Cleaning out a very old drawer, should I be worried or not?
October 13, 2024
I hope I don’t catch this millennium bug that’s going about. I better be prepared!
by Idontoftensaymuch
19 comments
You’d better check Teletext page 348 for the latest updates.
Obligatory message that I am cursed to mention whenever it’s brought up: The Y2K bug was actually a very real threat. Ironically, because we were so well-prepared, it wasn’t a huge issue when it finally happened, which is why people now think it was over-hyped. There were some serious faults in some banks and utilities companies, but these were typically smaller less-known companies that didn’t invest in preparing for it.
So many IT contractors got rich off the paranoia surrounding that.
Thanks for sharing. I was 8 years old at the time and spent most of my free time in school looking for the bug in the bushes with my friends.
I used to work at a factory and there was a diesel furnace that decided not to work one day and it needed its internal date to be rolled back so it thought it was in 1990 before it started working again. People think the Y2K bug wasn’t that big of a deal, but it’s because there were thousands of people informed about what it could be, ready to spot what might happen. It could have been hell to fault find something so obscure
I love that the website mentioned in the booklet is apparently owned by a semi detached house in the Midlands masquerading as an international cyber security firm complete with fake testimonials.
Don’t throw this, keep it sealed and safe, you can show it to your grandkids one day
Scary stuff back when the hype was high
I remember this.
Pretty sure I also had a copy.
I think you should, it appears to be holding up the booklet.
Seeing Elonex, Mesh and Gateway as major manufacturers takes me back though!
The Millenium Bug is held up as an example of people blowing something out of proportion, but really it’s a textbook case of successfully identifying and mitigating a problem down to almost nothing in a calm and professional manner on a pretty much global scale.
Huge W for the world that.
Imagine if it happened now you’d have the world’s loudest, thickest bastards claiming it’s a conspiracy. Nothing would get done and we’d all die.
I remember thinking the picture of the microchip made to look like some angry insect was cool, so much so i used it as the background image for my shitty woodworking project to make one of those games where you try to get little ball bearings into holes by tilting the thing
19 comments
You’d better check Teletext page 348 for the latest updates.
Obligatory message that I am cursed to mention whenever it’s brought up: The Y2K bug was actually a very real threat. Ironically, because we were so well-prepared, it wasn’t a huge issue when it finally happened, which is why people now think it was over-hyped. There were some serious faults in some banks and utilities companies, but these were typically smaller less-known companies that didn’t invest in preparing for it.
So many IT contractors got rich off the paranoia surrounding that.
Thanks for sharing. I was 8 years old at the time and spent most of my free time in school looking for the bug in the bushes with my friends.
I used to work at a factory and there was a diesel furnace that decided not to work one day and it needed its internal date to be rolled back so it thought it was in 1990 before it started working again. People think the Y2K bug wasn’t that big of a deal, but it’s because there were thousands of people informed about what it could be, ready to spot what might happen. It could have been hell to fault find something so obscure
I love that the website mentioned in the booklet is apparently owned by a semi detached house in the Midlands masquerading as an international cyber security firm complete with fake testimonials.
Don’t throw this, keep it sealed and safe, you can show it to your grandkids one day
Scary stuff back when the hype was high
I remember this.
Pretty sure I also had a copy.
I think you should, it appears to be holding up the booklet.
I made good money during this period.
Not for another 13 years … [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem)
The Y2K bug was actually fixed using KY Jelly, because it allowed you to put four digits in to your date instead of two.
Only 14 years to go to [Y2K38](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem) so best start reading!
Seeing Elonex, Mesh and Gateway as major manufacturers takes me back though!
The Millenium Bug is held up as an example of people blowing something out of proportion, but really it’s a textbook case of successfully identifying and mitigating a problem down to almost nothing in a calm and professional manner on a pretty much global scale.
Huge W for the world that.
Imagine if it happened now you’d have the world’s loudest, thickest bastards claiming it’s a conspiracy. Nothing would get done and we’d all die.
I remember thinking the picture of the microchip made to look like some angry insect was cool, so much so i used it as the background image for my shitty woodworking project to make one of those games where you try to get little ball bearings into holes by tilting the thing
Mm..it’s too late to worry now
I remember this leaflet
I remember being given this in school.