ForumGarden

I don't know why this memory ran through my mind today because I haven't thought about it in years! Remember how when the new millennium was looming, rumor had it that existing computer programs would be confused by the date change from 1999 to 2000 and all hell would break loose within banking establishments, government offices, etc.?

I know at work they had quite a task force looking into the issue and making sure a smooth transition would transpire on January 1st. Similar to the current Mayan Doomsdayers, there was a contingent of people claiming all electric grids would fail, no one would be able to get money out of the bank, and in general, absolute chaos would reign! Stock up on water, take cash from the bank and hope for the best ... that was the advice of the day.

Of course, nothing happened at all but people had plenty of bottled water to drink and extra cash to spend on Jan 1st.

It's funny in retrospect but it's still the same ole tragic consequence stories floating around today. They've always been around and always will be!

I remember that too. When nothing happened, didn't some say that the dates were wrong and all hell would break loose the following year? Some people seem to thrive on despair.

We actually spent most of the year leading up to the event updating old hardware and software. Some of our older software vendors had to upgrade once they tested against dates and we then upgraded.



I know that I am a member of local groups and all of the banks and hospitals locally were going through the same process. Pretty much everyone had something too old running somewhere in their shop



what you did not want to be was the one support department that ignored it.



Didn't stock pile anything though. didn't see the need.

I think of the Y2K situation as thousands of middle managers putting off the inevitable software maintenance that each knew had to be done for their products, hoping that they would be promoted or transferred and that someone else would get stuck with the task. There was no glory in fixing existing software. It wouldn't help them get promoted. There were new features to add that would make them look good. It was a conscious decision to put off doing the needed fixes.

It was a problem created by lack of foresight in design for each of the software products. The problem was known and fully understood for at least a decade before they were forced to actually do anything about it. The "crisis" was over-hyped to justify taking the time to do what should have been done years before. It was a bad management decision repeated over and over again through thousands of companies for the same reasons.