notacomputergeek

25 years ago, some people were convinced the world would end, but I was confident nothing severe would happen that night. December 31st, 1999, I was an IT manager for a publishing company. For those of you who don’t know the significance of Y2K, here’s a summary. In the early days of programming business applications (70’s and 80s), maximizing memory was crucial, so to save memory, the programmer would store the year as 2 digits. So, if it was 1979, many systems stored it as 79. The programmer didn’t anticipate anyone would still be using their software so far into the future – 1999. If calculations were done on a year, such as 1985 minus 1979 or in this case, 85 minus 79, the answer would be 6. However, what’s the answer if the clock ticked to 2000 (stored as 00)? Well, this is when things get interesting, and many government entities can be laggards when it comes to updating their IT systems.

Starting about 1995, fearmongering took over, projecting imminent doom. All computers would crash, trains would collide, planes would drop from the sky, financial institutions would fail. Basically, the collapse of everything and the end of civilization. People hoarded things and headed for the hills to avoid technology. In anticipation of this potential disaster, companies set out to verify and fix any software and firmware that stored the year in 2 digits. The company where I worked started their Y2K project in 1998. We spent two years in meetings, testing systems, coordinating with vendors to get Y2K documentation, and much, much more. Companies had to prove they were “Y2K Compliant” or risk the possibility of being sued. It was all about due diligence.

Partly because of our company’s preparation, I was convinced that nothing severe would happen, but it was “all hands-on deck” at midnight December 31, 1999. All IT staff were at the office watching as systems rolled over to January 1st, 2000. We tested the systems for the next two hours, then went home. Y2K came with a whimper, TV stations were still working, and January 1st was a normal day. I heard of a few minor incidents around the world, but it was not the catastrophe many imagined. There may still be people in the hills disconnected from society that aren’t aware everything is OK.