Hmmm, it doesn't feel like 1850 to me

[LAB3]

Anyone who's followed science shows on TV has probably heard the "Doom and gloom" stories about what would happen if the Earth was hit by a gamma ray burst. The power lines would fry, computer chips would be punched through with millions of tiny holes, etc. That day has come and guess what? The internet is still here!

https://scitechdaily.com/solar-system-hit-by-pulse-of-intense-radiation-incredible-1-in-10000-year-gamma-ray-burst/

[rphillips]

Since my Co. paid me 7 hr. overtime, to come in and babysit our Co. for the millennium on New Years eve 1999, and all I did was sit there and eat and watch the clock, and remembering back in the 80"s a climate scientist from Colombia Univ. said within 20 to 40 yrs New York's West Side Hwy. will be under water, & Al Gore predicting our polar ice caps to melt by 2013, then in 2015 changed it to within 5 to 7 yrs.... I've lost confidence, I've got where I question some of these big predictions of what's gon'na happen in the future. Really glad all those "RAYS" didn't hurt us too bad.

[salty_monk]

I got paid 4x to sit and play Duke Nukem all night on Y2K on an IT support desk. Good money for nothing for a recent graduate (as I was back then) and New Years celebration are usually overrated anyway!

[Suzukian]

I had my electronic repair shop back on Y2K, a lot of VCR calls on clocks that did not function right. There was a date, I forgot what it was, but you would set the VCR to that and then the timers would work again.

[rphillips]

Possibly a Connecticut thing, I don't remember hearing of anything that got screwed up around here.

[hank2]

On NYE, 1999-2000, I was relaxing in a hot tub on the patio at my then girlfriend's house. We had a stereo playing and a light or two on in the house. At about 00:01, all the power went out. City-wide, we learned. I wasn't expecting anything from the Y2K hype, but that got my attention. Power was back on the next day. The utility had some sort of a strange explanation later on that really didn't ring true.

[Grimly]

On NYE, 1999-2000, I was relaxing in a hot tub on the patio at my then girlfriend's house. We had a stereo playing and a light or two on in the house. At about 00:01, all the power went out. City-wide, we learned. I wasn't expecting anything from the Y2K hype, but that got my attention. Power was back on the next day. The utility had some sort of a strange explanation later on that really didn't ring true.

That's because it (mostly) wasn't bullchit.
I knew a few legacy programmers who assured me there were a pile of older systems (or newer systems with ancient code) that could and would just stop and/or mess up overnight.
The lack of failures led a lot of people to think it was all hype, the fools.

[rphillips]

Well Grim, guess I was one of those fools, after I didn't see, or hear, anything that quit working (until Suzukian's clocks yesterday) it still seems it was all hype....I dun'no maybe not.

[LAB3]

Well Grim, guess I was one of those fools, after I didn't see, or hear, anything that quit working (until Suzukian's clocks yesterday) it still seems it was all hype....I dun'no maybe not.

There where an AWFUL lot of aging FORTRAN and COBOL maintaining neck bearded nerds sweating bullets around that time, they never imagined it being a problem when they where getting into the biz back in the 60's.

These days there's a HUGE problem keeping those systems up and running since those guys are just about all "aged out" with nobody in the pipeline to replace them.

[argonsagas]

At the first day of Y2K...January 1..I got a truly funny moment.

I opened the office door and, out of habit, looked at the clock on the wall.......it was running backwards!

It was a battery-operated clock, and the batteries were almost done, but I left it running that way until others came into the office to see it..

[Cipher]

That's because it (mostly) wasn't bullchit.
I knew a few legacy programmers who assured me there were a pile of older systems (or newer systems with ancient code) that could and would just stop and/or mess up overnight.
The lack of failures led a lot of people to think it was all hype, the fools.

IT guys cashed in it was glorious fear mongering.

[Rob S.]

After 'superstorm' Sandy in 2012, gasoline deliveries were severely effected here in New York City. Many stores lost power, but virtually all lost network access, so even after finding gas, it was cash only. That was the last time I waited in a gas line.

[rphillips]

Did Y2K "DO ANYTHING" that amounted to anything?