History's 10 biggest disappointments: from Y2K to Jar-Jar, don't believe the hype

New York Post ^ | December 7, 2008 | Reed Tucker

[Sybeck1]

Worse IMO is the upcoming Abrams spoof......

[ProudFossil]

I most strongly disagree with the Y2K being hype. As someone who worked with several other individuals in our company for seven months rewriting dozens of programs for a major banking software company, I can say that if that had not been done all hell would have happened. It was not hype for Y2K. It was the dedicated work of thousands of individuals rewriting hundreds of thousands of pc and mainframe programs which averted the disaster. It was real and deadly. For instance if nothing had been done, on January 1, 2000, every savings account would have automatically accrued interest from 1900 to the opening date of the account. At the same time every loan would have had the similar interest charged to it. Since federal law requires the bank(s) to be in complete balance before opening the doors for business every day, no bank would have been opened. Instant collapse of the financial industry, not the blip we are going through now.

[lnzog]

I liked jar-jar...

[dsrtsage]

End the sarcasm now...we have been safe from attack since he obtained the office of president elect

[DustyMoment]

Is Rosie O’Fats’ daytime variety show on the list?

[DustyMoment]

For instance if nothing had been done, on January 1, 2000, every savings account would have automatically accrued interest from 1900 to the opening date of the account.

And this would have been a problem because . . . . . . . ????

At least we would have gotten OUR bailout BEFORE Wall St.!! LOL!!!

[Drumbo]

Well said.

Every few weeks some bonehead “journalist” or clueless poster remarks that Y2K was a scam, a hoax or in this case “hype” because nothing happened. Sometimes I’ve wished we techno-geeks hadn’t worked so damned hard for so long preventing that “hyped” disaster.

Had we waited and fixed it after the fact, say, after a few dozen big cities had burned to the ground due to rioting, after personal fortunes were wiped out, after national defense was compromised, after transportation was disrupted and the whole supply chain crashed, after every damned home PC I flashed bios on locked-up and after countless humans died due to the collapsed infrastructure from the electrical grid to sewer and water plants, just maybe we’d all be heroes now instead of out-to-pasture chumps who toiled with our tin-foil hats to avoid the hoax and perpetrated that “hype”.

[Straight Vermonter]

Disappointing?

[lmr]

You think we would have forgotten how to keep a paper record of things?

[politicalamity]

soooo... you are the one. :)

[ProudFossil]

You think we would have forgotten how to keep a paper record of things?

Yes I do.

How would you have gotten the beginning balances on the millions of checking accounts, credit cards, mortgages, etc., from around the world if the computers had completely crashed? How would you have kept the paper records on several thousand bank checking accounts when you could not get a printout of the current invalid acount data. How would you have kept the paper records on millions of checks being cleard through each clearing house (which could not have been done without the computers). I watched an accountant trying to audit an accounts recievable for a realtively small company, 2,000 accounts. After six days with his adding machine he gave up and accepted the computer printout.

Do you balance your checking account, savings account, 401k, and all the other bills and statements you get every month? Try doing that for 10,000 people or doing the payroll for 1,500 employees with an adding machine.

Even your simple act of posting a stupid reply on this forum requires several thousand instructions to be completed around the world. Maybe you should do your communication with the world with teletype and telephone.

[jim_trent]

Other than banks, there were people saying that cars would not start, gasoline would not pump, heaters would not heat, electrons would not make electricity. Don’t tell me that you were busy rewriting that stuff, too?

[ProudFossil]

Other than banks, there were people saying that cars would not start, gasoline would not pump, heaters would not heat, electrons would not make electricity. Don’t tell me that you were busy rewriting that stuff, too?

No I was busy with banking. I don't know about cars. But as for gasoline, how could the refineries handle the process without computers? How would the trucking companies know where to ship the gasoline. How could the electric grids handle power brownouts and shortages? Most people have no idea how dependent we are on computers. One of the reasons third world countries stay third world is because they do not have the computation capacity to process all the information we have in our commercial and public world: checks, invoices, shipping notices, taxes, etc., etc.

If computers are no big deal, which is what you are implying, why is there hell to pay when a virus hits the computer within a company? Why is there such panic if a virus gets into the pentagon. Since 99% of the commercial processes are dependent upon dates, Y2K would have literally screwed those processes up.

While I was busy with banking, hundreds of thousands of people around the world were busy with trucking companies, airlines, publishing companies, shipping, manufacturing, you name it. Everything was going to literally stop.

A current day example is the airports. Look at what happens when the computers go down in the FAA center at an airport. Instant chaos around the country until they get back up.

Those of you who still think Y2K was a hoax probably believe George Bush bought the planes that flew into the Twin Towers, that Elvis lived for another 20 years, Britney Spears is a virgin, the Earth is flat, and the aliens crashed in Roswell. (Actually they crashed close to Corona, NM. But Corona did not have an Air Force base so the stuff(?) was taken to the closest one which was Roswell.)

[Drumbo]

Other than banks, there were people saying that cars would not start, gasoline would not pump, heaters would not heat, electrons would not make electricity. Don’t tell me that you were busy rewriting that stuff, too?

Electrons don't make electricity. Turbines generate it. Computers regulate the turbines and the grid that distributes the electricity. Had those computers crashed the turbines either would have stopped or run uncontrollably until they were destroyed. The grid would have been unregulated, so whatever electricity was produced could have easily destroyed hundreds of thousands of transformers and sub-stations. The end result, no electricity - for a very long time. And yes, I'm telling you someone was rewriting all that "stuff" as you so eloquently put it. You cannot comprehend the ramifications of an extended worldwide power outage, since you seem to think gas would pump and heaters would heat without it. But then again, you think electrons make electricity by magic as well, so what's the point in trying to explain reality to you?

Just know that without it, society and the market system as we know it would quickly break down. Food, necessities and fuel shortages, lack of services like medical care and law enforcement would all become apparent within days or weeks and the have-nots would soon demand what the haves are keeping from them (like that secret stash of electrons to make electricity with. Never mind that there is no such thing).

[carolinablonde]

"I most strongly disagree with the Y2K being hype..."

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I, too, spent literally years of my life in re-writing and testing code to avert the problem that absolutely would have occurred had we not corrected it. I get so tired of people who now try to say there never was a problem in the first place.

The best analogy I've heard is this:

You are driving your car and you step on the brake and hear a squealing sound. So, you take your car to a mechanic who replaces your brakes. Now, because you never had an accident does that mean there was never really a problem? Or did you just fix it before the problem occurred?

[Clemenza]

That bald chick really did it for me. She should have borrowed one of Shatner’s toupees.

[ODC-GIRL]

Hubby worked for over a year at our electric company rewriting their code to make it Y2K compliant. He and others were specifically hired for the task. It was close.

[erman]

Jar-Jar had to be one of the gayest characters ever to come out of a computer. And that’s saying something.

I don't know about that...

[I still care]

George Bush. From his rhetoric, I was hoping for another Reagan.

Then he got together with Kennedy and wrote the education bill, and my first thoughts were, Where are the vouchers? What is he doing mandating more federal stuff? This is not conservatism.

[ConservativeTeen]

I think Jar-Jar is rumored to be in Obama’s Cabinet.