Any memories you have of Y2K?

[Another Fan]

I was in high school then.   Nothing memorable much for me but I do recall thinking I wouldn’t want to be on a plane at midnight 

[Not at the table Karlos]

Was starting high school. Heard what it was, went home and changed all the times and dates on my computer to try and trigger whatever they said would happen. Nothing did. Was at that point that I realized most people are idiots. 

[WhoTom]

I was responsible for the learning management system at the college where I taught. (This was in the early days of online and web-enhanced instruction.) I'd done all the BIOS and Windows NT Y2K updates, so I wasn't too worried about it. At 12:01, my wife asked if I was going to dial in and check on the server. I said, "It can wait until tomorrow." The next morning, everything was fine.

 

We didn't go hog wild on the doomsday prep, but we did make sure to stock up on some essentials ahead of time.

 

 

1 hour ago, Not at the table Karlos said:

Was starting high school. Heard what it was, went home and changed all the times and dates on my computer to try and trigger whatever they said would happen. Nothing did. Was at that point that I realized most people are idiots. 

 

I figured that out in high school too, but that was about twenty years before Y2K.

 

 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

WWKB 1520 AM had evening airtime sold off to advertisers for infomercial type programming, as their 50,000 watt clear channel signal covered a lot of the east coast.  David J. Smith was a televangelist in the Herbert Armstrong tradition of Bible prophecy, with a big shot of conspiracy theory thrown in.  David J. was firmly convinced that Y2K was the end of civilization, and there would be nothing left.  However, even just a few weeks before Y2K, Smith was hawking year long subscriptions to his prophetic 'Newswatch' magazine. 🤨

[Augie]

6 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

WWKB 1520 AM had evening airtime sold off to advertisers for infomercial type programming, as their 50,000 watt clear channel signal covered a lot of the east coast.  David J. Smith was a televangelist in the Herbert Armstrong tradition of Bible prophecy, with a big shot of conspiracy theory thrown in.  David J. was firmly convinced that Y2K was the end of civilization, and there would be nothing left.  However, even just a few weeks before Y2K, Smith was hawking year long subscriptions to his prophetic 'Newswatch' magazine. 🤨

 

I was in a celebrity home in Atlanta when it was listed for $25 Million. Amazing place on 17 acres on the river. Oprah had a room there, and Obama attended events there.

 

The celeb had $42 Mil into it but was willing to take a loss and move on. It sold for $17.5 Million…..to a televangelist. I’d like to hope that he was born with a silver spoon, or some other acceptable explanation, but I am skeptical. 

[Steve O]

2 hours ago, Not at the table Karlos said:

Was starting high school. Heard what it was, went home and changed all the times and dates on my computer to try and trigger whatever they said would happen. Nothing did. Was at that point that I realized most people are idiots. 

To quote George Carlin, “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

[PromoTheRobot]

I was at Marine Midland Center (now Key Bank Center) watching Barenaked Ladies perform. They even had a countdown to zero hour. As you already know nothing happened.

 

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/barenaked-ladies/1999/marine-midland-arena-buffalo-ny-43dc2bdf.html

[Draconator]

I went out to the old nightclub that was in the Marriot on Millersport near UB. The lady friend I took with me made out with another guy at midnight. What they say about nice guys always being friends and nothing more was certainly true in my younger days. I'm still a nice guy, and my now wife appreciates that immensely. 

[davefan66]

Worked for a local IT company. I was more of the telephony/infrastructure guy than hands on servers/PC’s at the time.  We just installed a brand new VOIP telephone system.  Remember calling the main line at 12:01 and, leaving a voice mail making sure it was up and running and then resuming my quest for inebriation.
 

All in all, was pretty confident there would not be sweeping Y2K bug issues based on what I’d heard/learned at work. For sure would have been major issues if the issue wasn’t addressed.  Probably not as bad as people thought, but definitely big problems.

[thenorthremembers]

I was in 10th grade.   Found all the madness incredibly odd, but also at that point in life I didn't understand the scope of the potential fallout.

 

Stayed up watched the ball drop and was mildly amused when the power didn't go out.    An early lesson in mass hysteria and herd mentality.

Edited December 27, 2023 by thenorthremembers

[sherpa]

I was in the cockpit of a 767 over the Atlantic on the way to somewhere in Europe.

I set up the break schedule to ensure I would be in the seat at midnight.

Watched the clock on the flight management system get to midnight and nothing happened.

Lots of chatter on the air to air common frequency we talk to each other on when over the ocean, and everybody reported the same thing, which was nothing. 

 

[Just Jack]

I was in IT at the time (hardware support) and had one guy ask me what I thought.  Told him there shouldn't be any issues, but if he was worried, there were some things he could do.  When you see a good sale on canned goods, like 10 for $10, and you would normally buy 10, buy 20.  Get print outs of all your financials showing what you have a day or two before then end of the year.  Take out a couple hundred dollars to have on hand.  Nothing drastic, like you'd see some people doing, but just being cautious.  

[PastaJoe]

As a programmer/ business analyst at Carrier, our IT department spent the year before going through thousands of programs throughout the company, changing and testing any date references to ensure they were 4 digit years.

[Just Jack]

2 minutes ago, PastaJoe said:

As a programmer/ business analyst at Carrier, our IT department spent the year before going through thousands of programs throughout the company, changing and testing any date references to ensure they were 4 digit years.

 

Were you at the Thompson Road location?  That's where I was, a contractor for IT with Inacom, doing hardware support.  I think my desk was in Bld 18A, but I did support all over campus.  

[BuffaloBill]

Nothing specific stands out though it is funny to look back and think about the doomsday mentality of the era.

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

 

 

 

[The BLUES Brothers]

I am almost 60 and that 12/31/99 night - We hosted a party on New Years Eve and all were talking about the possibilities of Y2K issues ...

 

About a minute after the ball dropped and glasses clinked/hugs shared...i had snuck into the basement and then turned off the main power to make the house go dark like we heard could happen - i heard a few screams upstairs then turned it back on again. It was a funny thing when they learned it was me but re-setting all the clocks was the penalty for doing it. Fortunately - it was only adding a couple minutes to the flashing 12:00 on all digital clocks. Grateful it was not the doomsday that was predicted by some loud uninformed sources

[SinceThe70s]

1 hour ago, PastaJoe said:

As a programmer/ business analyst at Carrier, our IT department spent the year before going through thousands of programs throughout the company, changing and testing any date references to ensure they were 4 digit years.

 

Similar story - my company expended way too much time and resources in 1999 poring through code. It made sense for the financial systems but was a colossal waste of time for most of the other systems where 'what's the worst that could happen' wasn't really considered.

 

The funny part was 10 years later when an actual y2k problem that wasn't uncovered in 1999 reared it's ugly head.  It took an hour or two one Monday morning to figure out what the problem was, fix it and remediate the fall-out. 

[PastaJoe]

2 hours ago, Just Jack said:

 

Were you at the Thompson Road location?  That's where I was, a contractor for IT with Inacom, doing hardware support.  I think my desk was in Bld 18A, but I did support all over campus.  

Yes, Thompson Road. After all of the IT division was outsourced to Keane, I was able to stay on Carrier’s payroll by getting an IT job in the Carlyle Compressor division and was in TR5. I didn’t want to go to Keane because I was in the middle of getting my MBA by going to night school at SU, and they wouldn’t pay for it like Carrier was.

 

I was at Carrier until they moved all the manufacturing out, and spent my last year going to Georgia to train people to do my job, where I didn’t want to move to.

[boater]

I was in the service, we took all kinds of precautions, lots of "workgroups" and other melodrama.

 

I woke up at 0030 and looked out the window, everywhere had power on and nothing was in flames. I checked the phone, it had a dial tone.

 

"It was all BS" I said to myself and went back to bed.