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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,405 Likes: 5
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,405 Likes: 5 |
Y2K wasn't a joke. The fact that it was a non-event was a great tribute to the thousands of computer programmers who put in mega-thousands of long hours fixing the problems before they occurred. My brother was a systems programmer for one of the large banks at the time. He told me what would happen if they didn't get it fixed. It would have crashed the entire banking system and created a financial disaster. He was overseeing a program that would go through millions of lines of COBOL looking for anything that even remotely looked like a date and flagged it for a better look. They did some major repair work to their software system.
Industries world wide spent many billions of $$ to get it fixed before it all came down and they got the job done. It was an international effort and it worked.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 69,672 Likes: 17
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 69,672 Likes: 17 |
Y2K wasn't a joke. The fact that it was a non-event was a great tribute to the thousands of computer programmers who put in mega-thousands of long hours fixing the problems before they occurred. My brother was a systems programmer for one of the large banks at the time. He told me what would happen if they didn't get it fixed. It would have crashed the entire banking system and created a financial disaster. He was overseeing a program that would go through millions of lines of COBOL looking for anything that even remotely looked like a date and flagged it for a better look. They did some major repair work to their software system.
Industries world wide spent many billions of $$ to get it fixed before it all came down and they got the job done. It was an international effort and it worked. Glad they fixed all that too. But I wonder why a basic Gateway 386 computer withstood the Y2K stuff without any outside manipulation?
Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla!
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,405 Likes: 5
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,405 Likes: 5 |
If a Gateway didn't have software using 2 digits for the year, it wouldn't have crashed. With early computers, storage was very expensive, nothing like today. They wrote programs to save storage space and that meant using 2 digits instead of 4. They never dreamed that the same software would still be in use 30 years later.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 14,248 Likes: 1
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 14,248 Likes: 1 |
"As a joke I taped a slide rule to the outside of my office door (I’m an engineer) with a note taped to it that said “For use in case of Y2K”. The joke was on me as a bunch of young engineers came into my office and asked me what it was."
That's a good one! I was a freshman at Ga. Tech in 1968. The great point of pride for a true Tech nerd was to have an embossed leather sheath for his slide rule. Just about every student at school had one.
I was geared up for Y2K. My son in law was a computer guy in Atlanta, and he said that his computer geek friends agreed that there was going to be a disaster.
I had already moved up into the mountains, so I did rat hole some food, and also got a wood stove for the house.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 28,390 Likes: 1
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 28,390 Likes: 1 |
Probably didn't run COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) or some other business language which was what major systems used.
If a lot of people spend a lot of time to prevent something, and then that thing is prevented, it's easy to say that it never would have happened in the first place.
If no one had prepared I doubt it would have been as apocalyptic as some histrionics predicted, but histrionics sells lots guns and generators and long term foods and most especially advertising time on histrionic news programs. But if no one had prepared it would have been worse than the non-event it was.
Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery.
Hit the target, all else is twaddle!
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,763
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Apr 2005
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I sold a lot of pinto beans that fall, a few brought them back and asked for refunds. No refunds. One guy said “What am I supposed to do with 1000 pounds of pinto beans”?
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 69,672 Likes: 17
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 69,672 Likes: 17 |
I sold a lot of pinto beans that fall, a few brought them back and asked for refunds. No refunds. One guy said “What am I supposed to do with 1000 pounds of pinto beans”? I saw one trailer house about 2003 that was full... full, floor to ceiling with MRE's. The rats and mice were having a heyday.
Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla!
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 18,933 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 18,933 Likes: 2 |
I sold a lot of pinto beans that fall, a few brought them back and asked for refunds. No refunds. One guy said “What am I supposed to do with 1000 pounds of pinto beans”? Same thing you had done if you had needed them, eat the fuggin things!!
The last time that bear ate a lawyer he had the runs for 33 days!
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Joined: May 2015
Posts: 1,015
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 1,015 |
We were at our next door neighbor's house for a party. One of my friends and I were outside near midnight and we got the idea to throw the main electrical switch. (No alcohol involved in the decision of course). When midnight hit I cut the power and they about sucked the walls in with their collective gasp. We laughed our a$$ off but the guy who lived there wasn't nearly as amused.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 11,952
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jun 2002
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I sold a lot of pinto beans that fall, a few brought them back and asked for refunds. No refunds. One guy said “What am I supposed to do with 1000 pounds of pinto beans”? Better to have pinto beans and not need them than need pinto beans and not have them. I'm serious. 
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,405 Likes: 5
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,405 Likes: 5 |
I never figured out why power systems would have been affected by the year but apparently that was the case. Banking systems, however, were inundated with dates and all that had to be fixed.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,405 Likes: 5
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,405 Likes: 5 |
Probably didn't run COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) or some other business language which was what major systems used.
If a lot of people spend a lot of time to prevent something, and then that thing is prevented, it's easy to say that it never would have happened in the first place.
If no one had prepared I doubt it would have been as apocalyptic as some histrionics predicted, but histrionics sells lots guns and generators and long term foods and most especially advertising time on histrionic news programs. But if no one had prepared it would have been worse than the non-event it was. It wasn't the language used. It was how the dates were stored. We heard a lot about COBOL but that was because almost all of the early programs used it. The issue was the year in dates being stored as 2 digits instead of 4 to save space. When it clicked over to 2000, it would be stored as 00 and computers would recognize that as 1900, not 2000. What would that do to all the interest you'd gained in your pension plan? All of those 2 digit years had to be found and converted to 4 digits.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 6,755
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2007
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I remember. It was the day the world ended. That’s why I don’t worry about global warming. It’s too late for the world to end; it already happened.
He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
- Albert Einstein
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Joined: May 2019
Posts: 1,812
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2019
Posts: 1,812 |
I remember all the planes were supposed to crash. I flew from PA to Idaho the morning of 1/1/00 for a mt. lion hunt. Wasn't too worried. Glad the world didn't end. It was a fun hunt....
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 37,916 Likes: 2
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 37,916 Likes: 2 |
Bathtub full of water here, and the row of extra gas cans (empty now) are still on the shelf in the garage. I still have a couple of extra flashlights knocking around too. Still got the same firearms we had too, hey was Y2K a good excuse for buying guns and ammo or what 
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 14,104
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 14,104 |
Wife and I were on an isolated ranch in the middle of nowhere. We were accustomed to periodic power outages, some of which might last for several days, so there was little in the way of preparation, except making sure that the auxiliary well motor had fuel and that the liquor cabinet was well-stocked.
Ben
Some days it takes most of the day for me to do practically nothing...
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 37,916 Likes: 2
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 37,916 Likes: 2 |
I sold a lot of pinto beans that fall, a few brought them back and asked for refunds. No refunds. One guy said “What am I supposed to do with 1000 pounds of pinto beans”? Better to have pinto beans and not need them than need pinto beans and not have them. I'm serious. Post flyers in the local Mormon temple, someone would buy em, food reserves for a year and all that.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 27,091
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 27,091 |
They said we would have computers crash for 2020 too. Damn lies.
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 16,554
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 16,554 |
Watched, waiting for the world of technology to crash and with no little glee. See, my amateurish hackings were not vulnerable.
Then it dawned, if dummy me had avoided the problem the real hackers probably did too.
The only thing it did was to require you to input four digits for the year, assuming the first two digits has become arbitrary.
The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh
Which explains a lot.
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 56,166 Likes: 14
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 56,166 Likes: 14 |
It was a disaster. One of my coworkers burped out his butt. And two pigs trying to hitch a ride south on I-95.
I am..........disturbed.
Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass. -Twain
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