Remember the Y2K scare?

[PATAX]

Remember the impending Y2K disaster caused by the so-called millennium bug when computers would not recognize 2000 from the year 1900, on January 1st 2000. I was a green horn at that time, and I believed the hype and Hysteria that they were propagating. Everything was going to crash, our computers, and anything that used computers. It was supposed to be a big disaster. Remember that? But in reality the sky did not fall in. That's why I say, you have to be a little bit skeptical about what you're being told. Happy New Years to all, and to all a Happy New Years.

[George4Tacks]

I do remember. People are now rushing to get married tomorrow. 123 123 is easy to remember.

[PATAX]

Half of them will remember even more the date of their divorce.

[qbteachmt]

There's still some weird stuff out there. I recently was helping with a Tracfone user account that has a birthyear of 1752. The support people can't fix it, apparently.

"and I believed the hype and Hysteria that they were propagating."

I remember the months of planning and long work days of recoding and recompiling and updating date input screens for 4-digit years, which would have been behind the scenes. So, I guess we did our jobs well, if you didn't even notice...I remember first noticing it with HR files, with qualified full retirement and vesting dates "not doing the math" if they passed across Dec 31, 1999. Then we had to pass everything through the update process, to turn the stored dates into 4-digit years.

We had our own code for cross-referencing the first part of a Social Security number with the location of birth on the hiring paperwork, to try to catch fraudulent IDs. Thankfully, Social Security created its own verification portal.

[IRonMaN]

The sky did fall and I got hit in the head by it.  Now that whole period of time is just a faded blur.

[PATAX]

"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time; but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." Henceforth, Nemes Von Nerdman shall not be Fooled Again.

[George4Tacks]

I remember that the City of Oakland took at least 2 years to get their payroll right. Incorrect pay amount, Incorrect W-2s. It is a holy mess for a very long time. Y2K did honestly mess up a computer system that had relied on a two digit year. I had several clients who suddenly either became much older than their years, or much younger. Tricks were done to fool the stupid computer. I see San Francisco teachers had a similar problem this year sorting various classifications of workers. Y2K truly was the tip of the computer kerfuffle. Even now I personally get very angry. frustrated and depressed over having to have 832 different user name and indecipherable passwords to keep track of. It seems every week I get a notice that some big company was hacked and I must take steps to protect myself and my data. ARGHHHH!

My other great memory of that time was my wife found this wonderful ugly armpit of a home for us to fix up and make our own. We bought it right after tax season 2017. My 21 year old nephew and my wife and I were the general contractors and did most of the work . I do remember the crew, which included Brother in Law and his wife sitting down for dinner in a local eatery and be told about the death of Princess Diana. The rebuild took about 2 years. We then had some landscaping done and decided to have an open house on 01/01/2020 - A Y2K open house. 

If you want to see what we did you can view BEFORE DURING and AFTER  by clicking on those 3 links. Also feel free to browse in the other branches of the site to see some of other interest. 

This is the 53 year old me and the 21 year old nephew (who out reached me by 21 inches because I was "Vertically disadvantaged". He painted ceilings without the ladder that I had move perpetually to do the same job. In case you wonder. Doing this was much more rewarding than doing taxes.

Happy New Year to All!!!

[qbteachmt]

"which included Brother in Law and his wife sitting down for dinner in a local eatery and be told about the death of Princess Diana."

That was August 1997. Must have been some other tragedy.

[George4Tacks]

The 1997 remembrance was at the beginning of remodeling and repair what would be our new home. The final open house was a Y2K party. It was a long and windy road. The previous owner did some very funky work and got away with it because the inspector was likely a drinking buddy. Niles is a very historic community in the sprawling town that now houses Tesla. Niles has a silent movie theatre and museum that found the lost footage of San Francisco just before the earthquake. 

[ehunter]

Actually,  I spent two years in New York City in 1998 and 1999 preparing for Y2K.  Elevators were on a two digit date.  Imagine the issues if the elevators failed?  Also, I was a speaker at training sessions for IT professionals, lawyers, doctors, and accountants regarding the real (and fake news) risks posed by the date change.  Of all my clients, the only ones that had issues were law enforcement (specifically County offices), and those problems were within specifically programmed applications provided and customized by large entities.  All other aspects of technology environments we successfully mitigated.  The date change potential for problems was very real.

[BobKamman]

I have clients who lost their only son to Y2K craziness.  I hope this thread disappears, it just brings back memories of sad stories. Her sister lost their only son to Covid.  

[PATAX]

@BobKamman sorry to hear about that Bob. I don't know how to get rid of this thread and I don't think I can. 

[qbteachmt]

"I hope this thread disappears, it just brings back memories of sad stories. Her sister lost their only son to Covid."

On the other hand, you had the opportunity to bring them to our attention, paying homage. It's when no one ever thinks of you, after you're gone, that is the saddest. I have a Nook that was a friend's mother's (both these ladies have now passed) and a bird book that was another friend's mother's. Tangible evidence that they live on, and I think of them every time I use their stuff.

[dascpa]

Is this any better than the telephone excise tax to pay for the Spanish American War in which the goverment collected monies from 1898-2006 (The War Revenue Act of 1898).  Then we got a $30-$60 2006 federal tax credit to pay us all back.  IRS estimates $4 billion still being held and not refunded.

[PATAX]

You made some good points there. Sounds like the Hundred Years War part 2. For those that rode the little bus to school, They collected money for over 100 years.