Y2K 20 years

[DOGFISH]

I was curious what everyone was doing 20 years ago when computers were going to shut down everything at around midnight New Year's Eve. My Dad and I were paid to be on stand by at Imperial Oil Strathcona Refinery incase there was any upsets. My Brother and another employee were at AT Plastics on standby aswell. What a huge waste of money looking back.

[kevinhits]

I was working at Forest lawn IGA as a Manager and lived close by so kept an eye on the computers that night and came in early morning to inspect...

Zero issues...LOL

No end of the world prepping for me personally

[Sooner]

Originally Posted by DOGFISH

I was curious what everyone was doing 20 years ago when computers were going to shut down everything at around midnight New Year's Eve. My Dad and I were paid to be on stand by at Imperial Oil Strathcona Refinery incase there was any upsets. My Brother and another employee were at AT Plastics on standby aswell. What a huge waste of money looking back.

We bought a couple extra bulk items from Costco, added a couple extra jugs of water for the dispenser. I filled every propane bottle in case we had a power outage and had to camp out in the trailer in the back yard for a day or two.

That's about it, was not caught up in the hype, could not figure out how a number changing from 1999 to 2000 could almost end the world.

[no-regard]

I was 22 years old, living in a 4-plex with several friends. We had saved all of our empties for the previous year (2 truck loads of cased beer bottles +), this gave us $600 in returns. We spent it on a keg, several 60 pounders etc (friend was managing a liquor store at the time so the money went a long ways), and we had a major new years party, one for the ages.

Oh man, that was a wild house.

[Scott N]

I spent that New Year's Eve at an outdoor Olympic Plaza event, waiting for the world to end lol.

[elkhunter11]

I was an extra volunteer at the plant, just in case something happened. Nothing happened, so we ate the food the company brought in ,watched television and played cards until morning.

[big zeke]

Made sure all the vehicles were full, test fired the generator that had been in the shed for years, made sure we had enough wood to run the fireplace for a few weeks and then we just waited. I was actually looking forward to some time off with all the chaos and rioting planned.

I later heard that prepping for Y2K was an effort second only to WWII in terms of expenditure and preparation. I don't doubt it, seemed to be a lot of expensive consultants around for a long time.

[bat119]

Watched the ball drop in New York went to bed at 10:30 woke up at 6 AM checked my email nothing happened.

[jstubbs]

Originally Posted by big zeke

I later heard that prepping for Y2K was an effort second only to WWII in terms of expenditure and preparation. I don't doubt it, seemed to be a lot of expensive consultants around for a long time.

I was just reading that it genuinely was a problem but a surprisingly cooperative effort that was nearly herculean was put into mitigating the effects that was so successful essentially nothing happened. Probably cost 10x more than it should have just due to the panic/demand for the software consultant services, but still.

They say there is a similar issue incoming in 2038.

Anywho, I have single digits in age so I was probably fast asleep in bed somewhere when the 2000s were ushered in.

[Smoky buck]

I was really drunk

[buckbrush]

Fell asleep on the couch. Woke up at 3am and noticed the world didn't end. Went back to sleep.

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by jstubbs

I was just reading that it genuinely was a problem but a surprisingly cooperative effort that was nearly herculean was put into mitigating the effects that was so successful essentially nothing happened. Probably cost 10x more than it should have just due to the panic/demand for the software consultant services, but still.

They say there is a similar issue incoming in 2038.

Yeah Y2K was well understood amongst techie types as far back as the late 70s but nobody paid attention until 1998. The hype and panic was crazy but without it IDK what would have happened, nobody would listen until it was about to kick them in the face. For myself, being rather new to the industry I came away deeply cynical about leadership in the corporate world. Still am.

heres a decent explanation of the UNIX epoch problem in 2038.
https://blogs.akamai.com/2019/01/pre...8-already.html

[fordtruckin]

Played hockey in Sedgwick at a church New Year’s Eve party and set off some fireworks. Didn’t really take much stock in the whole pending doomsday!

[does it ALL outdoors]

Was just talking about that the other day, and things went real quiet after we realized that was TWENTY years ago

Just like that 20 years.

9/11, 19 years ago now. Man does time ever fly.

[Spidey]

We were living in Drayton Valley and the better part of New Years eve 1999 I was walking around the house football carrying a 6 month old with croup. Fast forward and the 6 month old is now 20 and home for university break. Man, that went by in the blink of an eye...

[Geraldsh]

There was a guy in the Fork Lake area who bought into the hype and stored all kinds of dry foods in plastic barrels in the woods. Since nothing happened he never checked on it until after spring break up; by then the bears had found his stash and enjoyed it the way bears do

[IR_mike]

Sat in my bunker with my SKS waiting for it to all go down.

Nothing happened.

Looking fwd to eating something other than the Korean war era MRE's I should be finished in may 2022.

[waldedw]

Was working in the Kyrgyz Republic as the supply and logistics manager for Cameco at a gold mine project, we had taken all sorts of precautions with our computer systems at the mine and went so far as to do a controlled shut down of the mill just in case.

Of course bugger all happened so about 02:00 am on Jan 1 we started back up and away we went, the world didn't come to an end, in fact nothing changed at all, kind of reminds me of this whole climate change crap going on now.

[Dewey Cox]

I worked for a bottled water delivery company at the time.
Everyone bought a few extra jugs, and it made the jugs scarce december and early january.
By February there was a surplus.

(In case anyone was wondering...)

[catnthehat]

Never gave it a second thought as opposed to some people I know that were scrambling around and at the same time yelling " the sky is falling"!!
Cat

[Flight01]

Being bush people , not much changed.
Bought extra gas. That was it.

[ctd]

We were all at work. Had orders to stand fast and wait for further orders in case needed for aid to civil power. The days leading up to it we had all our equipment checked and re checked. Extra fuel, food, generators bullets and riot gear was at hand.
By 2330hrs we had started our count down to party the new year in.by 0001hrs we had the all clear, beers cracked and enjoyed the new year.

[220 Swift]

On call in the bar not drinking. Once 12:05 hit and had called out to all my alarm systems ordered a rye and coke.

[Lefty-Canuck]

I still think the power companies should have banded together to shut all power down for 1 minute...reboot everything, and make people realize how good we have it

LC

[omega50]

Turner Valley took the kids to the middle of the school yard in front of our house at midnight to shoot off some fireworks.

One errant firework landed on the vinyl roof of an older car parked on the opposite side of the school yard chain link fence .
My kids freaking out at 8 and 11 years old. They immediately ran home and left me standing in the field.
Turns it it had landed on the roof of the car owned by the principal of their school and he had quite a reputation for being grouchy.

I took the boys over in the morning to come clean and inspect the damage.

We had already been ratted out

[bat119]

Even after the clocks in Australia hit midnight 12 hours before us and nothing happened the hysteria in Canada continued all I could do was shake my head.

[bubba300]

I was at my brothers on a acerage,his wife had bathtub full of water and bought all kinds of supplies.At midnight he hit the main power breaker.Sister inlaw was freaked until she seen the neighbors lights were on.We drank a pile of wine that night.

[barbless]

We rented out the North Ghost old air strip for a New Years campout with family and friends, about 20 of us. Kids were around 5-10 yrs old. All day activities using quads & toboggans, dinner inside shack with a nice fire and music, (-15 to -20 over night, we all had trailers or truck and campers with heaters and lots of blankets ), tons of fireworks at midnight ( 6-4x8 sheets of plywood covered with them) then eating King Crab at about 1 am. Was the best ever New Years bash that we still talk about to this day.

[Sashi]

So much for the experts, kinda like global warming and now Climate Change.:sHa_shakes hout:

[BuckCuller]

I was trapping a hundred miles up the Muskwa river in northern B.C. and didn’t even know there was a crisis going on. Phew glad I missed it!
I had been in the mountains since the beginning of April 1999 and didn’t come out until Late May 2020 except for three days I got flown out to get my trapping license in Dawson Creek.
In retrospect I’m sure glad that the wood stove still lit, my Scadic still ran and the horses were still operational!