[BobL]

The biggest part of that scare was the government saying that nothing bad would happen. Scared the crap out of me and made me a prepper, for life.

[discostu]

When I renewed my drivers license in ‘97 or ‘98 and it was good until 20whatever I knew it was all fine. If freaking ADOT can handle everybody can. I remember arguing with somebody about it and I actually took my license out and threw it on the table “when’s that expire?!” They didn’t have a counter.

[Chode]

yeah... i made a small fortune

[kaehurowing]

This was a scam by the computer manufacturers. Because of the hysteria, the federal government promulgated regulations which required businesses across the country to have to scrap their computer systems and put in new ones that were “Y2K” compliant. Since my law firm had federally regulated financial institutions as clients, we had to completely replace the firm’s computer systems.

[VanDeKoik]

Before Y2K it was the Michelangelo Virus that was going to to down the planet. Which in hindsight of the level of tech that existed back then, is actually pretty adorable that they thought that.

[PIF]

Y2K, the year we were all gonna die.

[Telepathic Intruder]

For a long time years were stored as two digits because computer memory was expensive and limited back in the 80’s and early 90’s, and space had to be carefully conserved. The problem was known all along, but the typical excuse of programmers was “I’ll be retired by the year 2000”. But of course, dreams of retirement are usually premature.

[George from New England]

I still have a program I use rarely where I have to set my PC clock back before 2000 to run.
It was a compiler basic program where I lost the source code so I couldn’t fix it. Just got the .exe

For coders, the program created a log file with a date in the filename and used the 1985 dos method of processing dates. So in 1999 the ‘9’ incremented to the next ascii character, which is I think a quote of something that. It is illegal in a filename.

[Nifster]

Between this and cemeteries taking over the world

You have waaaay to much time on your hands

[DLfromthedesert]

The hospital I worked for had us go into a room and turn out the lights to prepare us. Like we never experienced interruption of electricity.

[Drew68]

I remember this well. I owed thousands of dollars in defaulted student loans and credit cards that I had charged off. My credit score was in the dumps and I couldn't even write a check because I had bounced so many of them.

I wasn't worried. "Y2K is going to wipe out everything! I'll start over with a clean slate!"

Yes, I believed this.

[IC Ken]

I sure do. It was a scam just like Climate change. They had everyone scared and many people made a lot of money.

Accordingly it was said that all the computers would crash. I was in Power Houses that had Y2K Compliant water fountains.

Why would anyone EVER divide by zero? I was criticized for asking this.

[Artemis Webb]

I remember it well. I couldn’t resist trolling the “Y2k, the end is near” threads. MOST of the “true believers” simply disappeared as soon as it was over.

[Joe 6-pack]

A lot of people thought Clinton was going to use the chaos to suspend the Constitution and stick around for a third term.

IMHO, he would have if he thought he would have been able to get away with it.

[Billthedrill]

Overblown, yes, but an awful lot of people put in an awful lot of work to make it that way.

It was also a retirement plan for COBOL programmers. You know who you are, you bums...

[I want the USA back]

The media hyped it and scared everyone. At the stroke of midnight, they were in the streets watching for the end of the world.

The world didn’t end at midnight in New York, and the media assured the world that nothing would happen, forgetting that there are 24 separate midnights throughout the world.

I remember the panicky ads, telling us to subscribe to the prepper magazines. I didn’t subscribe, just in case the world did end it would have been a waste of money.

[be-baw]

My employer probably spent $2M+ to avoid Y2K catastrophe. I still think it all was a big scam. Off the top of my head, the only bigger scam is climate change.

[2banana]

A blackout in NYC in the 1970s initially cause by a tree branch across wires in upstate NY led to three days of looting and rioting...

That is how fragile civilization is in a big city.

[Rurudyne]

I never really thought I’d have the occasion to ever post this anywhere again. To the tune of High Anxiety....

Y Anxiety
As the millennium drew near,
Y Anxiety,
It’s you that they feared.
Some were afraid to fly,
Said you’d crash the world,
But then you fizzled and they soon got bored!
Y Anxiety!
It’s always the same....
Oooh, ‘xiety ...
It’s you that they flamed!
It’s very clear to me,
I never bought it to begin,
Y Anxiety,
— And remember folks, be good to your panics: there’s always 2012 —
You can’t win!

[Wolfie]

Ah, you haven’t noticed the loop yet.