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The Long Shadow of Y2K
Hugh Pickens writes "It seems like it was only yesterday when the entire world was abuzz about the looming catastrophe of Y2K that had us both panicked and prepared. Ten Years ago there were doomsday predictions that planes would fall from the sky and electric grids would go black, forced into obsolescence by the inability of computers to recognize the precise moment that 1999 rolled over to 2000 and for many it was a time to feel anxious about getting money out of bank accounts and fuel out of gas pumps. "Nobody really understood what impact it was going to have, when that clock rolled over and those digits went to zero. There was a lot of speculation they would reset back to 1900," says IT professional. Jake DeWoskin. The Y2K bug may have been IT's moment in the sun, but it also cast a long shadow in its wake as the years and months leading up to it were a hard slog for virtually everyone in IT, from project managers to programmers."
"'People were scared for their jobs and their reputations," says CIO Dick Hudson, Staffers feared that if they were fired for failing to remedy Y2K problems, the stigma would prevent them from ever getting a job in IT again. "Then there was the fear that someone like Computerworld would report it, and it would be on the front page," Hudson adds. Although IT executives across the globe were confident that they had the problem licked, a nagging fear followed them right up until New Year's Eve. While most people were out celebrating the turn of the century, IT executives and their staffs were either monitoring events in the office or standing by at home. Afterwards came the recriminations and backlash as an estimated $100 billion was spent nationwide for problems that turned out to be minimal. Others says the nonevent was evidence the Y2K effort was done right. "It was a no-win situation," says Paul Ingevaldson. "People said, 'You IT guys made this big deal about Y2K, and it was no big deal. You oversold this. You cried wolf.' ""
log on Then the Huubard and Mike
planes fell from the sky and electric grids went black. It just didn't happen how and when we thought it would
Fucking horrible remnant of shitty 1900's fetus.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
"People were practically begging for the doom and gloom scenario. It gave me insight into the human condition, I'll say that for sure."
"I went to work armed, I was worried about crazies[....]"
Unsurprisingly, your criticism says more about you, sadly, than of others.
You *participated* in that doom and gloom by packing, and thus were one of the crazies, just of a different sort. You hypocrtically thought little would happen but were still packing, which insured your personal safety (in you mind) in either scenario.
If you were so sure nothing was going to happen, and it was hype, and the crazies were wrong, (a) why were you scared enough or "prepared" yourself by packing, and (b) why would prepared crazies attack? It's the unprepared which would have hung you out to dry, and the unprepared were the normals and spared your criticisms.
iow, it's quite odd to by critical of someone else's preparedness, while insuring that you yourself are prepared. Your attitude is actually very much like the holier than thou who are sinning in the background, the cheaters who badmouth and prosecute, thus insuring their bad behavior is more profitable in the end.
I'm one of those people who try to be prepared. My parents look at me like I'm nuts. Except when there was an extended power outage. And their crazy son comes over with the spare generator. When I go on backpacking trips, I go somewhat light but it's still close to what fast and light packers call a pack mule. It's strange, however, how many often times I end up helping myself and people out; often it's the fast and light who mooch.