In hindsight. There was some degree of hysteria at the time, which prompted ended at the turn of the millenia when planes did not fall out of the sky and computer systems did not all fail in unison.
Nothing personal, I try to correct this view everywhere I see it.
Y2K didn’t happen because a lot of talented engineers worked their asses off to prevent it from happening. It is the bane of IT people everywhere that the working state of the systems they create and maintain is being taken for granted by the public, with barely a thought givem to those who fight bugs, spam, cyber attacks and pure entropy every day. It is in fact a minor miracle of engineering that we’re even having this conversation.
The public should take it for granted, it’s corpo culture that shouldn’t. If IT people had the freedom and option to do the right things early there’s so many situations that would never happen, but oh no profits must increase by 10% yoy or else CEO is replaced.
Y2k was a non event because a lot of time, effort, and money was spent fixing it before the deadline.
The estimated cost of fixing the bug was between 300-850 billion dollars in 2000 - adjusted for inflation that’s about 0.5-1.5 trillion dollars
The estimated worldwide cost of fixing the Y2K bug, according to analysts: Cap Gemini America Inc. — $858 billion; Gartner Group Inc. — $600 billion; International Data Corp. — $300 billion.
In hindsight. There was some degree of hysteria at the time, which prompted ended at the turn of the millenia when planes did not fall out of the sky and computer systems did not all fail in unison.
Nothing personal, I try to correct this view everywhere I see it.
Y2K didn’t happen because a lot of talented engineers worked their asses off to prevent it from happening. It is the bane of IT people everywhere that the working state of the systems they create and maintain is being taken for granted by the public, with barely a thought givem to those who fight bugs, spam, cyber attacks and pure entropy every day. It is in fact a minor miracle of engineering that we’re even having this conversation.
Thank you. I was on the Y2K team.
Thank you for your service. I mean it.
And thank you! I merely followed directions, my first real IT job. But I’m proud to say I was there! As a private if not a general.
God(or whatever metaphysical force you subscribe to) guard the engineers. Of all types.
Couldn’t agree more and do not in any way intend to diminish the hard work of those that prevented a widespread systems failure.
Reminds me of this funny bit from Louis C.K. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBdwNP7xk_6/ (profanity)
That’s true, but it is also true that there was a lot of hysteria… A lot of well designed systems were built without the y2k flaw in the first place…
The public should take it for granted, it’s corpo culture that shouldn’t. If IT people had the freedom and option to do the right things early there’s so many situations that would never happen, but oh no profits must increase by 10% yoy or else CEO is replaced.
A-men
And A-women too 😁
the Dot Com bubble burst + World Trade Center in 2001 was another animal
Y2k was a non event because a lot of time, effort, and money was spent fixing it before the deadline.
The estimated cost of fixing the bug was between 300-850 billion dollars in 2000 - adjusted for inflation that’s about 0.5-1.5 trillion dollars
https://www.computerworld.com/article/1372100/some-key-facts-and-events-in-y2k-history.html
There was that one guy who got charged $60k in late fees at blockbuster though.