Forum Home
PC World Chat
 
Thread ID: 143546 2017-02-07 07:15:00 "The Golden Age of Ignorance" Laggard (17509) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1431701 2017-02-12 02:57:00 Sorry BM - yes, there was a lot of exaggeration over Y2K but the reason nothing happened was because a lot of work went to preventing the very real risks involved.

Sorry Decibel, won’t wear it. Maybe you would be good enough to explain some of those “Very Real Risks”.
B.M. (505)
1431702 2017-02-12 07:14:00 File systems that depended on the date to validate file access. R2x1 (4628)
1431703 2017-02-12 07:25:00 ... Ever since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, there were those who printed outright mistruths. ..."
There was a pretty widely distributed publication filled cover to cover with dubious to BS stuff which came out 1400 years before that, it's still being promulgated, still bringing in millions. Many similar brands did much the same, still do, so this is just another century of effluent - - people have been spreading it almost as long as bulls have.
:banana
R2x1 (4628)
1431704 2017-02-12 18:50:00 File systems that depended on the date to validate file access.

Yes, but in most cases, if not all, the computer thinks the world started in 1900. Sure Apple thought it started in 1904 because 1904 was a leap year and 1900 wasn’t. Don’t ask me the details on the thinking behind that. Anyway, most companies, including Microsoft, had been accommodating the problem for years and it certainly didn’t justify the fuss and bother created by the Media.

There were deficient programmes that needed to be fixed, but Sewerage Pumping Stations, Water Reticulation, Food Delivery, EFI Motors and so on don’t care what the date is because they are controlled by float switches or sensors.

Personally, I don’t think the electricity supply would have failed even if the North and South Poles reversed as was claimed a possibility by the Media. Might have had a few Boy Scouts lost, but they get lost anyway. ;)
B.M. (505)
1431705 2017-02-12 20:11:00 Sorry Decibel, won’t wear it. Maybe you would be good enough to explain some of those “Very Real Risks”.

Ah , computerized systems for air traffic controll, computers in planes, military computers , computers running systems in hospitals, banks, the list goes on & on
PC's could have a big hissy fit : this was a real issue , if not that common. Who knows what the software would do , it had to be tested.
Small issue of computers & nuke power plants perhaps ?

No one really knew what would happen.
Thats why they all had to be tested , or have the software checked
Chinese govt demanded that airline officials be in the air on their planes during the tick over to 2K, just to ensure that things were checked before hand

What can happen : things that you really didnt expect or plan for.
Its just like saying, pfft, no one gets polio now, that polio vax was just a money making scam.
Sure, the world would have melted down & come to an end, but the could have been issues .

A Good , but unrelated, example of unforseen issues:
Certain HP printers: the printer software simply stopped working when a version of IE updated. The HP print software couldnt cope with IE's new version number: simply bad software .
1101 (13337)
1431706 2017-02-12 20:41:00 Specialised software needed testing, but didn’t justify the population at large filling their baths with water, filling their pantries, buying candles, preparing for their toilets to overflow, ducking falling aeroplanes, turning the pointer on their compass 180º and on and on it went, every day getting sillier.

Come the day, front-page news in the Herald told of how a Video Store in the States lost it’s database. After all the shock, horror, they went on to say that the database was designed by a local school kid who popped down and fixed it. :rolleyes:
B.M. (505)
1431707 2017-02-12 21:49:00 Ah , you do realize that the Simpsons Y2K program was a cartoon & not a documentary :)

Some people believed the world would end in 1984, 2012 etc etc .
Yes it was overhyped, but systems had to be checked .

You wouldnt have been happy if you were affected because no one bothered to check before hand .
And the govt waste money on all sorts of things, Y2K Commissioner was just a drop in the bucket compared to their usual spending on stupid things .

I dont know anyone who stockpiled anything more than booze & sausages, just for the new years party :clap
1101 (13337)
1431708 2017-02-12 22:51:00 You are completely avoiding the point 1101.

The military, Aviation, Medical Supplies, Car Companies and so on are continuously testing stuff, but none recommend I personally take any action at all.

In the case of the Y2K bug the scaremongering was completely the work of the Media which even fooled the stupid Government, which in turn accentuated the problem.

Personally, I treated the whole matter with the contempt it deserved and came out laughing.

However, I know there were many, mostly elderly, who were buying unneeded stuff which a number of them couldn’t afford.
B.M. (505)
1431709 2017-02-13 02:52:00 I think we are arguing at cross-purposes here -
- it is true that it was over-hyped by the media and the people who fulled baths etc were totally conned / didn't do their research
- the instances where it really mattered were all covered quietly by the people involved.

If you Google " Y2K problems " you soon can see many real problems (specially early credit card problems) but these should never have been a worry for the public.
Just an early instance of " fake news " maybe.?

What I would REALLY like to know, but have never seen, is how many people sat in bunkers and for how long?
That could be a plot for a good TV program - wife in the house takes a new lover while husband has locked himself in his bunker underground for x years.
decibel (11645)
1431710 2017-02-13 04:28:00 Well the next one is Year 2038 problem . ------ Got a few years to sort it before the date rolls around . (19 January 2038, 14 minutes and seven seconds past three )


Computers will then not be able to distinguish between the real time and date, and the year 1901 .

Its not hog wash or scare tactics either, its already been proven . It Broke youtube when the problem hit
Psy's Gangnam Style video reached the system's upper limit of the amount of data it can store, the counter broke .
wainuitech (129)
1 2 3