Y2K Bugs: The Year In Review?

xipho asks: "Its been almost a year since the Y2K fiasco. Is there a summary of the 'devastation' caused somewhere? Was there really any effect? What about 2001, weren't more problems predicted? Why no hype? Was this all just a good example of the potential mass hysteria that the media can seed?" It would be nice to know who was really bit by the Y2K Bug and how much impact uncorrected systems would have had on our lives if the mad rush for corrections had not been made. Would things have actually been as bad as the media predicted?

Comments

Here's a couple . . .

[Floyd Turbo]

(1) When I made a donation to the EFF, my on-line "receipt" showed that it happened in 1900 -- rather too long ago for me to take a tax deduction.

(2) Some guy returned a video and was charged for it being 100 years overdue. That, and a few other "catastrophes" are summed up in this article.

Other than that, well . . .


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The real panic came from the media AFTER Y2K

[Geek In Training]

Remember January 1-7, 2000 when all of a sudden the very same pundits who were predicting doom, gloom and armageddon decided that US "COMPUTER PEOPLE" had gotten them all excited over nothing.

That almost made me seek out someone selling nice armaments to "fix" some of the broadcasting towers for the big media outlets...

Preparation prevented devastation

[Bourbon Man]

I think that all the preparation IT pros put in paid off. The problem with that is that maybe we did our jobs so well that the general public (and management) thinks it was all hype. I know for a fact some of our older (and mission critical) software systems would have failed, and we did have one external system fail. Fortunately we had contingency plans for nearly everything. There is really no way to know how things would have turned out, but speaking as an IT pro, I am positive we would not have liked the results of a non-Y2K compliant world.

Typical media cynicism and public techno-ignorance

[osgeek]

The media could give programmers credit for averting a disaster, but instead it's much easier for them to be cynical and claim that the whole Y2K thing was hype. Makes you really want to step in and help solve a problem before it truly manifests the next time too, huh?

Having personally been responsible for fixing Y2K bugs that would have cost businesses real money, it's disappointing to see /. latch onto the same media bandwagon position that we've seen in other less technically savvy venues.

Re:We'll never know.

[Masem]

Actually, there WERE y2k problems, but they all occured much earlier than 12/31/99. I remember when they started to report about credit cards failing to be recognized back in '98 because they had 00 or higher experiation dates. That started the concept of other possible y2k bugs, but the credit card issues were dealt with rather quickly.

But again, it's just like computer security. If you have a well secured computer, you will never know if you needed it or not, but you prevent problems that might have if you don't have any security all together.

Re:i saw it on tv!

[SuiteSisterMary]

The UNIX clock uses a 32 bit unsigned integer to count the number of seconds starting at, I believe, Jan 1, 1970, 00:00. In 2038, I believe, that 32 bit integer will run out of seconds, and roll over.

Started the mess in the first place.

[SuiteSisterMary]

IT guy: "Our Y2K inititive is rolling right along, and...."
Layman: "Y2K?" IT guy: "Yeah, it's short for 'Year 2000.'"
Layman: "Isn't it that exact sort of short form-ing that started this whole mess in the first place?"

Crying 'wolf' ... put a stop to naysayers!

[ian stevens]

I was at a Christmas party in rural Ontario this past week and a few, assumedly, blue-collar workers were talking about the "Y2K bug". They both agreed that it was all hype because nothing came of the impending disaster. Neither had any concerns about the coming year nor towards any scares which they might have heard.

Although I resisted the urge to let these people know that the Y2K hype was never realised simply because dedicated people worked around the clock to fix it, I should have been a bit more vocal in defense of the computer and electronics industry. Please, do us all a favor whenever you hear this kind of talk and explain why there never was a problem when the clocks ticked towards January 1, 2000. Unless we put the Y2K fix in perspective, we will be accused of crying wolf next time a similar bug needs fixing.

ian.

Don't blame the media

[gunner800]

If the "hype" was too much, then it's not the media's fault. The fault would lie with the companies spreading fear to sell their products, such as code fixes or survival gear. And the capable but (hypothetically) wrong experts who told the media about the problem and the possible consequences. Even the experts didn't really know what would happen, so its unfair the expect the media to know.

Before you start thinking "nothing happened, so the media went overboard", try this:

If the sh*t had hit the fan, and the media had done any less hype-spreading, would you congratulate them for restraining themselves so well?


My mom is not a Karma whore!

Meet Peter de Jager, Now-Maligned Y2K Consultant

[Rahoule]

Anyone who thinks Y2K was fake and we were all tricked should read this article.

It talks about Peter de Jager, the foremost expert on the Y2K problem. In late 1998, after the industry had finally started to move on the problem, Mr. de Jager was convinced that the disaster would be averted. However, the media continued to proclaim doom and gloom, and anti-computer Luddites everywhere continued to stock up on supplies.

When the lights stayed on at the stroke of midnight, Mr. de Jager was suddenly considered a snake-oil seller and even received death-threats.

Y2K was beaten, well before Jan. 1, 2000, but the media had us believing otherwise.

Y2K *has* had an impact, unfortunately...

[fable2112]

I used to work for a major bank, and was part of the Y2K test team (a small part, but a part nonetheless).

Because of the fears of noncompliance, some anti-trust laws were lifted and banks were actually *ordered* to accept mergers with other banks that were farther ahead in compliance. I saw this coming, and that was part of why I quit the bank job. I knew I wasn't going to want to be around for it. :)

I don't know if this happened in other industries or not (at least for this reason), but the banking oligopoly is NOT a good thing for the end consumer (at least not unless the end consumer has lots of money). I've noticed an increase in stupid service fees and a decrease in meaningful customer service as banks got larger and automated. (I'm currently having an argument with mine because I accidentally pressed the key for the stop-payment menu when I used a touchtone phone to check my balance, and the idiots hit me with a $15 stop-payment fee even though it's not related to ANY check I wrote! And I seem to be having problems getting a human being to discuss this with me.)

Y2K and its (non-)aftermath have also done yet more to polarize people on the issue of technology. Those of us who knew both that the problem needed to be fixed and that it *could* be fixed by a reasonable, concerted effort were (and probably still are) in a SMALL minority. Most everyone else is playing conspiracy theorist one way or another (either they think there were problems that we just weren't told about, or they think that there never was an issue).

On a more positive note, the potential of a Y2K disaster got people thinking about disaster prep, which is just a damn good idea in any case. I live in an area that has frequent and severe snowstorms in the winter and occasional power-killing thunderstorms in the summer; other regions have their own weather-related problems to cope with. Having basic survival-related gear is ALWAYS a good idea, and if it took the possibility of a nationwide power failure followed by rioting in the streets to bring this to people's attention, so be it.

Just the facts....

[codegen]

Speaking as one directly involved, the Y2K was definitely not a hoax.

1. The infrastrcture was never really at risk. Of the approximately 400 Billion spent on Y2K, less than 1% was spent on infrastructure. Our local Hydro utility spent a litte more than a few 100M$, mostly in the billing department.
2. The biggest problem was in IT departments. It is important to note that other than embarassment, reporting incorrect dates on screens and on statements is not critical, and was never considered critical. The only critical points are where dates are used as keys (sorts, etc), compared, or used in arithmetic (subtracted, incremented, etc). This is typically less than 4% of the code, in less than 40% of the files in a typical COBOL application. But there's the rub. Which 40% of the files and which 4% of the code? If I give you a declaration of ACCTPSTD with a picture of 9(6) [a 6 digit number], would you recognize it as a account posting date?
3. I know I have personally seen code that would not function correctly after Y2K. It would not have crashed, it would not have printed reports with wierd dates, it would just produce subtly incorrect results. This is the worst kind of error.
4. Sandbox testing (simulated Y2K testing on an isolated machine) turned up many problems.
5. One of the state goverments left an uncorrected system running, anticipating the very real posibility that they might have to account for the Y2K money. The uncorrected system failed rather spectacularly.
6. Our company never pushed the fear aspect of it (we never needed to with our clientelle). We did see some of the outrageous letters written by other firms. When contacted by media, we gave a middle of the road response(I.E. there may be some problems, but in all everthing will be fine). We never seemed to get any of our quotes in anything other than the local media for some reason. I wonder why? (sarcasm intended)
7. How would the media or anyone else know if a company had Y2K problems. As long as the problem is small enough that it can be solved behind the scene, (probably because enough had been done ahead of time), how would you or anyone else know? Do you expect them to call a press conference and announce to the world that they had a problem? Good-bye stock options! (Yeesh!!) For that matter, would you recognize if your paycheck was correct, what if an extra $1 was deducted on one of the line items (tax, employment insurance, etc.)? On your pension statements (for those with pensions) would you recognize a reporting error? Think about it.

All in all, I've grown rather tolerant of the idiots claiming that it was all a hoax. All of our clients were satisified with our work, and have told us so as we kept in touch with them after the big day. They knew the problem that they had, and knew what service that we gave them. In the end, that's all that really matters.

Peter Dejager's Email (for thank you notes).

[namespan]

I feel like sending him a thank-you note.

+1, gracious. Not a bad idea at all.

His email appears to be: pdejager@year2000.com

Yeah, it seems a little superfluous and sappy,
but it sort of balances out the uncalled for
hate mail and death threats. Sheesh.



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