all systems - there never was a Y2K problem.

 

[AsherN]

Y2K was completely overblown.
The problem was real, but mostly for old systems...as in decades old systems.
The problem was fixed by most software in the early 90s. Before the hysteria.
I remember the media had everyone believing that Jan1 was going to be a holocaust.
The entire electric grid is at risk!!! Every computer may not turn on!!!
OMG!!! AUUUGGHH!!!
Quietly... Jan 1st past... and nothing happened.
For sure in the mid 90s, there were companies in old systems that had to do a fair amount of coding to prepare. But the truth was - 99.8% of all systems - there never was a Y2K problem.

BS. It had nothing to do with he age of the system, or the OS used. It had to do with the date format used. And YYMMDD was a very popular format. Everywhere. Y2K did not happen because a lot of people put in a lot of hours fixing it.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

BS. It had nothing to do with he age of the system, or the OS used. It had to do with the date format used. And YYMMDD was a very popular format. Everywhere. Y2K did not happen because a lot of people put in a lot of hours fixing it.

Yeah no.
I was a Sys Admin from 1998 - 2001. There are plenty of posts I have made saying I was a Sys Admin. I worked for the 5th largest media company (at the time) in America.
56 properties. 1,000s of servers and 10,000s of computers.
The Y2K issues were thought about in the early 90s. Like I said, software companies took care of the problem yeeeaars before 2000 in updates.
We didn't have one issue. None. 1,000s of servers, 10,000s of computers - a gazillion programs and applications. Not one problem.

 

[Uncensored2008]

No, old IBM mainframes were not the only problem.
Microsoft DOS and Windows used a small space for the year by just allowing 2 digits.
So 1999 would be stored as just 99.

{...
Nowadays, many people feel the Y2K bug was a myth and never really presented a serious problem, but in January 2000 there were many computer failures across the world.

Some bank customers received bills for 100 years worth of interest and many credit card systems and cash machines failed.

Across the world, 15 nuclear reactors shut down, and in New York, a customer at a state video rental store was handed a bill for $91,250 (£68,013) - the cost of renting the film The General's Daughter for 100 years.
...}

And there is a new bug right now with MS Windows.
{...

Remember the Y2K bug? Microsoft confirms new Y2K22 issue​

As digital calendars around the world changed to 01.01.2022, Microsoft customers found their Exchange servers stopped processing emails.

Alexander Martin
Technology reporter @AlexMartin
Sunday 2 January 2022 07:31, UK
...}

Remember the Y2K bug? Microsoft confirms new Y2K22 issue

As digital calendars around the world changed to 01.01.2022, Microsoft customers found their Exchange servers stopped processing emails.

news.sky.com

MS DOS 1.2 used a two digit date. By DOS 3.0 and the venerable DOS 3.1, circa 1983 this was updated. Remember the old autoexec.bat command "set strictdate on?" You would if you ever worked with those machines. By 1999, no one still ran DOS, Windows 95 and Windows 98 certainly had no issue.

The supermarket tabloid you quoted said;

{As digital calendars around the world changed to 01.01.2022, Microsoft customers found their Exchange servers stopped processing emails.}

Is that true?

Funny, my Exchange servers had no trouble?

Nor did Exchange 365?

Now last march, Exchange 365 had SERIOUS issues, but it had nothing to do with Y2K.


A memo I wrote to the board of directors I reported back in 1999 went something like this;

To the esteemed chairman and board members;

I have spent the last kear updating our skstems as kou have directed. I am pleased to report that as kou directed, all "y's" have been converted to "k's"

Also, we have no issues with dates for our skstems.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

MS DOS 1.2 used a two digit date. By DOS 3.0 and the venerable DOS 3.1, circa 1983 this was updated. Remember the old autoexec.bat command "set strictdate on?" You would if you ever worked with those machines. By 1999, no one still ran DOS, Windows 95 and Windows 98 certainly had no issue.

The supermarket tabloid you quoted said;

{As digital calendars around the world changed to 01.01.2022, Microsoft customers found their Exchange servers stopped processing emails.}

Is that true?

Funny, my Exchange servers had no trouble?

Nor did Exchange 365?

Now last march, Exchange 365 had SERIOUS issues, but it had nothing to do with Y2K.


A memo I wrote to the board of directors I reported back in 1999 went something like this;

To the esteemed chairman and board members;

I have spent the last kear updating our skstems as kou have directed. I am pleased to report that as kou directed, all "y's" have been converted to "k's"

Also, we have no issues with dates for our skstems.

Meh... as a Sys Admin then I remember the hype very well.
We were led to believe it was going o be a "computer holocaust".. everything you could think of may stop working. Run for the hills.!!
In reality, computer makers and software companies began addressing the problem in the early 90s. For instance we had an old VMS system that was the front end for many of our circulation departments. It was old, way out of support date. We had to replace the system in the late 90s. We had a few properties that used an old Sun platform from the 80s. It desperately needed to be replaced anyway, and it was replaced in the 90s at some point.
Like I said, the vast-vast majority of systems had Y2K patches, updated systems/OS's etc. by the time 2000 came. I remember very well even in late Dec. 1999 the media was still saying "what is going o happen??!!"

 

[Faun]

Meh... as a Sys Admin then I remember the hype very well.
We were led to believe it was going o be a "computer holocaust".. everything you could think of may stop working. Run for the hills.!!
In reality, computer makers and software companies began addressing the problem in the early 90s. For instance we had an old VMS system that was the front end for many of our circulation departments. It was old, way out of support date. We had to replace the system in the late 90s. We had a few properties that used an old Sun platform from the 80s. It desperately needed to be replaced anyway, and it was replaced in the 90s at some point.
Like I said, the vast-vast majority of systems had Y2K patches, updated systems/OS's etc. by the time 2000 came. I remember very well even in late Dec. 1999 the media was still saying "what is going o happen??!!"

It was because many took it seriously throughout the 90's and addressed the issue that it wasn't an IT meltdown when the century part of the date changed to 2000. Still, there were some glitches...

7 Problems Y2K Actually Caused

Y2K was not the world-ending catastrophe that the media, governments, and tech gurus had predicted. But it still led to some weird, expensive, and sometimes hilarious glitches.

www.mentalfloss.com

 

[Uncensored2008]

It was because many took it seriously throughout the 90's and addressed the issue that it wasn't an IT meltdown when the century part of the date changed to 2000. Still, there were some glitches...

7 Problems Y2K Actually Caused

Y2K was not the world-ending catastrophe that the media, governments, and tech gurus had predicted. But it still led to some weird, expensive, and sometimes hilarious glitches.

www.mentalfloss.com

No matter how thoroughly you're debunked, you just can't stop lying to pimp conspiracy theories.

It wasn't even political at the time, it was just a scam and media bullshit. But you stupid fuck Nazis just can't let a conspiracy theory go.....

 

[Faun]

No matter how thoroughly you're debunked, you just can't stop lying to pimp conspiracy theories.

It wasn't even political at the time, it was just a scam and media bullshit. But you stupid fuck Nazis just can't let a conspiracy theory go.....

Now you're hallucinating I made it political??

Your mental deformity is worsening, Fruitcake.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Now you're hallucinating I made it political??

Your mental deformity is worsening, Fruitcake.

You stupid fuck Nazis just can't let a conspiracy theory go.....

No matter how completely debunked it is.

Buh a VIDEO store using homegrown software on a C64....