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Author Topic:   Y2K

pentalarc posted 05-18-99 03:23 AM ET
OK, I keep getting different answers wherever I ask. Seems like this place would have a degree of people who know about computers, so I'll ask here.
How bad is Y2K going to be?
Food Shortages?
No electricity?
No gasoline?
No food?
No clean water?
What's going to happen?
Pentalarc
Where Five Roads Meet He Stands

Octopus posted 05-18-99 03:28 AM ET
How bad is Y2K going to be?
Not nearly as bad as some doom-and-gloom types want you to believe. There will likely be a few minor hiccups, but probably nothing earth shattering. Y2K problems are more likely to inconvenience you than incapacitate you.
Food Shortages?
Yes, because everyone else will be stocking up for the predicted Y2K food shortages, so there won't be any left for you to use .
Ronbo posted 05-18-99 04:56 AM ET
The Y2K thing is WAY overhyped, IMNSHO. Food will not be affected, as crops will still grow regardless of whether the farmer's PC says it is 1900 or 2000. (Cash registers might be a different story, but I doubt a grocer will really care if the reciept is 100 years off). Gasoline should not be a problem either, as gas pumps are not date-sensitive. Clean water--most likely not, but it depends on the computers used to run the treatment plants.
The area that should concern you the most is finances. Make sure you have the most recent statements from your bank in December, and getting a printout at the end of the year from the bank might be a good idea. Most banks have upgraded their systems, but don't take chances.
If you live in the US, I wouldn't really worry all that much; estimates are that more than 95% of critical systems will be fixed in time. Europe and (particularly) Asia and Africa are lagging well behind. It is going to be ugly in the last two; estimates are less than 30% in Africa and less than 50% in most of Southeast Asia will be Y2K compliant.
Doctor Who posted 05-18-99 07:34 AM ET
We will probably experience same effects as the similarepisode 2000 years ago. Then we changed from B.C. to A.D and the world has been a mess ever since. :-)
Doctor Who posted 05-18-99 08:54 AM ET
Funny thought about B.C. to A.D:
An initial solution to the problem was to keep the B.C. postfix and use negative numbers.
JohnIII posted 05-18-99 02:03 PM ET
How did they know it was B.C. before?
John III
Imran Siddiqui posted 05-18-99 03:51 PM ET
Interestingly, this thread has split into two... Y2K striking?
Imran Siddiqui
The One And Only DarkStar posted 05-18-99 05:09 PM ET
LOL...they were running in the roman empire's calendar...it wasnt BC or AD...that is the gregorian calendar...
Hey any one knows WHEN did the AD/BC denomination started to be of common use?
Fjorxc the Maniac posted 05-18-99 05:36 PM ET
I believe the Anno Domini calendar came into use around 500 CE. (Common Era--new term instead of AD. Dunno why they'd change it, but it sounds better.) Can't remember who did it, though.
Roland posted 05-19-99 03:25 AM ET
Darn, I forgot the name of that crazy monk... but as far as I know, they had been using the start of Diocletian's rule before, but that guy said: "Hey, he persecuted the christians, let's change it", and the year 248 AD (Anno Diocletiani ) became 532 AD (Anno Domsomething...). Took a rather long time to be widely accepted, though.
Doctor Who posted 05-19-99 03:52 AM ET
(Translated from Latin scroll dated 2 BC)
Dear Cassius:
Are you still working on the Y zero K problem? This change from BC to AD is giving us a lot of headaches and we haven't much time left. I don't know how people will cope with working the wrong way around.Having been working happily downwards forever, now we have to start thinking upwards. You would think that someone would have thought of it earlier and not left it to us to sort it all out at this last minute.
I spoke to Caesar the other evening. He was livid that Julius hadn't done something about it when he was sorting out the calendar. He said he could see why Brutus turned nasty. We called in Consultus, but he simply said that continuing downwards using minus BC won't work, and as usual charged a fortune for doing nothing useful. Surely, we will not have to throw out all our hardware and start again? Macrohard will make yet another fortune out of this, I suppose.
The moneylenders are paranoid of course! They have been told that all usury rates will invert and they will have to pay their clients to take out loans. It's an ill wind....
As for myself, I just can't see the sand in an hourglass flowing upwards. We have heard that there are three wise men in the East who have been working on the problem, but unfortunately they won't arrive until it's all over.
I have heard that there are plans to stable all horses at midnight at the turn of the year as there are fears that they will stop and try to run backwards, causing immense damage to chariots and possible loss of life. Some say the world will cease to exist at the moment of transition. Anyway, we are still continuing to work on this blasted Y zero K problem. I will send a parchment to you if anything further develops.
If you have any ideas please let me know.
Plutonius
Doctor Who posted 05-19-99 06:35 AM ET
BTW, Pentalarc, I'm sorry for causing your topic to drift a little, but I couldn't help my self
CrayonX posted 05-19-99 01:37 PM ET
The monk who devised what is now the modern calendar tried to base it on the death of Herod (ie. the dude who had the innocents slaughtered when Jesus was born), but the monk got the date wrong. Jesus was actually born around 4 or 5 BC. So, in reality, Jesus's 2000th birthday was 1995 or 1996.
And then the monk said "oopsie".
HolyWarrior posted 05-22-99 10:53 PM ET
We must take steps now to prevent the Y10K problem!
JT 3 posted 05-22-99 11:29 PM ET
No, there is a debate about wether or not the monk got it right.
Yay 2 Killers!
You're 2 Late.
PS: Imran, AD stands for Anno Domini.
JohnIII posted 05-25-99 02:11 PM ET
"Is your system Y2Z compliant"
What's that from, then?
John III
pentalarc posted 06-08-99 03:45 AM ET
Well, it's just I'll hear the reliable sources saying that it's not going to be that bad, and then suddenly, I get reliable sources saying that Netscape, Windows 95, Windows 98 and all that will crash.
I read somethign today about problems with internet security programs.

BTW, there have been many callender changes, primarily due to the problem that they ended up missing days. OUrs won't be right eventually either, despite leapyears and leapseconds.
A lot of this would have been avoided if we had kept the lunar rather than solar callender. Also, the old way of having 12 months of 30 days, and 5 days at the end of the year which were not part of any month wsa a much better idea than what we have now.
Oh, and they started using C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) in order to be PC. Basically confused me for a while, but to be perfectly honest, most people still use B.C. and A.D. I don't think that it should make much difference, I'm Wiccan, so I would be one of hte ones to be offended if that sort of thing offended me, which id doesn't, because, it's technically rather meaningless, seeing as most peopel think that
A.D. stands for "After Death."
Pentalarc
Where Five Roads Meet He Stands
Hugo Rune posted 06-08-99 04:30 AM ET
How about we screw the Solar Calendar and opt for a decimal system instead? I think Swatch's "Beats" System might be a good idea.
Common Era? WTF? it has been partially common the last 30 years or so. Not before then. What do others have to do with christianity? Oh well. However you look at it, it's still AD.
ps. What does Anno Domini mean? Does it have something to do with domination or with Dominicus or even the Dominican Republic? Or possibly not.
What is it that offends so much it had to be changed to CE?
Picker posted 06-08-99 08:41 AM ET
Actually, the date that will most likely screw up your computer, if it is going to be screwed up is Sept. 9, 1999.
Tolls posted 06-08-99 09:27 AM ET
It's older software that is more likely to be affected by 9/9/99.
We've tested pretty much everything we have here and, though we've had a number of non-compliances for Y2K, we haven't had anything for the 9's problem.
Picker posted 06-08-99 09:35 AM ET
Oh really. I was told by a computer science teacher that most of the time it is the actually date Jan 1, 2000 that will **** up your computer. If you just skip it past 01/01/00 then nothing will happen. Know anything about that?
Eris posted 06-08-99 09:36 AM ET
Anno Domini is basically "year of God", written in English as "in the year of our Lord".
Y2K will principally be a problem for companies who bought M$ software but don't pay careful attention to the service pack releases, businesses that put off working on fixing it who have database dependencies (which will translate into a lot of billing problems, mostly), and hordes of paranoid gun-toting conspiracy theorists with nothing to do on January 2nd.
I expect there to be some panic and store rushes (and bank rushes) in December, and intend on getting a couple weeks' worth of food myself just because I don't want to leave my home between December 25th and January 3rd and deal with stupid people.
My one and only fear regarding y2K that actually has to do with computers themselves is those computers regulating nuclear missiles in Russia...
Eris posted 06-08-99 09:38 AM ET
9/9/99 is only likely to screw up certain mainframes, and even then as its usually stored 990909 probably won't; it's 9999 that's the problem.
Picker, the CS teacher who told you that is on crack.
Picker posted 06-08-99 09:47 AM ET
Well, tell me something I don't know. We don't call him mister toke for nothing you know.
Philip McCauley posted 06-10-99 01:09 AM ET
Russia is doing absolutely nothing to prepare for the problem. It'll be interesting to see how much trouble they get into.
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Author	Topic: Y2K
pentalarc	posted 05-18-99 03:23 AM ET OK, I keep getting different answers wherever I ask. Seems like this place would have a degree of people who know about computers, so I'll ask here. How bad is Y2K going to be? Food Shortages? No electricity? No gasoline? No food? No clean water? What's going to happen? Pentalarc Where Five Roads Meet He Stands
Octopus	posted 05-18-99 03:28 AM ET How bad is Y2K going to be? Not nearly as bad as some doom-and-gloom types want you to believe. There will likely be a few minor hiccups, but probably nothing earth shattering. Y2K problems are more likely to inconvenience you than incapacitate you. Food Shortages? Yes, because everyone else will be stocking up for the predicted Y2K food shortages, so there won't be any left for you to use .
Ronbo	posted 05-18-99 04:56 AM ET The Y2K thing is WAY overhyped, IMNSHO. Food will not be affected, as crops will still grow regardless of whether the farmer's PC says it is 1900 or 2000. (Cash registers might be a different story, but I doubt a grocer will really care if the reciept is 100 years off). Gasoline should not be a problem either, as gas pumps are not date-sensitive. Clean water--most likely not, but it depends on the computers used to run the treatment plants. The area that should concern you the most is finances. Make sure you have the most recent statements from your bank in December, and getting a printout at the end of the year from the bank might be a good idea. Most banks have upgraded their systems, but don't take chances. If you live in the US, I wouldn't really worry all that much; estimates are that more than 95% of critical systems will be fixed in time. Europe and (particularly) Asia and Africa are lagging well behind. It is going to be ugly in the last two; estimates are less than 30% in Africa and less than 50% in most of Southeast Asia will be Y2K compliant.
Doctor Who	posted 05-18-99 07:34 AM ET We will probably experience same effects as the similarepisode 2000 years ago. Then we changed from B.C. to A.D and the world has been a mess ever since. :-)
Doctor Who	posted 05-18-99 08:54 AM ET Funny thought about B.C. to A.D: An initial solution to the problem was to keep the B.C. postfix and use negative numbers.
JohnIII	posted 05-18-99 02:03 PM ET How did they know it was B.C. before? John III
Imran Siddiqui	posted 05-18-99 03:51 PM ET Interestingly, this thread has split into two... Y2K striking? Imran Siddiqui
The One And Only DarkStar	posted 05-18-99 05:09 PM ET LOL...they were running in the roman empire's calendar...it wasnt BC or AD...that is the gregorian calendar... Hey any one knows WHEN did the AD/BC denomination started to be of common use?
Fjorxc the Maniac	posted 05-18-99 05:36 PM ET I believe the Anno Domini calendar came into use around 500 CE. (Common Era--new term instead of AD. Dunno why they'd change it, but it sounds better.) Can't remember who did it, though.
Roland	posted 05-19-99 03:25 AM ET Darn, I forgot the name of that crazy monk... but as far as I know, they had been using the start of Diocletian's rule before, but that guy said: "Hey, he persecuted the christians, let's change it", and the year 248 AD (Anno Diocletiani ) became 532 AD (Anno Domsomething...). Took a rather long time to be widely accepted, though.
Doctor Who	posted 05-19-99 03:52 AM ET (Translated from Latin scroll dated 2 BC) Dear Cassius: Are you still working on the Y zero K problem? This change from BC to AD is giving us a lot of headaches and we haven't much time left. I don't know how people will cope with working the wrong way around.Having been working happily downwards forever, now we have to start thinking upwards. You would think that someone would have thought of it earlier and not left it to us to sort it all out at this last minute. I spoke to Caesar the other evening. He was livid that Julius hadn't done something about it when he was sorting out the calendar. He said he could see why Brutus turned nasty. We called in Consultus, but he simply said that continuing downwards using minus BC won't work, and as usual charged a fortune for doing nothing useful. Surely, we will not have to throw out all our hardware and start again? Macrohard will make yet another fortune out of this, I suppose. The moneylenders are paranoid of course! They have been told that all usury rates will invert and they will have to pay their clients to take out loans. It's an ill wind.... As for myself, I just can't see the sand in an hourglass flowing upwards. We have heard that there are three wise men in the East who have been working on the problem, but unfortunately they won't arrive until it's all over. I have heard that there are plans to stable all horses at midnight at the turn of the year as there are fears that they will stop and try to run backwards, causing immense damage to chariots and possible loss of life. Some say the world will cease to exist at the moment of transition. Anyway, we are still continuing to work on this blasted Y zero K problem. I will send a parchment to you if anything further develops. If you have any ideas please let me know. Plutonius
Doctor Who	posted 05-19-99 06:35 AM ET BTW, Pentalarc, I'm sorry for causing your topic to drift a little, but I couldn't help my self
CrayonX	posted 05-19-99 01:37 PM ET The monk who devised what is now the modern calendar tried to base it on the death of Herod (ie. the dude who had the innocents slaughtered when Jesus was born), but the monk got the date wrong. Jesus was actually born around 4 or 5 BC. So, in reality, Jesus's 2000th birthday was 1995 or 1996. And then the monk said "oopsie".
HolyWarrior	posted 05-22-99 10:53 PM ET We must take steps now to prevent the Y10K problem!
JT 3	posted 05-22-99 11:29 PM ET No, there is a debate about wether or not the monk got it right. Yay 2 Killers! You're 2 Late. PS: Imran, AD stands for Anno Domini.
JohnIII	posted 05-25-99 02:11 PM ET "Is your system Y2Z compliant" What's that from, then? John III
pentalarc	posted 06-08-99 03:45 AM ET Well, it's just I'll hear the reliable sources saying that it's not going to be that bad, and then suddenly, I get reliable sources saying that Netscape, Windows 95, Windows 98 and all that will crash. I read somethign today about problems with internet security programs. BTW, there have been many callender changes, primarily due to the problem that they ended up missing days. OUrs won't be right eventually either, despite leapyears and leapseconds. A lot of this would have been avoided if we had kept the lunar rather than solar callender. Also, the old way of having 12 months of 30 days, and 5 days at the end of the year which were not part of any month wsa a much better idea than what we have now. Oh, and they started using C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) in order to be PC. Basically confused me for a while, but to be perfectly honest, most people still use B.C. and A.D. I don't think that it should make much difference, I'm Wiccan, so I would be one of hte ones to be offended if that sort of thing offended me, which id doesn't, because, it's technically rather meaningless, seeing as most peopel think that A.D. stands for "After Death." Pentalarc Where Five Roads Meet He Stands
Hugo Rune	posted 06-08-99 04:30 AM ET How about we screw the Solar Calendar and opt for a decimal system instead? I think Swatch's "Beats" System might be a good idea. Common Era? WTF? it has been partially common the last 30 years or so. Not before then. What do others have to do with christianity? Oh well. However you look at it, it's still AD. ps. What does Anno Domini mean? Does it have something to do with domination or with Dominicus or even the Dominican Republic? Or possibly not. What is it that offends so much it had to be changed to CE?
Picker	posted 06-08-99 08:41 AM ET Actually, the date that will most likely screw up your computer, if it is going to be screwed up is Sept. 9, 1999.
Tolls	posted 06-08-99 09:27 AM ET It's older software that is more likely to be affected by 9/9/99. We've tested pretty much everything we have here and, though we've had a number of non-compliances for Y2K, we haven't had anything for the 9's problem.
Picker	posted 06-08-99 09:35 AM ET Oh really. I was told by a computer science teacher that most of the time it is the actually date Jan 1, 2000 that will **** up your computer. If you just skip it past 01/01/00 then nothing will happen. Know anything about that?
Eris	posted 06-08-99 09:36 AM ET Anno Domini is basically "year of God", written in English as "in the year of our Lord". Y2K will principally be a problem for companies who bought M$ software but don't pay careful attention to the service pack releases, businesses that put off working on fixing it who have database dependencies (which will translate into a lot of billing problems, mostly), and hordes of paranoid gun-toting conspiracy theorists with nothing to do on January 2nd. I expect there to be some panic and store rushes (and bank rushes) in December, and intend on getting a couple weeks' worth of food myself just because I don't want to leave my home between December 25th and January 3rd and deal with stupid people. My one and only fear regarding y2K that actually has to do with computers themselves is those computers regulating nuclear missiles in Russia...
Eris	posted 06-08-99 09:38 AM ET 9/9/99 is only likely to screw up certain mainframes, and even then as its usually stored 990909 probably won't; it's 9999 that's the problem. Picker, the CS teacher who told you that is on crack.
Picker	posted 06-08-99 09:47 AM ET Well, tell me something I don't know. We don't call him mister toke for nothing you know.
Philip McCauley	posted 06-10-99 01:09 AM ET Russia is doing absolutely nothing to prepare for the problem. It'll be interesting to see how much trouble they get into.