What exactly was the Y2K fear?

Question

I remember that we were in california at the time, and there were actually two theories:

1.) There would be some sort of electricity cut out. They told everyone to keep water gallons, and alot of extra food..

2.) End of the world. lol.. they were thinking that there would be some type of astroid that would fall and kill us.. I think there were also people who thought that the sun would actually never come out again and we would die like that:-\

What are some similarities and differences that you've heard about the Y2K..?

Answer 1

i remember it had alot to do with computers. supposedly the computers would not know how to distinguish the year 1900 and 2000 since they both ended in "00" and most computers or programs were only made to handle a 2 digit year.  seems like we got throught it ok, lol

Answer 2

Y2K, or the "Millennium Bug" was overblown, but derived from lazy & short-sighted programers using a 2 digit code for the year, rather than a 4 digit code.  However, since they called it a bug, people thought it was infectious like a computer virus.

However, most things by 1996 were already fine.  Apple, in 1984 fixed the problem when the first Macintosh came out.  Microsoft followed with Windows 95, as the first to feature 4 digit years.  Linux servers, being open-source, could be easily fixed.

Only companies that were running ancient software that hadn't been patched had something to fear.  But since most people didn't understand that fundamentals of the Y2K thing, they thought it could bring about the end of technology- think of the SImpsons Halloween episode where they have a short story about the worst-case scenario.

A date confusion might crash a server (though I've never seen one crash anything), but it couldn't cascade to all servers & computers.  

People often use a random date for the end of the world.  The Mayan calendar ends in 2013 (I think).  Fundamentalist Christians thought that either Christ would return 2000 years after his birth, or teh devil would take over the rule, or something equally unlikely (side note: the NEW Millennium started Jan 1, 2001- since there was no year 0.  And for that matter, chronologies have placed Jesus' birth in 4 or 7 BC, so 2000 years later would be 1994 or 1997)

Answer 3

was junk, lie--computers will not work, economy will crumble 'cause of that

Answer 4

The Y2K scare was due to that fact that, when computer were programmed, they were programmed using a 2 digit number to represent the year instead of a 4 digit number. When the year turned to 2000, the computers would see it as 00....equivalent to 1900. This, potentially, could mess up many things. Lots or programmers worked for quite a while to correct this error worldwide....quite successfully.  

Answer 5

the fear was that because computers basically run everything, the year stamp only allowed it to progress to 12-31-99 thus when new years day arrived it would not know it was 2000. Companies spent wads of dollars making sure their systems would be operative months in advance so they could calm their customers,  

Answer 6

it was a hyped up scaremonegering blag perpetrated by software companies and computer systems engineers..

and a whole bunch of gullible companies were paying small fortunes to ward off the 00 / 0000 GREMLINS..

and NOTHING happened... NOT ONE computer crashed...

similarily the fear of crime is FAR greater than actual crime, but it doesnt stop us spending millions on security products we dont want or need...

Answer 7

The story that started the Y2K panic was a glitch that was discovered in various computer programs. Some people believed that it couldn't be fixed (it only applied to much older computer systems). It involved the internal clock and the year 2000. Some people belived that all computers would stop working (meaning nuclear plan computer systems would cause melt downs, bank records would be lost.. you get idea). However, patches were made (for systems that required it).