FACTS | RANDOM FACTS | HUMOR | HISTORY | ILLUMINATION
The More You F*cking Know: Y2K
Only smart people will read this.
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I’ve been collecting fact books for most of my life and love sharing information.
I started this random fact series to share snippets of knowledge, help you through your next boring business dinner, or possibly help you become a Jeopardy champion!
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1. What’s the deal?
The abbreviation “Y2K” is meant to symbolize the year two thousand, and the computer programming shortcut that had the potential to cause widespread outages for infrastructure, such as hospitals, banking, nuclear power plants, and investments.
Programmers originally entered dates in code only as the last two digits of the year. The fear was that computers would read “00” as 1900, and not 2000.
2. An Expensive Fix
“An estimated $300 billion was spent (almost half in the United States) to upgrade computers and application programs to be Y2K-compliant.”
3. A mini-Y2K
“Even before the dawn of 2000, it was feared that some computers might fail on September 9, 1999 (9/9/99), because early programmers often used a series of 9s to indicate the end of a program.”
4. Y2K Down Under
“Australia invested millions of dollars in preparing for the Y2K bug. Russia invested nearly none. Australia recalled almost its entire embassy staff from Russia prior to January 1, 2000, over fears of what might happen if communications or transportation networks broke down.
Nothing happened.”
5. When the cure is worse than the disease.
The Pentagon received approximately $3.5 billion to update the intelligence and defense systems in the United States.
After months of creating patches and overhauling hardware, crucial spy satellites were down for three days after the New Year.
Pentagon officials realized it wasn’t the Y2K Bug that caused the issue, it was actually the software patch that was designed to fix the issue. Oopsie!!!
6. Be Kind, Rewind & hand over your life’s savings.
The glitch did have small effects around the world. The glitch made the rental computer system show his copy was 100 years overdue.
They handed him a bill for $91,250. The problem was fixed and he was given a free video rental.
The movie? The General’s Daughter
7. Show me a disaster, I’ll show you a millionaire.
The mood became quite tense in the days and weeks leading up to the new year. Companies popped up providing “Y2K survival kits”.
These included things like dehydrated food, water purifiers, blankets, flashlights, matches, and blankets.
One company, Preparedness Resources, made $ 16 million by selling these supply boxes. There was a “No Return” policy on these boxes.
Genius.
8. A drop in the proverbial bucket.
Y2K budgets from some notable companies:
Union Pacific Corp: $46million
Merrill Lynch & Co.: $525million
Nabisco Inc.: $42million
9. Are you hiring?
1.6 million new IT workers were needed between 1999 and 2006 according to a U.S. Department of Commerce report.
10. So, was it all a lie?
“The Y2K crisis didn’t happen precisely because people started preparing for it over a decade in advance. And the general public who was busy stocking up on supplies and stuff just didn’t have a sense that the programmers were on the job,” says Paul Saffo, a futurist and adjunct professor at Stanford University.
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