Y2K

[itsnotmymind]

I stumbled on this conversation on Tumblr, and it made me think of my own stories about Y2K.

My dad works in computers, and he was able to reassure my sister and me that the world was not really ending. Unlink the parents of some of the people in the linked discussion, he didn't work to prevent the Y2K catastrophy: he avoided that kind of work because he was worried he would be laid off once the crisis was passed.

The funniest Y2K story I know is about my grandfather. Convinced the apocalypse was coming, dismissing his son's reassurances, he hoarded bottled water. In 1999, a hurricane passed through my grandparents' area. My grandparents had to boil all their water.

"It's a good thing you have all that bottled water stored in the basement," my father said.

"That's for Y2K!" my grandfather retorted, and refused to use it.

A little over a decade later, my aunt was visiting my grandparents. She and my father spoke on the phone, and he told her the Y2K water story.

"Oh, that's what all that water in the basement is for!" my aunt said.

Comments

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I never understood the Y2K scare, and I lived through it. I was a preteen at the time, but I kinda figured that it wasn't really that big of a deal. The only thing I remember was on New Years Eve when it was counting down to midnight, once it did and nothing happened, I just shrugged and went to bed. It wasn't much of a concern to us as other people, it seemed.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

What I remember most about the new year itself is our cat came screaming at our bedroom window - he could jump from a tree to the little bit of roof and scream to be let in at our bedroom window. But my sister didn't want to let him in through the window, so we went outside and called him down. Normally he would come down fast, but that evening there were fireworks and firecrackers for new years and he was scared. We spent several minutes outside in the snow trying to lure him down.

Aside from my grandfather I don't remember anyone I know being much concerned about it. It was just one of those regular apocalypses that never actually happens. I remember the neighbor girl wondering if anyone would read all the books about it after the non-existent passed, and my mother reassured her that some college student would do their thesis on it :)

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I never understood the Y2K scare, really :/

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

It's just one of those regular apocalypses. People like their apocalypses.

Basically a lot of computer systems only used two digits for the year: the 19 was implied. So 80 would be 1980, 90 would be 1990, 00 would be 1900 - oops. They had to change the system so that there was room for the 2000s.

[hamsterwoman]

Heh. We cut our honeymoon over winter break December 1999 short so that we wouldn't get stranded in Hawaii if Y2K grounded the planes, or made them fall out of the sky or something. :P

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

I had the advantage of a father who worked in IT, so I knew things were going to be OK.

[hamsterwoman]

Well, we were pretty sure nothing was actually going to happen. But both husband and I had done enough coding to know that a small unexpected input could cause a totally bizarre output, so, better safe than sorry.

(Things were OK, but my understanding is that this was because programmers and IT people had patched up most of the issues ahead of time, not because there hadn't been a risk. And we also knew enough programmers and QA folks to know that for all the bugs you do find and fix, there are some that slip through and bite you :P)

Also, weirdly, Y2K came up as a plot point in a book I started reading the same day I saw your post. What are the odds! XD

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

That's true, if no one had done anything there would have been problems. But from what I understand everyone was very aware of the issue, and there were few if any major failures. I don't think there was any more danger than any other technology update.

What was the plot point in the book you were reading?

[hamsterwoman]

I don't think there was any more danger than any other technology update.

Yeah, I think that's true. It's just that all kinds of relatively ancient S/W had to get updates.

What was the plot point in the book you were reading?

It wasn't a major plot point, but one of the protagonists was working on Y2K fixes, and that was his reason for being in the setting where the plot kicked off. (And the book was written well after 2000, although, obviously, set in 1999, so it was just so random to encounter that.)