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Happy New Year!

Started by Dennis Markham, December 31, 2008, 05:54:47 PM

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AE_Collector

Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on January 01, 2014, 11:47:30 AM
Y2K was such a dumb idea.

Of course it wasn't "an idea" as in a marketing scheme or a new way to celebrate New Years Eve/Day. It was a genuine concern that some bad things could happen though some took it to the extreme that if lots of bad things happened we could be on our own for awhile. Just like any other disaster such as a fire at your house, the fire department, ambulances and police will be right there and you will probably be okay. But if that house fire is the result of a major earthquake, the authorities will be overwhelmed and help is probably NOT on the way to your house so you have to be a little prepared to fend for yourself.

The fact that Y2K "was a bust" might be a testement to the fact that millions or maybe billions were spent at all levels to prepare for it (including your Grandmothers extra food storage). Or maybe it was just an overblown concern. Probably a bit of each.

Personally we didn't do anything different at our house but then we always seem to have a lot of food and some water stored as we are in a prime earthquake area. Your grandmother may have been smart storing some extra food, or maybe it was a waste. Presumably she was a last minute shopper or she could have stored away food that she liked! The best food to store for long term......Twinkies!

Terry

WEBellSystemChristian

Quote from: AE_Collector on January 01, 2014, 12:23:49 PM
Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on January 01, 2014, 11:47:30 AM
Y2K was such a dumb idea.

Of course it wasn't "an idea" as in a marketing scheme or a new way to celebrate New Years Eve/Day. It was a genuine concern that some bad things could happen though some took it to the extreme that if lots of bad things happened we could be on our own for awhile. Just like any other disaster such as a fire at your house, the fire department, ambulances and police will be right there and you will probably be okay. But if that house fire is the result of a major earthquake, the authorities will be overwhelmed and help is probably NOT on the way to your house so you have to be a little prepared to fend for yourself.

The fact that Y2K "was a bust" might be a testement to the fact that millions or maybe billions were spent at all levels to prepare for it (including your Grandmothers extra food storage). Or maybe it was just an overblown concern. Probably a bit of each.

Personally we didn't do anything different at our house but then we always seem to have a lot of food and some water stored as we are in a prime earthquake area. Your grandmother may have been smart storing some extra food, or maybe it was a waste. Presumably she was a last minute shopper or she could have stored away food that she liked! The best food to store for long term......Twinkies!

Terry

I think that it was good to prepare, but the worst thing that could have happened at the year 2000 was a computers' internal calender going from 12/32/99 to 01/01/09, and would need to be reset. People were thinking that computers all over the globe would start to shut down, and everything digital or computerized would go berserk. That kind of preparedness is a little out of hand, but fire, burglaries, and everyday mishaps that we have all seen happen to other people more than once in our lives should be taken notice of, and not a story based on rumors and "what ifs".

Just my two cents.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

AE_Collector

It was awhile ago now so I can't recall all of the potential worries that were out there but I think it was a lot more than home computers rolling over to the wrong date. Computers run everything including the phone systems, air traffic control, military etc etc. Had any of these just shut down because of error codes being generated there could have been big problems.

Just last month there was mayhem for a day or more with the British air traffic control because some computers didn't come out if overnight mode properly. They were only able to handle something like 25% of the air traffic the following day because of the computer glitch. Flights around the world were cancelled and/or re routed.

Terry

WEBellSystemChristian

But the computer would just be wrong, the calender would start the next year as the earliest year it knows. The year 2000 wasn't programmed into the memory yet, and the calender would just be incorrect. Most commercial computers didn't even have calendars, so they wouldn't even be affected.
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

AE_Collector

Others would know a lot more than I do but I believe that there was a real fear that some of the processors might just lockup, shut down or otherwise cause unknown problems downstream. It was all an effort to test and prove that there was little chance of this happening.

Terry

WEBellSystemChristian

Yeah, I'm guessing that the thought of a small computer error escalated people's imagination, and people started to freak out. That's the way things like this are normally born. :P
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

Phonesrfun

In defense of the Y2k work that was done:

The Y2k issue was very much a very large potential problem.  Fortunately, the "over-kill" work that went into it did make it a non-event.

Personal computers were the smallest part of the problem.  Businesses..... all businesses world-wide, including the US and all other governments were at risk, as were their customers and the public.

I work in banking.  Banking is very much date-driven.  Interest on loans and deposits are all calculated as a function of dates.  Older computer systems did not have a field for the century.  December 31, 1999 was stored in a computer as 12/31/99, which assumed 1999.  A program that was used to calculate the number of days between two dates would not know which century 1/1/00 was in.  Presumably the last century of 1/1/1900.  Someone born on 1/1/2000 would be assumed to be 100 years old.

Not only was it important for banking, but just about everyone else.  Due dates on payments would be confused and computers would not be able to send out proper notifications.  Social Security eligibility and a million other eligibilities are based on a person's age.  Can you imagine what would happen if automated payments and Social Security benefits stopped even for a couple days due to a date glitch.  Can you imagine what would happen if the stock market could not register a trade because it thought the date was in the past?

Airline flights are based on dates and times.  A computer that is supposed to make ready all the preparations of airline flights that would be due to take off after Midnight on 1/1/00 might just decide that the flight was in the past and cause the computers of the airlines and the FAA to just drop the flight from the database.  Airlines were a very critical part of the Y2K fix.  Much of the public feared that pilot navigation systems of airlines and the FAA would just go dead at midnight and pilots would be on their own to fly airlines.  Many people avoided flying or being in the air en route at that time.

It was far reaching to every sector of the public that uses any kind of automation at all, and particularly any data system that had its roots in older main-frame applications that were originally written in the 1970's or 1980's under legacy programming languages such as COBOL, and others.

Yes, much of it was self-propelled fear, but there was a real potential that things would have gone very wrong, and would have been much more than just an inconvenience that would have required just at reboot or resetting of a computer's date.  Remember it was more than just what a computer's clock displayed, and was all about how the computer used the dates in it's calculations and programs.

I too said in this thread that a lot of consultants made a lot of money off this non-event.  That, in my opinion was true.  What I also believe is true is that the scare did force everyone to look at their calculations and make sure they were ok.  In reality, most companies had already done that well before 1/1/2000.
-Bill G

AE_Collector

Happy New Year everyone. Most are already in 2015 except for us North American laggards!

Terry

teka-bb

Happy New Year from the Netherlands.

Next year I will likely be celebrating in North America too  :)
=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
=============================================

HarrySmith

Here's to a Happy, Healthy New Year filled with great old phones for all!
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

WesternElectricBen

Happy New Years, everybody!

Ben

Mr. Bones

Happy New Year to all the members and all their loved ones, pets definitely included!

     I hope it is safe, happy, and healthful for us all. After that, some really cool phones would be sweet, as well, but I don't wanna be too greedy! ;)

Best regards!
Sláinte!
   Mr. Bones
      Rubricollis Ferus

DavePEI

Quote from: AE_Collector on December 31, 2014, 08:55:06 PM
Happy New Year everyone. Most are already in 2015 except for us North American laggards!
Soon be 2015 here... only 50 minutes to go. Happy New Years to all!

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

AE_Collector

Dave:

I can hear you guys in the Canadian Maritimes partying all the way to here in downtown Vancouver where I am tonight! Try to keep it down a little please!

Terry


DavePEI

Quote from: AE_Collector on December 31, 2014, 10:33:47 PM
I can hear you guys in the Canadian Maritimes partying all the way to here in downtown Vancouver where I am tonight! Try to keep it down a little please!

Turn up those amps and bag pipes!

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001