1999 throwback - the Millennium Bug
- Thread starter Pawnless Endgame
- Start date
Soldato
As others have already said, it was a non-event due to the months/years of preparing and testing prior.
At the time I was doing platform support for a couple of banking systems, I remember I had a large/crazy NYE night out getting home at about 5am, only to have a corporate cab pick me up at 5:30 to take me into work to be on hand for morning support. One hell of a hangover, but also one hell of a pay day.
At the time I was doing platform support for a couple of banking systems, I remember I had a large/crazy NYE night out getting home at about 5am, only to have a corporate cab pick me up at 5:30 to take me into work to be on hand for morning support. One hell of a hangover, but also one hell of a pay day.
Soldato
At the time we were promised planes falling out of the sky, nuclear weapons launching by themselves, atomic reactor going critical. In the end it was a bit of a damp Squibb. Very disappointing.
Man of Honour
This one was funny, it really fooled some dumbos
I remember reading people refusing to board flights as they would be in the air when the date changed and were afraid of the plane crashing or whatever. In the end really bugger all of any significance happened, the media blew it way out of proportion (as usual) like it was Judgement day from the Terminator movies.
Yer me too mate - then nothing happened - was in work over NYE to NY just sitting there doing some work while monitoring the systems for a good overtime allowance
Soldato
Yeah, it was a late night. Next up 2038 for old unix epoch timestamps.
^^This. My first IT job was working as a programmer on DG BASIC systems in 1997-8. All of our bespoke in-house systems used 2 character years to save space, so we switched them all to use Julian dates with a 4 character year.
It was the media that blew it all out of proportion, in reality most companies and organisations were well ahead of the problem. We actually had all our systems updated, tested and deployed before the end of '98.
Soldato
Pity, it came a year before the millennium. 
Soldato
Or just let CrowdStrike push out more updates.Next time it happens they should just let it happen
Soldato
My wife spent a few years working on financial software making sure it was a "non event" . She still gets annoyed when people describe it as over hyped panic etc.
From what I remember she had " golden handcuffs" from 1998-2001
From what I remember she had " golden handcuffs" from 1998-2001
I worked in computer/retail in the build up to it and recall there being some dubious boxed software to 'fix' the problem. No idea how well it worked but it had a hell of a markup on it. Everyone I knew just used it as another excuse to upgrade 
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Caporegime
Because we solved it before it became a major problem.
I was working for a computer store, building PCs at the time (first job). Those year 2000 compatibility cards sold like crazy.
It was a con really. Think about what happens when your BIOS battery dies and resets the date. Pretty much nothing and it never did
It was a con really. Think about what happens when your BIOS battery dies and resets the date. Pretty much nothing and it never did
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I remember the panic about the millennium bug but it was obvious it would be fixed because it had to be and I don't recall seeing any issues.
This may be of interest:
Year 2038 problem - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Interesting, as I didn't know about Y2038, and also that the article says there isn't a universal solution for this. I still use Office '97 on one of my computers, and so far, Excel has been calculating dates correctly. As Excel '97 is now so old, it will presumably succumb to the Y2038 problem. We better get updating!
Loving the videos in the replies in this thread, but thought I'd point out the Winamp video because I still use Winamp. Daily! For the uninitiated, you had Windows Media Player, but for the rest of us in 1999, it was Winamp vs Sonique. I still have a load of MP3s, MIDIs, WAVs plus some obscure files such as OGG, SGT and APE files which still all play fine on Winamp.
With all the AI scaremongering in the press over the past 18 months or so, planes dropping out and nukes going off could still happen any day now. The Technological Singularity. Skynet!
Pity, it came a year before the millennium.
Technically you're right because there wasn't a year 0. So the 1st Millennium was AD1-1000, 2nd was AD1001-2000, then the 3rd began in AD2001. The Proles (including me) simply thought that 2000 was a prettier number and so we got played into this by the press.
Associate
I was still a teenage and I tested my rig using one of these softwares. It said my system was screwed, but the millennium came and went without any update or problem so they should be called scamware in my opinionI worked in computer/retail in the build up to it and recall there being some dubious boxed software to 'fix' the problem. No idea how well it worked but it had a hell of a markup on it. Everyone I knew just used it as another excuse to upgrade
FluffySheep
Soldato
I think this was before my time - The only Bug I had was this one.
Associate
The millennium bug and the hole in the ozone layer was going to wipe out humanity.
Soldato
There is no technically about it but because calendars are always arguable and it was a while ago and even the church bought it. I also did and as far as the date thing that was the right year.
Not on topic but WinXP games, solitaire etc. are still a thing on our computer even with Windows 11.